{"id":253710,"date":"2026-10-14T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=253710"},"modified":"2026-10-14T07:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:00:26","slug":"turfgrass-disease-diagnostic-lab-helps-professionals-maintain-healthy-turf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/10\/turfgrass-disease-diagnostic-lab-helps-professionals-maintain-healthy-turf\/","title":{"rendered":"Turfgrass Disease Diagnostic Lab Helps Professionals Maintain Healthy Turf"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Turfgrass Disease Diagnostic Lab<\/a> in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources<\/a> (CAHNR) offers valuable services to turfgrass professionals in the state and beyond.<\/p>\n

The lab provides rapid diagnosis of and recommendations for addressing turfgrass pathogens and other problems.<\/p>\n

The lab serves professional turfgrass managers, including golf courses, athletic fields, and lawn care operators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are observing unexpected performance of their turf,\u201d says John Inguagiato, associate professor of turfgrass pathology. \u201cIt could be areas dying out or just not performing as expected. They are looking to address and remedy the situation as fast as possible, so, our lab strives to provide a diagnosis and recommendations to address those problems within 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"John
John Inguagiato of the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA) in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR) works in a lab in the George Leigh Minor Center for Plant and Soil Health in the Roy E. Jones Building (JONS) Aug. 21, 2026. (Jason Sheldon\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lab and the experts who staff it can help managers identify if the problem is environmental (like heat or excess water), mechanical injury (from traffic or aggressive cultural practices), or disease caused by a pathogen.<\/p>\n

Knowing the root cause of a problem can help managers understand how to prevent it from occurring in the future. Proper diagnosis of a problem can also help avoid unnecessary application of fungicides \u2013 \u00a0saving money, time, and minimizing environmental exposure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these problems can be very challenging to diagnose just simply looking at the symptoms in the field,\u201d Inguagiato says. \u201cIt really takes sending in a sample and having somebody carefully clean and observe roots under a microscope to be able to observe whether or not a pathogen is present or if there is some other cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the lab\u2019s recent move into the George Leigh Minor Plant and Soil Health Center,<\/a> in addition to a space upgrade, the Turfgrass Disease Diagnostic Lab is hoping to offer a nematode quantification service. The UConn Minor Center will host an Open House for the public on October 17, 2026 from 11am-3pm.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNot every golf course struggles with [nematodes],\u201d Inguagiato says. \u201cBut it\u2019s important for them to keep track of their nematode populations and whether they have damaging threshold populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that the diagnostic center is staffed by professional turfgrass researchers, occasionally these two streams converge. Recently, Inguagiato and his graduate student Matthew Antunes \u201925 \u201926 (CAHNR) discovered a new pathogen.<\/p>\n

The lab received a sample from a putting green on a Connecticut golf course. At first glance, the sample shared symptoms with a known disease called Brown Ring Patch. But Brown Ring Patch shouldn\u2019t have been occurring at the time of year when they received the sample.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, similar symptoms began showing up elsewhere in New England. The lab staff isolated the pathogen, sequenced its DNA, and confirmed that it was a new fungus. They named the disease it causes \u201cYellow Ring Patch,\u201d and Antunes is preparing to publish his research on the identity of this new fungal species.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all came from a sample that came in through our diagnostic lab and our ability to recognize that,\u201d Inguagiato says. \u201cIn addition to this characterization, we\u2019re working on management strategies to develop recommendations for golf course superintendents to manage this disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on <\/em>Fostering Sustainable Landscapes at the Urban-Rural Interface<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow <\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a> on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lab serves professional turfgrass managers, including golf courses, athletic fields, and lawn care operators for rapid diagnosis to address turfgrass pathogens and other problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":253712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,1715,2304,2303],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-253710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-community-impact","category-extension","category-plant-science-landscape-architecture"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-21 09:10:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253710"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254219,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253710\/revisions\/254219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/253712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253710"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=253710"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=253710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}