Rate My Professor Doug Soldat

Soldat's research and Extension programs center on optimizing resource use efficiency in turfgrass systems and improving urban soils. His work examines water and nutrient management strategies to promote turfgrass health while minimizing environmental losses, given the extensive pervious surfaces covered by turfgrass in urban and suburban areas. Current projects include evaluating biosolids for sod production in terms of economics and sustainability, assessing fall-applied nitrogen uptake under cool temperatures, investigating water harvesting and drip irrigation for turfgrass, using 18O-labeled phosphate as a tracer for soil microbial activity rates, and applying plant growth regulators to reduce fertilizer needs on golf course putting greens. Key publications include 'Dollar Spot Suppression on Creeping Bentgrass in Response to Nitrogen Fertility and Fungicide Programs' (2021, Plant Disease), 'New Approaches to an Old Problem: Dollar Spot of Turfgrass' (2022, Phytopathology), and 'The Economic Cost of Winter Injuries on Golf Courses in Minnesota' (2025, HortScience). His Extension efforts deliver research-based information on sustainable turfgrass management to homeowners, professionals, sod growers, lawn care providers, and county agents through summer field days at the O.J. Noer Turfgrass Research and Education Facility, the annual winter Turfgrass and Greenscape Exposition, and training programs for nutrient management plans. Soldat received the 2012 Lawns of Wisconsin Network's Person of the Year award and was appointed to a CALS faculty professorship/chairship in 2025. He is a member of the Crop Science Society of America.