Turf Height Tester construction and assembly

This video details the construction and assembly of the Turf Height Tester developed by Drs. Aaron Patton and Ross Braun, Purdue University. A refereed journal article submitted to Crop Science titled "Measurement of turf height and growth using a laser distance device" describes the tester. A device called the “Turf Height Tester” with a floating platform and a laser distance measurement tool was constructed within a $167 budget. The tester was able to precisely measure recently mown turf canopy height at the tested bench heights of 4.9 to 10.2 cm. The Turf Height Tester was advantageous for comparing the growth of turfgrasses with contrasting growth rates, and turf response from nitrogen fertilizer applications in a non-destructive manner. The tester, which outputs data via Bluetooth to the nearest 0.1 mm, correlated well with other turf canopy height measuring tools but had a lower coefficient of variation. Collecting approximately 18 measurements per minute, the tester allows for 1.8 plots/minute data collection (includes 5 pre- and 5 post-mowing measurements) compared to the more labor intensive practice of harvesting and weighing grass clippings at 0.2 plot/minute. Further, there was a strong relationship across experiments (R2=0.62 to 0.94) between growth measurements using the tester and dry matter clipping yield.