Off-site transport of fungicides with runoff: A comparison of flutolanil and pentachloronitrobeneze applied to creeping bentgrass managed as a golf course fairway.

Flutolanil and pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB) are fungicides used to control or suppress foliar and soil borne diseases in turf and ornamental crops. On golf courses, sports fields, sod farms and commercial lawns these fungicides are used as preventive treatments to combat snow mold, brown patch and fairy ring. Depending on the aquatic organism, flultolanil and PCNB are considered to be moderately to highly toxic. Therefore runoff or drift from treated areas may be hazardous to organisms in adjacent aquatic sites. This research compared the transport of flutolanil and PCNB with runoff from turfgrass managed as a golf course fairway. The quantity of fungicide transported with runoff and observations reported with the chemographs followed trends in agreement with the chemical properties of the compounds. Overall, we observed the rate of transport for flutolanil was greater than PCNB, which contributed to the more than 12 times larger load (µg/m2) of flutolanil transported off-site at the conclusion of the simulated storm runoff. A better understanding of the off-site transport of pesticides with runoff is needed to make informed decisions on management practices to reduce potential adverse effects on non-target organisms, as well as maintain control of targeted pests in the area of application. In addition, data obtained with this research can be used in model simulations to predict nonpoint source pollution potentials beyond experimental conditions.

Evaluation of individual and combined management practices to reduce the off-site transport of pesticides from golf course turf.

The detection of pesticides, associated with turfgrass management, in storm runoff and surface waters of urban watersheds has raised concerns regarding their source, potential environmental effects and a need for strategies to reduce their inputs. In previous research we discovered that hollow tine core cultivation (HTCC) was more effective than other management practices for reducing the off-site transport of pesticides with runoff from creeping bentgrass turf managed as a golf course fairway. This was primarily the result of enhanced infiltration and reduced runoff volumes associated with turf managed with hollow tines. In this study we evaluated the addition of verticutting (VC) to HTCC (HTCC+VC) in an attempt to further enhance infiltration and mitigate the off-site transport of pesticides with runoff from managed turf. Overall, greater or equal quantities of pesticides were transported with runoff from plots managed with HTCC+VC compared to HTCC or VC alone. For the pesticides evaluated HTCC