The Summer 2010/11 edition of the IVMP Newsletter is now available on the IVMP website.

After three years, the research component of the Integrated Vegetation Management Program (IVMP) project has come to an end.

Drawing on knowledge, experience and a variety of trials in Queensland and New South Wales, the IVMP has highlighted the significant benefits of taking an integrated approach to mown vegetation management.

As a result of the IVMP project, a range of aligned projects have been undertaken over the past eighteen months. These projects have focussed on better ways of managing urban vegetation in both public open spaces and industrial areas. Articles detailing some of this work, such as the Powerlink IVM trials and the Gold Coast City Council IVM trials, are featured in this newsletter and available on the website.

Further to this, pilot programs are currently being coordinated with Brisbane City Council and Gold Coast City Council. It is envisaged that these pilot programs will take what has been learned from the IVMP project to prove its value in real world situations. These pilot programs will use the options that are already registered for use, and apply them to specific vegetation management situations using the IVM methodology.

The final report for the IVMP project has been submitted to Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL) and will be published in the near future.

Please do not hesitate to contact me personally if you have any questions regarding the IVMP project, our other recent research projects, or if you are interested in discussing opportunities to be involved in our future research.

International links built with scientists through the IVMP

During the three years of the IVMP project links have been forged between researchers here in Australia and scientists in the USA that are working in the field of turf and roadside vegetation management. In particular, a strong scientific relationship has been developed with Prof. Fred Yelverton and Travis Gannon from North Carolina State University (NCSU). Much of the premise behind the IVMP project was based on the research of these scientists, so having them involved with the project played a large part in its success.

In the early stages of the IVMP project, the project manager, Steve Hampton, and the CEO of Technigro, Nick Bloor, visited the US. The purpose of this visit was to look at integrated management strategies for mown vegetation in the US, from appropriate species selection through to the use of plant growth regulators and herbicides with growth regulatory effects.

The project representatives met with a broad spectrum of people involved in vegetation management in the US, including Prof. Yelverton, so as to better understand the successes and challenges faced by researchers, asset owners, asset managers, Vegetation Management service providers and product suppliers.

Fred Yelverton is a Professor of Crop Science and Extension Specialist, and is also Co-director of the Center for Turfgrass Environmental Research and Education (CENTERE) at NCSU. His specialist research interests include weed management systems in turfgrasses, the ecology of turfgrass weeds, and the ecological and physiological effects of plant growth regulators on turfgrasses.

Fred visited Australia for two weeks in September 2010, during which time he worked closely with other members of the IVMP Technical Team and had the opportunity to interact with local vegetation managers and gain an understanding of the management issues we face here in Australia. He also gave presentations on IVM at the Vegetation Manager's Forum at the Gold Coast on 21 September, before heading over to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he was the keynote speaker at the 17th Australasian Weeds Conference.

Travis Gannon assists Prof. Yelverton in coordinating projects in all facets of weed management and plant growth regulator use in turf including sports turf, golf courses, and roadsides. He is currently completing his PhD and has worked closely with the North Carolina Department of Transport devising Integrated Vegetation Management plans for roadsides and other non-crop areas. Travis visited Australia in August 2009 and gave some insightful direction for the final year of IVMP project, based on his experiences from the US. He also gave a presentation to over 80 attendees at the IVMP Vegetation Managers Forum on 19th of August 2009.

Both Fred and Travis are excited by the fact that IVM is gaining a foothold here in Australia and are interested in the directions that we are going in. They are keen to collaborate on future IVM projects, and we are looking forward to working with them in the coming years.

Gold Coast City Council IVM trials

The objective of these trials was to investigate alternative strategies that might help to overcome some specific operational difficulties with relation to vegetation management activities in Gold Coast City Council. The effectiveness of these alternative strategies was compared to current practices in order to determine the potential benefits of the implementation of such Integrated Vegetation Management strategies into typical GCCC operations.

Vegetation management issues currently absorbing a disproportionate amount of the funds in GCCC include:

•objects that are difficult to mow around in parks and other public open spaces (e.g. trees, bollards, telegraph poles, fence lines, etc.),

•weeds growing on hardstand areas along roadsides (e.g. under armcos, in gaps in concrete and paved areas), and

•weeds growing in amenity gardens along roadsides and landscaped areas in parks.

Objects in parks are currently mown around using a hand mower, or sprayed around with Glyphosate. However, hand mowing has to be done often and spraying with Glyphosate encourages the growth of dicot weeds.

Weeds growing in hardstand areas and amenity gardens are currently controlled with Glyphosate. While this gives excellent short-term control, its effect is relatively short-lived and it needs to be repeated often.

In the first two experiments, plant growth regulators were evaluated for their potential to reduce the growth of vegetation surrounding furniture in open space environments (i.e. along fence lines and bollards). It was found that these plant growth regulators could significantly reduce grass growth and delay the requirement for hand mowing activities. The results also suggest that application of a selective herbicide in combination with the plant growth regulator would be advantageous in some circumstances.

