Plant Pathology
Faculty Spotlight: Alfredo Martinez-Espinoza 
There are approximately 1.9 million acres of turf in Georgia with a maintenance value of $1.85 billion. In Georgia, turfgrass disease losses and control costs account for over $250 million annually. Turfgrass managers, extension professionals, crop consultants and sod producers often require real-time, in-situ disease management recommendations and disease diagnosis. Dr. Martinez-Espinoza and other CAES faculty have developed an application (app) for Iphone® and Blackberry® “smart phones” which allows access to a library of resources in the field (http://www.commodities.caes.uga.edu/turfgrass/ georgiaturf/EdProgrm/turfgrassapp.html). The “Turfgrass Management” application contains a full suite of disease etiology, symptomatology, epidemiology, and disease and pathogen resources. Included are image galleries, cultural and che
mical management strategies for foliar, root, crown, abiotic and non-infectious diseases,and descriptions of more than eighty fungicide products. The interface allows easy searching and cross-referencing by active ingredients or common name of fungicides, or by disease. Information is kept current and readily can be updated for newdiseases, cultural strategies or new fungicide products. Additionally, the app program contains a comprehensive description of turfgrass broadleaf, grassy, post emergent and pre-emergent weeds, herbicides, growth regulators (Dr. Patrick McCullough), insects and insecticides (Dr. Will Hudson, Dr. Kris Braman) as well as turfgrass taxonomy (Dr. Clint Waltz). The application has not only benefited Georgia’s turfgrass managers, but nationally (http://golfcourseindustry.texterity.com/ golfcourseindustry/200910/#pg1) and turfgrass professionals worldwide. More than 1600 subscriptions from over thirty countries have been downloaded in the first nine weeks since the program was released. This technology and information can provide turfgrass managers with additional disease management tools for improved disease control and better turf quality.