Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week Sept. 2-9, 2005.
Weather
After that little blast of rain which were remnants of Hurricane Katarina we have had absolutely fabulous weather. The forecast for the next week is for more of the same with highs in the low twenties and lows in the low teens. It will be sunny to partly cloudy with very little chance of rain. These temperatures are absolutely perfect for turf root and shoot growth. We now have adequate moisture in most regions of the province to sit back and watch the turf grow. It is truly amazing how well many turf areas have come back after the incredible stressful conditions earlier this summer.
Diseases
There is still very heavy pressure from dollar spot at the moment and this should continue throughout the week. With the clear skies and windy conditions the symptoms of the patch diseases (necrotic ring spot and take-all patch) will be obvious again this week. Look out for some localized dry spots possibly as things start to dry out over the next week.
I knew it was just a matter of time before rust showed up and sure enough there is some on our perennial ryegrass here at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute. This is a fairly late start for this disease. Most of the time it is merely a nuisance disease, so lets hope this is the case this year. That being said there are reports from Michigan (where rust is a week or two ahead of us) that it is turning out to be a banner year for rust. If you do see rust symptoms develop, keep up with the mowing and give the turf a little shot of nitrogen.
With the much cooler nights and heavy dew formation there is a good chance that you will see Fusarium patch starting very soon.
Insects
There are lots of European crane fly adults flying around now. The flights will continue to get heavier for the next couple of weeks. I expect though that in general the flights will be much lighter than they were this time last year. What we are seeing also at the moment is the pupae are very close to the surface of the soil and the starlings are feeding like mad on them. This is leaving holes in golf course putting greens.
Hairy chinch bugs, annual bluegrass weevil and bluegrass billbugs will be moving to their overwintering sites now that the day and night time temperatures are cooling down. The second generation flights of adult black turfgrass ataenius have also slowed down now.
There have been reports of sod webworm adults and small larvae both being present on golf courses and home lawns at the moment. The damage from sod webworms usually peaks in mid-late September. A new biorationale insecticide called Success has been registered for use on sod webworm. Traditional insecticide treatments for this include Sevin T&O and diazinon.
European chafer grubs are developing slowly now. They are in early second instar now in most locations. It is still way to early to see any turf dying yet though from grub feeding.
Weeds
Crabgrass is rampant still. The rain that we had in mid-late July and early Aug. has brought on an absolute explosion of crabgrass. The issue here is that turf had thinned in June and July because of the dry conditions. Add a bit of rain and heat and presto – you get crabgrass. Some of the pre-emergence crabgrass treatments that went on early may have run out of steam before the first real flush of crabgrass came on. Crabgrass germinated later than usual because it was so dry in June. Much of the crabgrass is getting too large to treat with Acclaim Super. Crabgrass can be scouted now for areas that will need treatment next spring with a product like Dimension. This fits nicely with IPM in that you can treat in the spring only those areas that had crabgrass this summer.
Broadleaf herbicide treatments should be postponed until after the winter annual weeds have germinated. The best time is in mid September. That way you can get a bigger bang for your herbicide buck. If however, you are renovating a lawn that has a severe broadleaf weed infestation, it might be wiser to apply the herbicide now so that the weeds are dying by the time you overseed. The window for overseeding in this part of the province is mid-August to mid-September.
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Moss on golf greens continues to be an ever increasing problem and it will very quickly colonize those areas that have thinned out from all the stress this summer.
Cultural Practices
Many golf courses are busy aerating greens at the moment. This is a much needed practice after such a severe summer. Getting air to the greens will help speed turf recovery immensely. The first application of the fall fertilization should be applied in the next two week period. The second application should be applied when the turf is still green but no longer growing. This is roughly in late October to early November.
Coming Events
The 17th Annual Sports Turf Association Field Day is scheduled for Wed. September 14 at the Milton Leisure Centre. For more information on this event you can visit the Sports Turf Association web site at https://www.sportsturfcanada.com/
Thanks for phoning the turf agriphone message for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. Sept. 9, 2005.
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