In the final three experiments, pre-emergent herbicides were evaluated for their potential to provide longer-term control of weeds in hardstand areas (i.e. under armcos and in paved areas) and amenity gardens. When pre-emergent herbicides were applied in combination with Glyphosate they provided longer-term control of weeds, and the time period between interventions was likely to have been significantly increased.

These studies have demonstrated that IVM strategies have the potential to save money for GCCC vegetation managers and improve the quality of the managed areas. Some of these strategies will be further investigated in a series of pilot programs during the coming year, and if successful, they may be implemented into regular GCCC management activities in the future.

Powerlink IVM trials

Experiments were undertaken in collaboration with Powerlink to determine the potential benefits of the implementation of an Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) program into Powerlink operations.

Following on from the IVMP project, where certain plant growth regulators were found to effectively suppress Bahia grass seed-heads for 11 weeks, a commercial demonstration was conducted within the boundaries of the Mudgeeraba Substation during autumn 2010. In this demonstration, one of the treatments provided a 70% reduction in grass seed-head production during the entire observation period (i.e. 15 weeks). The period of suppression was probably extended by the cooler weather towards the end of the trial and an associated slowing of grass growth and seed-head production at this time.

This demonstration confirmed the results of the IVMP project and showed that some benefit can also be gained during autumn, though the benefit is not as great as during the height of summer. It showed that an IVM program has the potential to reduce the cost of managing grassed areas in Powerlink facilities by reducing the mowing frequency. More importantly, an IVM program has the potential to reduce the number of interventions required in the management of the vegetation at Powerlink sites.

Other areas within Powerlink facilities are required to be kept maintained without any vegetation whatsoever. These "no vegetation zones" surround vital equipment and are usually covered with concrete or coarse gravel. They are currently sprayed with Glyphosate to control weed species in an effort to maintain them free from vegetation.

This practice provides excellent control of the weeds present, but does not provide substantial long-term control. For safety reasons, such facilities have to be shut down every time that these vegetation management activities are undertaken, thereby interfering with their normal function.

Hence, an experiment was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of two pre-emergent herbicides for the longer-term control of weeds growing within areas of Powerlink infrastructure where no vegetation growth is an essential requirement. These herbicides were compared to the current standard practice of spraying with Glyphosate.

This experiment demonstrated quite clearly that the addition of pre-emergent herbicides to a regular Glyphosate application can provide much longer-term control. Seedlings were already quite abundant in the Glyphosate treated areas at 6 weeks after application. However, in the areas treated with Glyphosate and a pre-emergent herbicide, seedling growth was greatly inhibited (i.e. significant numbers of seedlings were not present until 15-25 weeks).

The results indicate that the use of pre-emergent herbicides in combination with Glyphosate will greatly increase the time period between interventions in "no vegetation zones". This may be of great benefit to Powerlink operations, as it will require facilities to be shut down less often for vegetation management activities to be undertaken.

The IVMP project comes to an end

In many cases, managers of amenity turf and other mown vegetation in eastern Australia are struggling with cost of keeping it in the condition that is expected by authorities and the general public. This is often due to the invasion over time by undesirable species that decrease the quality of the turf and trigger more intensive mowing activities.

The Integrated Vegetation Management Program (IVMP) project was undertaken in order to develop situation-specific strategies to reduce ongoing maintenance costs for the management of mown vegetation on roadsides and in public open spaces in eastern Australia. It has been based on knowledge and field experience gained overseas, where similar IVM programs have been in use for many years and are now becoming commonplace.

These strategies involve the application of plant growth regulators (PGR's) and/or herbicides, in combination with mowing and weed wiping activities, in order to deliver the best results depending on the situation and composition of the vegetation.

Field efficacy trials focussed on the management of Bahia grass, the most troublesome species in mown vegetation in eastern Australia. These trials demonstrated that the strategic application of certain herbicides could selectively remove Bahia grass from a grass sward over a single growing season. Other treatments were found to be particularly effective at suppressing Bahia grass seed-head production, with a single application reducing seed-head production by 97% for at least 11 weeks at the height of the growing season.

The findings of this project prove that IVM strategies have the capacity to significantly reduce mowing activities, while improving the quality of managed areas. This may provide significant financial benefits, by reducing the cost of managing these areas, as well as providing environmental benefits (e.g. less carbon emissions and reduced weed seed spread).

As a result, pilot programs are currently being coordinated with Brisbane City Council and Gold Coast City Council for the 2010/2011 financial year. It is envisaged that these pilot programs will take what has been learned from the IVMP project and start to prove their value in real world situations. They will use the options that are already registered for use, and apply them to specific vegetation management situations using the IVM method. As these methods are proved in real situations, and more options become registered, it is hoped that these pilot programs will be expanded and become more widely adopted by these and other organisations.

