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Introduction - Early Years - 1940's - 1950's - 1960's - 1970's - 1980's - Conclusion - Literature Cited |
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The 1950's During this decade the sod business really took off. With an average of 770 new families arriving in Florida each week, and most of them settling on the southeast coast, the demand for sod was great. In fact, almost anything that would hold together could be sold. St. Augustinegrass sod would sell for up to 2.5 cents per square foot, although competition from the growers in the Lake Okeechobee region tended to keep the price down to as low as 1.5 to 2 cents. Most lawns were planted with 4 inch X 4 inch plugs, which were divided up with a machete from 1 foot X 2 foot sod pieces, and planted in rows 12 to 14 inches apart. Where a development would involve many homes, a tractor with shovels would be used to open up long solid rows from one lot to the next, which then would be plugged (Ed Davis, personal communication). Plugs would be allowed to grow and knit together on-site. |
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| Fig. 1. Sod harvesting in 1959 at Ousley Sod Co. in Broward County, Florida. The Ryan walk-behind sod cutter cut 1 foot X 2 foot sod slabs, separated by a 2-inch uncut ribbon. Slabs were carried to a trailer by hand or by pitchfork. The tractor's drive wheels were equipped with standard farm tread tires, and there was a large front bumper. | Fig. 2. Bitterblue St. Augustinegrass sod was pitched by hand onto the field trailer. Pallets were not yet being used. | |
| Weeds were the biggest problem in turfgrass
production, and 2,4-D was one of few selective herbicides available.
It was effective against broad-leaved weeds, and could be used in
many grasses, but the response of St. Augustinegrass was disheartening.
Turfgrass producers discovered that 2,4-D made the stolons brittle.
Urea was used as a foliar spray to burn out watersedge (Cyperus
sp.) prior to harvesting, but the sedge would often grow back soon
after the sod was laid or plugged into a lawn. Combinations of cultural
practices and judicious use of the few available herbicides were recommended
(28). After consulting with Dr. Evert O. Burt, weed scientist at the
University of Florida, Ralph W. White, then Agricultural Extension
Turf Specialist at the University, tested low rates of triazine herbicides
for the control of broad-leaved and grassy weeds. It was discovered
from research that White did in Davie, that simazine and atrazine
were effective for selective weed control in St. Augustinegrass. This
was a major breakthrough for growers to produce clean sod for the
consumers.
Many innovations in equipment occurred during the 1950's; however, a few stand out. Around 1954, the Ryan sod cutter with the automatic cut-off was introduced (Fig. 1). This one machine replaced two separate tractor operations (cross-cutting and lifting) and did such a neat job that it could be used on much younger (and therefore less well knitted) sod. It did a faster job and replaced 50% of the labor in cutting. The Ryan sod cutter and the Lindig forage chopper probably put more people into the sod business than anything else. The chopper could be used to remove tall grass and blow the overburden into a wagon to be hauled off. The stubble would be rolled, fertilized with N, mowed with a rotary mower, and then after a few weeks harvested with a sod cutter. It was comparatively easy for entrepreneurs to apply this sequence to leased pasture land, and turn a profit. Around 1958-59, one of the first plug planters for large acreages was designed by Jim Ousley and Charlie Osborne and built by Osborne Service and Equipment Company in Davie. This machine was a four-row planter that diced the sod into 4 X 4 inch plugs and dropped them down shoots to the soil which had been opened by shoes. The planter was tractor drawn and could plant 5 to 10 acres per day. Most sod fields would still be planted in the 1980's with "run-offs" based on this same design (Elmer Kirkland, personal communication). During this time Rubison Machine Shop developed and built reversible pump stations. Most farms required drainage because organic soils occur where drainage is normally poor. But the reversible pump stations also allowed for irrigation control. |
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Fig. 3. A truck was carefully stacked by hand from the field trailers. When the sod reached its destination, the manual handling process would have to be repeated in reverse. This 10-wheel truck could carry about 4000 square feet of sod, compared with the 10,000 square feet on the semitrailers used later. | |
| Most of the sod was harvested with the Ryan
cutter, piled on field handling flatbed trailers (Fig. 2), and hauled
out of the fields to a loading area. Field handling trailers were
parked parallel to both sides of the customer's truck and the sod
was transferred by additional laborers who stacked the truck (Fig.
