Rick Latin, Ph.D., might be retired from academia after a long career as a turfgrass pathologist at Purdue University, but he is not finished sharing his knowledge.
The award-winning professor emeritus at Purdue and a consultant in his adopted home of Pinehurst, North Carolina, Latin penned his book on turf management, "A Practical Guide to Turfgrass Fungicides" in 2011. The second edition of the "Guide" recently was published by the Amer Phytopathological Society.
Since publication of the first edition of the Guide in 2011, much more has been learned about how fungicides work and how best to use them. Turf pathologists have examined how fungicides work in concert with other factors, including where they remain in the soil and their residual activity to optimize use of these tools. New products have changed the day-to-day practice of turf disease management.
My motivation for writing the book is that, given the mystery and misinformation surrounding turf diseases and fungicides applied for disease control, I believe that superintendents should have a research-based resource to explain how and why fungicides work and why sometimes they don’t work.
"The book contains about 30 percent more research-based content and a complete up-to-date revision of most chapters," Latin said.
"My motivation for writing the book is that, given the mystery and misinformation surrounding turf diseases and fungicides applied for disease control, I believe that superintendents should have a research-based resource to explain how and why fungicides work and why sometimes they don’t work."
The first edition of Latin's "Guide" has been a go-to resource for golf course superintendents and other turf managers for the past decade, "A Practical Guide to Turfgrass Fungicides" has been a go-to resource for professional turfgrass managers.
The second edition includes 80 more illustrations, profiles of 11 new compounds and up-to-date discussions of 27 turf diseases.
During his 37-year career at Purdue, Latin was named the recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the Miidwest Regional Turf Foundation. He also was named a Scientific Fellow in 2018 by The American Phytopathological Society and also received the GCSAA's John Morley Distinguished Career Award for contributions to the benefit of the turfgrass industry.