Extended label registrations are already coming into effect for some of the products included in the IVMP trials. For example, Syngenta has registered a tank mix of two of their existing turf products, Primo Maxx and Monument Liquid herbicide, for suppression and seed-head control of Bahia grass. Bayer Environmental Science will also soon be extending the label registration for one of their products. Many of the products that performed very well in the IVMP experiments were also generic herbicides, and it is recommended that further effort be made to obtain extended the label registrations of these products.

One of the other major benefits of this project is that it has brought chemical companies, service providers and end-users closer together and significantly increased the speed of knowledge transfer between them. As a result, the chemical companies are more connected with the end-users of their products and are more aware of the issues that concern them. This may also result in the registration of more products for non-fine turf situations in the future.

The IVMP project has highlighted the usefulness of this type of approach to the turf industry and the potential for the IVM method to be applied to other environments to provide better and more sustainable management solutions. For example, a number of organisations have expressed an interest in exploring the application of IVM techniques in landscaped amenity areas and aquatic environments.

The final report for the IVMP project has been submitted to Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL) and will be published in the near future. Any interested persons or organisations are also invited to contact the Project Manager, as per the details below, to discuss opportunities to be involved in future research.

Project Update: Year Three

Building on the information gathered from phytotoxicity and field efficacy trials in the first two years of the project, research in the third year has focused on ways to manage the most troublesome species in mown vegetation in eastern Australia – Bahia grass (Paspalum notatum). This grass readily invades mown vegetation in sub-tropical and tropical regions, replacing more desirable turf grasses and often becoming totally dominant. During the growing season (i.e. from spring to autumn) it rapidly produces tall seed-heads after being mown, thereby triggering more frequent mowing activities than would otherwise be necessary.

Field efficacy trials have been conducted at two sites during the 2009/2010 growing season, one located on the Gold Coast and the other in Brisbane. Two separate trials have been run at both of these locations, one with the goal of suppressing the seed-head production of Bahia grass, and the other with the goal of transitioning Bahia grass out of the turf and allowing more desirable lower growing species (i.e. couch grasses) to take over the area. The integrated strategies being trialled involve the strategic use of selected plant growth regulators and/or herbicides in combination with much-reduced mowing regimes.

Results from the suppression experiment indicate that a single application of the right products, at the right rates, at the right time, can totally suppress the seed-head production of Bahia grass for up to 12 weeks during the peak of the growing season. Meanwhile, results from the transition experiment have shown that two or three strategic selective herbicide applications throughout the growing season are all that is required to transition a Bahia grass dominated site into one that is dominated by desirable couch grasses.

The most promising chemical products in these trials have the added benefit of controlling a broad spectrum of broadleaf weeds without having any significant phytotoxic effects on desirable grass species, thereby increasing the quality of the mown vegetation. They also have low toxicities, are relatively environmentally friendly, and require low levels of active ingredients to be applied.

The integrated strategies employed in these experiments have demonstrated the ability to significantly reduce the number of mowing cycles required in a growing season. Hence, their correct application in the right situations has the potential to provide a more economical and sustainable model for the management of mown vegetation.

IVMP Seed-head Suppression Trial

Bahia grass (Paspalum notatum) poses a significant challenge for vegetation managers in South East Queensland due to prolific seed-head dispersion. In order to explore the best way to suppress seed-head production, the Integrated Vegetation Management Project (IVMP) is currently conducting a 12 week experiment.

In this experiment, a single application of various herbicides and plant growth regulators were applied to replicated trial plots. Untreated plots (control plots) and monthly mown treatment plots were also established for comparison. The experiment is intended to run for 12 weeks, with the interim results presented here showing what has occurred over the first 6 weeks.

Overall, most of the treatments are still performing very well 6 weeks after application. In fact, all 12 of the chemical treatments equalled or outperformed the mown treatment in reducing the number and height of seed-heads produced. This is surprising considering the chemical treatment plots had not been mown since the start of the experiment (approximately 6 weeks prior), while the mown treatment plots had been mown less than two weeks prior!

No seed-heads have yet been produced in the plots for the best performing treatments, i.e 100% seed-head reduction at this stage. In fact, most treatments trialled have provided ≥ 90% reduction in seed-heads after 6 weeks.

The effects of the treatments on seed-head height are very similar, as one might expect. Average seed-head height in the control plots was 43cm and was already up to 37cm in the recently mown plots. In comparison, the worst-performing experimental treatments had an average seed-head height of 29.5cm, while the few seed-heads produced in the most promising treatments had an average height of only 7cm.

Promising results are evident on trial plots

The effect of the treatments on sward height was also relatively similar. Average sward height in the control plots was approximately 11cm, while it was 8.5cm in the recently mown plots. The best performing treatments had sward heights of 6-7cm, with most other treatments having sward heights of 7-8cm.

These results are suggesting that if you want to keep the Bahia grass green and suppress its seed-head production, a number of treatments being assessed are proving effective. It is also clear that a number of the treatments will be effective should your aim be to transition out the Bahia grass in an area under management.