Welcome to the Turf Management Updates for the period of Aug. 18- Sept. 2, 2008. There is some pretty warm weather in the forecast for the next week. We have had clear blue skies for a few days now. We might even have to irrigate later in the week. There is a chance of thundershowers on Sunday. Temperatures will cool for the following week. I think it is safe to say the worst is over and from now on in growing conditions should be more ideal. The clear skies and low humidity can lead to localized dry spots very quickly, especially on thatchy areas of turf.
The diseases have slowed down over the last week with the drier weather. There is still pressure from dollar spot because of the cooler temperatures and heavy dew formation. All the rain has probably either leached nitrogen or the turf plant has used all the nitrogen for growing. This also increases the dollar spot pressure because we know that turf that is low in nitrogen is more susceptible to dollar spot. The high evapotranspiration rates will result in the take-all patch and necrotic ring spot symptoms becoming more intense. Rust has persisted and keeping up with the mowing is essential to keep this disease in check. A little shot of nitrogen will also help. Lowering the mowing height could especially be an advantage to sod growers who are battling rust.
The damage from hairy chinch bug feeding is easy to spot in a year like this when the grass has remained green all season long. Dead spots in sunny areas right now are a sure sign of hairy chinch bug feeding. There is still time to control hairy chinch bugs with any of the registered insecticides. The reports from the field are that they are still seeing some nymphs feeding at the moment. Usually by this time we only see adult chinch bugs. For some reason the chinch bugs are a little later than normal.
We are still finding the common crane fly adults emerging. They seem to be about a month ahead of the European crane fly adults. I am not expecting large adult flights of the European crane fly because there were smaller than normal number of leatherjackets this spring.
We are still seeing some black cutworm feeding on turf that hasn’t been treated with insecticide.
We are coming up to the normal window for turf fertilization. This year, especially in areas where the clippings aren’t being returned, for instance the grass on golf course greens, the grass has used up the nitrogen that was applied a month ago. Turf could also stand some aeration now. Shallow rooted annual bluegrass on golf greens is barely hanging on and adding some air to the rootzone might just be the ticket to keep the annual bluegrass alive over the next couple of weeks.
Many grass areas that look good from afar are actually more weeds than grass. Fall is the best time to control hard to control broadleaf weeds. If you are in a municipality without a pesticide ban, the best time for broadleaf weed control is in September when weeds are actively growing. I dare say though that this year you probably would have gotten good weed control any week of the summer because the weeds were actively growing all summer.
As far as crabgrass is concerned, once we get a hard frost, it will be history. At this point there probably isn’t much point in trying to control it. Do make note of the areas and apply corn gluten meal next spring on the badly infested areas.
From now until October, these updates will be updated every two weeks. The next update will be recorded on Tues. Sept. 2.
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