Welcome to the “Turf Management Report” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This is just a name change from the old “Turf Agriphone” messages. This message is being recorded for the week of April 20-27, 2007. This service will continue until October and the messages will be updated weekly on Fri. afternoons. These messages are available in three forms now. You can listen to a recorded message by telephoning the local number 519-826-3414 or 1-888-290-4441. The reports are also available online at http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/updates/turfgrass/index.html. They are available as a written document and also as a podcast. The easiest way to get these weekly reports is to go to the subscribe/unsubscribe button at the Turf Management Report web site and subscribe. That way you will get an email and a link each time a new Turf Management Report is posted. If you are interested in subscribing to the podcast, simply click on the podcast button and follow the instructions.

I think it is safe to say that spring has finally arrived in southwestern Ontario. The weekend temperatures are going to soar up to the low 20’s. Of course this means that the grass is going to virtually burst forth with growth now. This will mean that simply keeping up with mowing could be a challenge, especially in areas that have already been fertilized. Much of the turf is looking great already, but some could benefit from mowing to remove the bleached out leaf blades that are remaining from winter or the remained for the pink snow mould scarred leaf blades. The form of pink snow mould that occurs without snow cover (Microdochium patch) has been very active over the last couple of weeks and has continued to cause leaf damage on many species of turfgrass, including both low and higher mowed species.

Diseases

The GTI Turf Diagnostics is up and running again for the season. Diseases diagnosed last week were anthracnose basal rot, Pythium root rot and take-all patch. Microdochium patch was very active last week. This will slow down now with the warmer temperatures coming. Don’t be fooled though, heavy dew and cool nights can keep Microdochium patch active. We have some beautiful samples of yellow patch on one of the research greens at GTI at the moment. I expect that the symptoms will not last too long with this warmer weather approaching. Just a reminder to send any unknown turf problems to the GTI Turf Diagnostics. Information on this service is available at www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/turf_diag

Insects

With the warmer temperatures, it is likely that grubs will be up and feeding for the spring. Make note of damaged areas and treat with Merit in the summer (June and July). Annual bluegrass weevil adults will be emerging from their overwintering sites over the next week or two. This usually occurs between the time of forsythia petal drop and full bloom of dogwoods. In the Guelph area, forsythia are not in bloom yet, but the warmer temperatures are going to speed that process up. There has been some good work that began in 2006 at Rutgers University by Dr. Kopenhöfer looking at the efficacy of entomopathogenic nematodes to control annual bluegrass weevil. His field trials indicated that Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and Steinernema feltiae both provided statistically significant reductions in annual bluegrass weevil populations. These applications should be targeted at the late instars in late spring. Dr. Dan Peck at Cornell is working on a day degree model to forecast annual bluegrass phenology.

We continue to monitor the growth of leatherjackets. They are still mostly about 1 cm long. I am always surprised at how quickly they grow at this time of year. At the moment, I would predict that they are slightly behind their normal development, but the warm weather again could speed up their feeding, growth and also speed up damage. Again, the good news for lawn care operators regarding leatherjacket control. Sevin T&O is now labeled to control leatherjackets on home lawns. There are several restrictions on when and how to use it on residential properties. These include: one application a year; treatment should be considered at or above 270 larvae per m2 and spot treatments only are allowed in residential areas and not more than 100 m2 area can be treated on a residential property. If you are finding significant number of leatherjackets they can be treated once temperatures warm up a bit.

Again, this week I have a plea for turf managers. I would like to do some research on thresholds for leatherjackets. To do this, I am looking for sites with leatherjacket damage that I can sample before treatment is made. If you have residential or golf course sites with damage, I would appreciate hearing from you and my summer student and I can come out and do some leatherjacket counts. If you are interested in cooperating on this leatherjacket threshold research please give me a call at (519) 824-4120 x 52597 or you can email me at pamela.charbonneau@ontario.ca.

Also on the leatherjacket front, we are interested to find out if we have the common crane fly (Tipula oleracea) here in Ontario. It has been reported in British Columbia, New York State and Quebec. A colleague of mine, Dr. Dan Peck at Cornell UniversityMichigan. So far we have not confirmed if it is present in Ontario. It can be distinguished from the European crane fly by its life cycle. Adult common crane flies fly in April/May and Aug./September. The European crane fly adult flights are in September only. Another form of evidence would be the presence of the pupal casing on low cut turf. They look like little twigs sticking out of the turf. Yet another indication of T. oleracea is turf damage during late fall, winter and early spring. If you are finding damage that is very much like cutworm damage on your greens this time of year, the culprit could be the larval stage of the common crane fly. If you are seeing some adult crane flies, pupal casings or have turf damage that looks like cutworm damage this spring, please let me know and I can arrange to get a sample from you. contacted me last week to say that the common crane fly has also been found in

Again, thanks for phoning the turf management report for this week. The next report will be recorded on Fri. April 27, 2007.

Turfgrass Management Agriphone for April 20, 2007

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