30th Annual Bakersfield Home & Garden Show
February 19-21, 2016

Marcos from Ecotech

WEST COAST TURF

DELTA BLUEGRASS

Friday, March 13th - 9:00 - 10:30 am

Presented by: Tom Hawkins

CEUs: APLD & LA CES (pending approval)

Presented by: Mark Ohde

Kurapia is a newly introduced selection of Phyla nodiflora, which is native to parts of North and South America. This cultivar was produced after years of selective breeding in Japan, where it is now gaining popularity for its range of uses in sustainable landscape applications.

This course will identify the differences between Kurapia and the Phyla nodiflora species, as well as other Phyla in the nursery trade. The unique attributes of this plant, including very low water use, tolerance of a broad range of soil types and very high salinity conditions, erosion control features, and effectiveness in weed suppression will be covered, and research data supporting each of these characteristics will be briefly highlighted, including studies completed at UC Davis and UC Riverside.

Biography:

Tom Hawkins is president and owner of Florasource Ltd., a twenty-eight year old horticultural sales company that provides commercial growers with young plants for nursery crop production. In addition his firm is focused on the supply of several sustainable horticultural products to the landscape trade, including 'UC Verde' Buffalograss, from the University of California, LiveRoof, a fully grown, modular green roof system, and Kurapia, a new very low-water, utility groundcover introduced recently from Japan. Tom completed his undergraduate study in Ornamental Horticulture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and a Masters degree in Environmental Horticulture at UC Davis.

Mark Ohde is president of Kurapia Inc., a two year old horticultural sales company that is focused on Kurapia, a very low-water, utility ground cover/turf alternative, recently introduced from Japan. Mark completed his undergraduate study in Business Administration at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, and spent 5 years in the agricultural sector, managing greenhouse tomato production. For the past 8 years he has been the director for Greenproduce, Japan, providing Kurapia to the landscape industry. Mark is also the breeder of a new variety of Kurapia for future release.

Click Here to register for the EXPO and select seminars.

Kurapia Presentation
by
Mark Ohde, Kurapia Inc.
Tom Hawkins, Florasource, Ltd.
David Plascencia, EchoTech Inc.

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources

Saline Irrigation Test Result

Kurapia was a fast establisher when irrigated with 2 and 3 dS/m (81% and 88% respectively), and also was the best performer when irrigated with water EC of 7 dS/m.