3). Every possible type of truck, from pickup to dump to flatbed trailer,
was hand-loaded. Most farm tractors had large front bumpers to help
push the field handling trailers or to help push out some trucks which
had been loaded in the field. Trucks did not generally venture into
organic soil fields in the EAA, because of the risk of getting bogged
down (In sand soils in central Florida and mucky sands of Davie, trucks
frequently would be loaded in the fields or on makeshift roads, not
on prepared loading areas). When the sod would reach its destination,
the laborious process of unloading would repeat what had gone on at
the sod farm. Those sod growers who delivered sod used mostly dump
bodies. The sod was loaded green side down so that it would slide
off the bed easily when it was dumped at the delivery site.
The sod business continued to expand into new areas. For example, in 1957 the Kirklands established a new operation at New Smyrna Beach, in high, dry sandy soil in central Florida. They had developed experience with sandy soils in Davie. In addition to the St. Augustinegrass growers, Dr. Roy Bair began a grass nursery in South Bay in 1950. He was the first to plant species other than St. Augustinegrass for commercial purposes. He planted new Zoysia matrella strains, 'Ormond' and 'Everglades-1' and 'Everglades-2' bermudagrasses, and a selection of Bitterblue, FA-20, which would be later released by Dr. Gene C. Nutter at the University of Florida, as 'Floratine' St. Augustinegrass. Dr. Bair had been the developer of Ormond and the Everglades bermudagrasses. In 1954, the Wolf brothers planted 15 acres of centipedegrass, making this the first large area of production of this species in southern Florida. This was the "break-out" for them, because they could sell it for 7 cents per square foot compared with 2.5 cents per square foot which was the current price for Bitterblue. Other growers such as O. S. Baker, Miami; Walt Pursley, Palmetto; and Joe Hall, Clewiston began producing different types, such as zoysiagrasses. Zoysiagrass tended to go through periods of consumer interest. Also during the 1950's 'Tiflawn' bermudagrass was produced by Al Anapu (Tropical Sod Co.), Davie and Jack Martin, Sanford. Tiflawn (T-57) bermudagrass was distributed in 1952 by the Coastal Plains Experiment Station, Tifton, Georgia. Tifgreen was released in 1956, and was one of the forerunners of a long line of interspecific hybrid bermudagrasses, Cynodon X magenissii (=C. dactylon X C. transvaalensis and reciprocal) which would be used on lawns and sports fields. In 1950, 'Argentine' bahiagrass was released for grazing use (18). It would be several years before this cultivar would become important as a turf. However, around the Dade City area in west central Florida, a thriving seed industry emerged. Although poorer in its seed production potential than 'Pensacola', 'Argentine' formed a denser, lower growing turf. For non-irrigated landscapes where there was not a shade problem, bahiagrass was widely used. Over 100,000 acres of bahiagrass would eventually be planted on Florida highway rights-of-way (12). Little or no turfgrass research had been performed by the University of Florida since World War II, but in 1949 several turfgrass leaders had formed a committee to explore the possibility of establishing a turf program at the University of Florida (29). In 1951, Dr. Gene C. Nutter was hired to conduct this program, and there was an unbroken record of achievements by him and his successors in helping the turfgrass industry. In 1952 the University held the first Turf Conference, which was co-sponsored by the Florida Turf Association, of which Dr. Nutter later became the first Executive Secretary. Finally chartered in 1956, the Florida Turf Association (now Florida Turfgrass Association, FTGA) helped steer producers through the uncharted waters of Turfgrass Certification, pesticide regulation, and grants for turfgrass research. The first sod organization was formed in the 1950's, the Florida Sod Growers Association, and Steve Hoft was hired as manager. The organization was short-lived and it would be three decades before another attempt at organization would be made. But meanwhile a program to certify the quality of turfgrass was introduced. Certification was lobbied for and endorsed by the fledgling Florida Turf Association. The certification program, which was later abandoned in the 1980's, was administered by the Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Certification provided quality sod and other vegetative grass materials (e.g., sprigs) to consumers who were interested in purchasing it; but it represented only a small share of the total market. Meanwhile, seed certification (e.g., bahiagrasses) was administered by the Department of Chemistry, Division of Inspection, also Florida Department of Agriculture. |
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Introduction - Early Years - 1940's - 1950's - 1960's - 1970's - 1980's - Conclusion - Literature Cited |
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13 November 1997