Introduction - Early Years - 1940's - 1950's - 1960's - 1970's - 1980's - Conclusion - Literature Cited

The 1970's

The 1970's were ushered in with a continuation of some of the efforts that had been begun in the late 1960's. Sod was harvested by two systems primarily. One involved slicing the sod first with cross-cutting flat coulters and then undercutting with a three-point hitch harvester, cutting three rows at a time. This system worked well in situations where a large volume of sod was cut each day and labor was available to hand stack the grass. One farm in Palm Beach County which used this system would later cut and ship 5 million square feet per week. Where the volume harvested was not so high, the automatic harvester was used. The harvester, which was attached to a tractor, cross cut and lifted the sod, then transported it up a conveyer to two persons who stacked the sod on a pallet. During this decade, harvesters, fork-lifts, and other turf equipment were refined.

In 1974 the Florida Crop and Livestock Reporting Service, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, conducted a survey of the entire turf industry (12). There were 58 producers, which was believed to be a nearly complete sample. They reported 14,600 net acres sold, which were produced on 31,600 acres of "cultivated" sod (61% St. Augustinegrasses and 34% bahiagrasses) and 13,500 acres of "pasture sod", virtually all bahiagrass. These values compared with a total 30,600 acres new turf, which suggested considerable underreporting of the total sod industry, although part of the discrepancy could be accounted for by the practice of leaving spaces between pieces of transplanted sod. The price of sod at the .production site was 3.3 cents, compared with 2.4 cents production cost (or $385 net per harvested acre per year).

University of Florida researchers tested and recommended new herbicides, such as asulam and bentazon for the control of grass type weeds and watersedge and yellow nutsedge, respectively. Producers were anxious about research on chinch bug resistant grass, but there were some false starts. For example, Scotts-1081 was first promoted in early commercial pilot production, as a chinch bug resistant grass (22). Scotts-1081 was later shown to be susceptible to the southern chinch bug (23). 'Floratam', developed by G. C. Horn of the University of Florida, Gainesville, and released in 1973, was a tremendous boost for the turfgrass industry in Florida. This was a cooperative release by both The University of Florida (15) and Texas A & M University, hence its name ("Flora" + "TAM"). This was the first variety which was resistant to the southern chinch bug. The Floratam variety spread and became so popular that by 1980-81 it dominated 77% of commercial sod sampled in southeast Florida, and had penetrated 21% of lawn areas (4). Floratam became such as success in the sod industry that it resulted in spin-offs. For example, a lawn fertilizer, "Floratam Special" was marketed by Sunni Green (Philip Busey, personal observation).

Many new sand soil farms were developed around the state during this period. One farm in Jacksonville, Nutri-Turf, utilized waste water in its sod production. Walt Pursley produced turf in sand soil in Palm Beach County and in Manatee County. In 1974, R & D Sod Farm opened near Keenansville, in an area with both muck and sand. Its President, Ed Davis, had been a landscape installer in Miami. He would later go on to be the first President of the Turfgrass Producers Association of Florida.

Introduction - Early Years - 1940's - 1950's - 1960's - 1970's - 1980's - Conclusion - Literature Cited