Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of Aug. 10-17, 2001.
There has finally been a break in the weather. The temperatures have cooled down to a chilly 25-27° C. The nighttime lows will now be in the mid-teens. This weather pattern is supposed to hold through the weekend and into early next week. It is a very welcome change. The change in weather though has not brought us any relief as far as rain is concerned. There were some isolated thunder showers that moved through the area last night, but Guelph only got a couple of millimeters of rain. Over the last week there have been several municipalities which have moved from alternate day lawn watering to total lawn watering bans. We know that turf can go up to 6 weeks without water without any adverse effects. In many areas we are now beyond the 6 week mark. There may be some turf loss if this dry period continues for much longer. For every week after the 6 week mark, expect a loss of 25% of the turf. One thing that is important when lawns are dormant is try to keep traffic off them. At this point there is still a good chance that most lawns will come back after this long period of dormancy, but if the lawns receive a lot of traffic while in a dormant state there will be irreparable damage. If you are in an area where there is no lawn watering ban, here are a few tips to keep turf alive but conserve water at the same time.
Water turf once a week with about 2.5 cm of water. This may not keep the turf from going dormant, but it will insure that it survives this dry period. Use an empty can to help you know when you have put on 2.5 cm. If possible, cycle irrigation to allow water penetration and avoid water runoff. Dry soils may not be able to absorb 2.5cm of water in one watering. Water turf in the early morning. This helps reduce water loss to evaporation and also helps minimize the development of diseases. Never set sprinklers to water pavement, driveways or sidewalks as this wastes water. For further information on irrigating during a water shortage visit www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/engineer/facts/99-023.htm
Golf course disease activity will slow down now that we have moved to cooler temperatures and less humid conditions. The diseases that will still be active are dollar spot, take-all patch, summer patch and anthracnose. There have been many problems on golf course greens that are not disease related, but that are a result of the high temperatures, root death of bentgrass and annual bluegrass because of high soil temperatures, etc..
Japanese beetle flights have tapered off now. European chafer grubs are slow to develop because it has been so dry. They eggs need to absorb moisture to develop from the egg to the first instar stage. The technical rep from Bayer believes that Merit applications at this time for grub control will still be effective because the grubs are probably developing more slowly due to the dry conditions. If Merit applications are still being made, it is advisable to water before and after the Merit applications.
Hairy chinch bugs are fully grown by now. At this point they have done the bulk of their damage. Most of the damage will be masked because turf is dormant. When the rains come later this summer and the turf fails to green up, it is probably because there has been extensive chinch bug feeding.
When turf is dormant it is best to suspend all cultural practices and fertilizer applications. Also as mentioned before, keep traffic off the dormant turf. When turf is dormant there is no need to mow. Even running a lawn mower over dormant turf can cause some damage. Let s keep our fingers crossed that we get some rain over the next week.
Again, thanks for phoning the Turf Agriphone for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. Aug. 17, 2001. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2001/turf-agrifax-week-18-2001-august-10th-2001.html#sthash.ODMCERsk.dpuf
