Weather:
At the time of writing this, there is no rain in the forecast for the next 5 days. Unbelievable!
Surprise, surprise we are still a few degrees lower than we should be for this time of year. The forecast is for mid to high teens in the day and 5-10°C as the lows. This will help dry things out but it will be a double edged sword because turf will start to grow like crazy. It has already started to do that and it is going to get worse for a little while. Mowing has had to be postponed because of wet weather and this is forcing golf courses to raise their height of cut for a few mowings until they can get the mowing schedule under control. If mowing height isn’t raised the result will be scalping of the quickly growing turf.
Microdochium patch continues to be very active. When you are scouting you will be able to see the small to medium sized copper spots. The edges of any pink snow mould scars are also active with that coppery/brown outer ring. With the forecast for drier conditions the turf should outgrow the symptoms. There is also some yellow patch around for the same reasons as we are seeing a lot of Microdochium patch, ie. cool wet weather. As things dry up, the symptoms will halt.
If you do encounter a turf problem that you can’t identify, you can always send a sample to GTI Turf Diagnostics. Information on this service is available on the GTI web site. You can also email them at ‘; document.write( ‘<a ‘=”” +=”” path=”” ‘\”=”” prefix=”” ‘:’=”” addy52259=”” ‘\’=””>’ ); document.write( addy_text52259 ); document.write( ‘<\/a>’ ); //–>\n or telephone at (519) 824-4120 x 58873.
There are still some new areas reporting grub damage. Now is a good time to overseed those damaged areas. Make a note of the damaged areas and plan to apply grub control in the mid summer on golf courses or in August for home lawns.
The next week will bring on some insect activity. You will no doubt see some annual bluegrass weevil and maybe even the beginning of the black turfgrass ataenius migration. Look for BTA flights on sunny afternoons in May. The adults will also show up in the mowing baskets and you can use a soap flush to detect them as well.
If you are planning to apply an adulticide for annual bluegrass weevil, the timing for that is when forsythia are the half green/half gold stage. Check out the great resource put together by Dr. Pat Vittum from University of Massachusetts on various annual bluegrass weevil monitoring methods in the related links below. If you are finding large numbers of adults you have two choices. Right now the forsythia are in full bloom in Guelph so there is still time to make and adulticide application. If you are targeting the next generation with a preventative product like clothianidin or chlorantraniliprole, you still have a couple of weeks before you need to think about that.
Weed control products and timing
Dandelions are just starting to flower on southern exposures and it won’t be long before many turf areas are a sea of yellow. In our Fiesta trials that we had conducted last year, we started our applications in late May early June and that worked well with 2 applications 4 weeks apart. We don’t really have any data yet looking at earlier applications so I would not advise starting too early with the Fiesta applications unless you have done so successfully in the past.
The active ingredients in Organo-sol – lactic acid and citric acid are on the Class 11 list. I am not sure if Organo-sol is being actively marketed in Ontario at the moment, but it has received registration and has been classified now.
As mentioned earlier forsythia are in full bloom in Guelph, and has been blooming in Niagara for at least two weeks. We are now approaching in the middle of the application window for corn gluten meal for pre-emergence crabgrass control. For best results either apply corn gluten meal when rain is expected or water the product in within 2 days of application.
Once the soil dries out it is a good time to schedule the spring aeration. We recommend that you hold off for another couple of weeks before you fertilize turf. There is already a growth flush due to the rain and warming weather. You don’t want to force even more of a spring growth flush by fertilizing at the moment.
Again, keep the emails coming. I appreciate the feedback. You can reach me by phone or email at (519-824-4120 x 52597) or by email at pamela.charbonneau@ontario.ca.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2011/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-may-6-2011.html#sthash.oawA4WOc.dpuf
