Glenn Harddeck learned from his grandfather’s golf course but remembers that he was more interested in driving the golf cart than hitting the ball. At the age of 15, he began working part-time at the Benton County Club. “I never knew there was anything bigger and better than the small nine-hole golf course I made for five summers,” he says.
A native of Arl Park, Indiana, came to the field to study engineering. Once he discovered grass science, he switched to agricultural science. (Major is now in horticulture and landscape architecture)
A.D. In early 1996, he joined landscaping and irrigation workers on the Purdu campus, which focused on agricultural development.
A year and a half later, he became a grassroots research technician and began his master’s degree under Zur Reicher, a former Druid Extension Grass farmer. A.D. In 2004, Harddeck began working for Cale Biglow, a professor of fruits and vegetables. In 2010 he was appointed manager of the Grass Research Center.
Today, Hardebeck manages the building, facilities, and outdoor farming at the William H. Daniel Turfgrass Research and Diagnostic Center. Up to 5,000 people use the center each year.
Laboratories serve as a prelude to treating 20+ hectares of irrigated grasslands, including two hectares of golf course greens. However, “it’s not just golf,” says Harddeck. It is also a sports field and grassroots research site that benefits the green industry and homeowners.
He said the conspiracies mimicked the situation across the country. They also serve as outdoor classrooms. In addition to horticulturists, the faculty conducts research in agronomy, entomology, and plant and plant pathology, as well as in the private industry.
“Turfgrass research efforts at Purdue include a large number of individuals from many departments and disciplines at the College of Agriculture,” says Hardebeck. Strong confidence in applied field research is shared between those different disciplines, and if the center needs golf greens or one hectare of strong crab grass, it will provide research space and close collaboration to achieve research goals.
About that crabgrass. “In the golf course, everything is always perfect,” says Hardbeck. Here, the perfect thing is different.
In the process of finding solutions to the problems of the real world, he explains, “We make many mistakes intentionally — exactly the opposite of what I have learned.” “But if you don’t have weeds to control, you can’t do weed research. If you don’t have a disease on the fair roads, you can’t do pathology.
Although researchers often have their own sprayers, Hardbeck controls the center’s lawn mower. It clears up any application for any pruning or fungal treatment so that they do not intentionally disrupt their work – “Once you have harvested something or applied something, you cannot take it back,” he said.
He and his assistant, Ben Royal, also train student staff at the institute.
There is a soft spot for students who come to work who are not on a tractor or who do not drive a stick and the scythe can cost more than $ 40,000. “Basically, their car is the only thing they have ever run.” “I tell them, ‘It is good. By the end of the summer, they know how to do everything here. I enjoy trying to help them understand how to do things. ”