RESEARCH INTERESTS - Dr. She-Kong Chong

   AREA 1: Hydrologic impact on soil due to various land managements, soil compaction, watershed modeling, infiltration, saturated and unsaturated flow through porous media.

Current research project: Effects of deep tillage on soil properties and soybean sudden death syndrome.

Collaborators/Cooperators of the project:

Dr. She-Kong Chong, Soil Physicist.
Dr. Oval Myers, Plant Breeding/Agronomist.
Dr. John Russin, Soybean Pathologist.
Dr. Edward Varsa, Agronomist.
Dr. Sam Indorante, Soil Scientist, USDA-NRCS.
Ms Angela Kazakevicius, Bureau of Land and Water Resources, IDA.

Graduate Research Assistants: Mr. Christopher Vick and Mr. Zachary Weber

Funding Agencies: Conservation 2000, Illinois Department of Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture Grant Program and Illinois C-FAR Program.

Objective of the project: To evaluate the soybean sudden death syndrome (SDS) severity and soybean yield in soils under no-till and deep-till conditions

Preliminary Results:

Statistical results indicated that soil bulk density is negatively related with SDS foliar disease index, but positively related to root colonization by FSG, which resulted in greater SDS disease levels.

 

Figure 1.  Soybean SDS foliar disease index (DX) and soil macro-porosity.

 

 

Figure 2.  The relationship between 1997 relative soybean yield and SDS foliar disease index.

 

Figure 3.  Spatial variability of 1997 foliar disease index, DX, and soybean yield at the Myers farm, DeSoto, Jackson County, IL.

 

     Acknowledgment:

We appreciate Mr. Chris Vick, Dr. Yang Luo, Dr. Jason Bond, Mr. Jim Klein and Mr. Ryan Whelan for their contributions and kind assistance in this project.

      Related Publications:

Luo, Y. K. Hildebrand, S.K. Chong, O. Myers and J.S. Russin. 2000. Soybean yield loss to sudden death syndrome in relation to symptom expression and root colonization by Fusarium solani f. sp. Glycines. Plant Disease. 84:914-920.

Luo, Y., S. K. Chong, S. K., and O. Myers. 2001. Spatio-temporal analysis of soybean root colonization by Fusarium solani f. sp. glycines in the fields. Plant Disease. 85: 303-310.

 

 

   AREA 2: Sport turf soil and Golf Course Green Installation and Management.

       Research Objective: This project is primarily focused on searching appropriate root zone mixes amended with different organic amendments suitable for turf establishment in transition zone.

     Graduate Research Assistants: Mr. Richard Boniak and Mr. Jeremy Clark.

     Funding Agency: Illinois Turf Foundation and Southern Illinois Golf Course Superintendent Association.

 

     Acknowledgment: We appreciate very much the contributions by Dr. Sam Indorante, Mr. Dan Dinelli at North Shore country club, Ms. Kathy Renfro at the Hickory Ridge golf course, Mr. Gordon Montgomery at the AgriLife Products, Inc, Mr. David Stein at the Munie Outdoor Services, and Mr. Sam Burkey at the Burkey Construction, Inc.

     Related Publications in Turf Soil Research:

Chong, S.-K., S. Indorante, D. Buschschulte and R. Boniak. 2000. Is your turfgrass suffocating. Golf Course Magazine. 68 (7):72-75.

Chong, S.-K., J. Doolittle, S. Indorante, K. Renfro and P. Buck. 2000. Investigating without excavating. Golf Course Magazine. 68 (9):56 - 59.

Chong, S.-K., C.H. Ok, R. Boniak, and K.L. Diesburg. 2001. Rootzone Mixes Amended with Crumb Rubber - Laboratory Study. 2001. International Turfgrass Society Journal.9: 493-497.

Boniak, R. S.-K. Chong, C.H. Ok,, and K.L. Diesburg. 2001. Rootzone Mixes Amended with Crumb Rubber - Field Study. 2001. International Turfgrass Society Journal. 9: 487-492.

Chong, S.K., R. Boniak, C.H. Ok, S. Indorante, and D. Dinelli. 2001. Drainage - Another look. Golf Course Management. Golf Course Magazine. 70 (3): 63 - 66.

Chong, S.-K., R. Boniak, C.-H. Ok, and K. Diesburg. 2002. Air-filled porosity of golf green sand mixes. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. 33 (15-18):2895 - 2903.

Boniak, R., S.-K. Chong, S.J. Indorante, and J.A. Doolittle. 2002. Mapping golf green drainage and subsurface features using ground penetrating radar. Ninth International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar (Edited by S.K. Koppenjan, and H. Lee) Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 4758: 477-481.

Boniak, R., S.-K. Chong, T. Boniak, S.J. Indorante, and J.A. Doolittle. 2002. Ground-penetrating radar maps drainage systems. Turfgrass Trends Vol.11 (7): T1, T2, and T4.

Chong, S.-K., R. Boniak. S. Indorante. 2002. How do soils breathe? Golf Course Magazine. In press.