Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the period of Aug. 4-13, 2006
We still have lush green turf at the moment in most areas of the province because of all the reain we have received. One thing about this is that turf might need an extra shot of fertilizer this season because of all the growth. Generally, this time of year turf is suffering from moisture stress and is growing very slowly and not using up much fertilizer.
Weatherwise, it looks like it is going to be a fairly stress free week for turf. The summer heat and humidity has passed for the moment and we will be having more moderate temperatures with highs in the mid twenties and lows around 18ºC. The humidity is going to be much lower than it has been. If we do have any wind along with the low relative humidity, remember that the evapotranspiration rates could be high and turf might need more frequent irrigation.
As I mentioned the disease pressure for the summer, hot weather diseases should be over for the next week. The GTI Turf Diagnostics has had lots of summer patch samples over the last week and a case of anthracnose foliar blight. With the cooler temperatures and high et’s the summer patch symptoms will continue to show up. There were many reports from the field of brown patch and Pythium blight. There has been one report of rust on a soccer field. We are coming into the period where rust will start to become a problem. This is also ideal weather for dollar spot, with the warm days and cool nights and heavy dews.
I have seen more chinch bug damage this summer than in the past two or three summers. There will probably be more feeding over the next two to three weeks so it is still a good idea to spray for them at this point in the season. Just to recap on hairy chinch bugs, the damage begins as fist sized depressed areas of dead grass. These are spreading very rapidly now to larger dead areas.
Last week in our routine monitoring we found high numbers of black turfgrass ataenius grubs. They should be pupating soon. This is pretty late, but because the adults emerged late because of the cold spring the grub feeding has been delayed also.
What can I say about crabgrass. The tropical conditions have resulted in a crabgrass explosion. Many lawns instead of the nice dark green colour are lime green. In many of them, there is more crabgrass than Kentucky bluegrass at the moment. At this time spot treatments with Acclaim will be the best control.
As I mentioned earlier, it would probably be a good idea to apply some nitrogen in the next week or two. Often turf doesn’t really need it in the heat of the summer. This summer, there has been lots of growth and it is possible that the plant has used up much of the available nutrients.
Only a few more weeks until the GTI Turf Research Field Day on Thurs. Aug. 24th, 2006. This is a big year for us with two new turf faculty (Dr. Eric Lyons and Dr. Katerina Jordan) conducting research at the GTI site. There are also many product evaluation trials to see as well as moss control research, beet juice extract research to mention a few. It is definitely a must see if you are a turf manager. There is information about the field day on the GTI web site. See the related link below.
Again, thanks for phoning the turf agriphone message for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Mon. Aug. 14th, 2006.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2006/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-august-4-2006.html#sthash.I0UO1pZQ.dpuf
