Greener turf
Photos by Evan Krape January 23, 2025
Plant and soil sciences doctoral student Charanpreet Kaur researches environmentally friendly solutions for turfgrass
Growing up in India, Charanpreet Kaur was surrounded by fertile land and rivers that fostered an environment where plants and crops could thrive. Kaur’s proximity to lush farmland sparked her interest in plant science from a young age.
After getting her undergraduate degree in plant science and a master’s degree in horticulture, Kaur completed her doctoral degree in plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware. For her dissertation, Kaur researched the effect of a strain of “beneficial bacteria” on turfgrass systems.
“This bacteria has growth-promoting and plant-protection benefits,” Kaur said. “I’m interested in looking at how we could find biocontrol solutions, environmentally friendly solutions, for plant protection in turfgrass.”
Kaur’s beneficial bacteria is UD1022, a strain of Bacillus subtilis licensed by UD that lives on the surface of plant roots and in the surrounding soil.
Kaur was co-advised by Harsh Bais, professor of plant biology, and Erik Ervin, interim associate dean and interim director of UD Cooperative Extension and professor of turfgrass and horticultural systems.
Bais explained that turfgrass systems are typically found in places that require constant upkeep with fertilizers, chemicals and manual labor — like golf courses, for example. The fertilizers and chemicals used to maintain the turf can be detrimental to the environment surrounding the turfgrass system. This is where Kaur’s research comes in.
“Golfers want their putting greens to be super green, blemish free, so much so that golf managers end up using intensive chemical inputs in the field and on the putting green,” Bais said. “Charan looked into agents which can actually keep fungus away from the putting green, and that grew into diving deeper into the mechanisms of how this particular bacteria can work to fight fungus.”
To get a more holistic picture of the beneficial effects of UD1022, Kaur did a mixture of lab work and fieldwork.
“Charan is just a phenomenal researcher in terms of what she achieved in her time, both doing broad field work in hot, humid, July weather and working in a lab with a controlled environment, doing gene expressions, microbiology and agronomy,” Bais said.
According to Kaur, turfgrass systems do not have many environmentally friendly control options, leaving land managers no choice but to rely on synthetic chemicals that could negatively impact the surrounding environment.
“Through this project, I was able to combine studies on plant-microbe interactions with turfgrass management,” Kaur said. “I worked on two distinct areas and got experience on both of them together in the lab and the field.”
Kaur’s research has awarded her the 2024-25 Encompass Fellowship, a prestigious award given to graduate students who demonstrate strong leadership and dedication to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the agronomic, crops, soils and environmental science fields for their careers.
“The fellowship is providing me the sponsorship to attend the International Annual Meeting, where I will have the opportunity to present my research, give a talk and a poster presentation,” Kaur said. “It's also providing me with professional training and workshops for one year to build my network with the industry in which I really look forward to.”
At the International Annual Meeting, hosted by the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of America, Kaur was awarded second place for her research presentation in the turfgrass pest management category — an impressive win given that she was up against students from land-grant universities across the nation.
In addition to the fellowship, various off-shoots of Kaur’s project are already in the works in the Bais lab that stem from her research.
“We’ve started working with wheat now because wheat is another monoculture, just like turfgrass,” Bais said. “Wheat is a new system in the lab right now, but like turfgrass, it's a very competitive field for commercialization, while also being a field which lacks fundamental understanding of the system.”
Upon graduation, Kaur wants to move into the plant-protection industry, with an emphasis on biologics, continuing her work with microbial-based fertilizers and fungicides that can enhance crop growth and soil health.
“After finishing my doctoral degree, I want to transition into the career of plant protection, where I could work on new, innovative plant protection solutions, but with more emphasis towards biologicals,” Kaur said.
Along with her impactful and successful research, Bais believes that Kaur has become a role model in the lab.
“All the students were wide-eyed, sitting in her thesis defense,” he said. “A student of color, an international student and a student who's a woman — it’s a strong point that she’s conveying that she can survive in this system. But she’s not just surviving, she's excelling, and that is really cool for others who will come after her.”
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