Welcome to the “Turf Hotline” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the year 2000. This message is being recorded for the week of April 14 – April 21. This service will continue until mid-late September and the messages will be updated weekly on Fri. mornings. For those of you who are interested in either a fax or an e-mail copy of this message, you can order the service by calling my office at (519) 824-4120 x 2597 or you can obtain an order form from the OMAFRA web site at: www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/products/agrifax.html.
Last week’s weather was closer to winter weather than spring weather, but let’s hope that that is all behind us now. The forecast for the next few days is temperatures in the mid-teens.
With the return of more seasonal weather you can expect the secondary pests that feed on grubs such as raccoons, skunks and starling to get active again. I know the damage is unsightly, but remember the raccoons and skunks are eating grubs which means you will have fewer grubs reaching maturity to infest your turf this summer and fall. Again, spring grub control is not recommended. Damaged areas can be reseeded in early to mid-May. Make sure that you get good seed to soil contact and keep the newly seeded areas moist. Sodding is also another option. Sod growers have not been able to harvest sod yet, but they should be harvesting in the next week or so.
Another insect that will become active shortly is the leatherjacket. Again, this insect has been found mainly in the Niagara peninsula. The leatherjackets are 1-2 cm in length and they are a greyish brown colour. They feed on turf leafs and crowns mainly at night. We are trying to track the spread of this pest, so if you are encountering them could you please give my office a call at (519) 824-4120 x 2597.
Forsythia is blooming in spite of all this cold weather. Pre-emergence crabgrass control should go down in the next 3 weeks in the southern part of the province. Remember with Dimension that you can apply until the crabgrass is in the 1-4 leaf stage. Do not apply Dimension to newly seeded areas.
There has been some Fusarium patch activity and yellow patch activity over the last week with the return of cold temperatures. As temperatures warm up these two diseases should slow down.
A pesticide company is looking for sites to test a product for both European chafer control as well as hairy chinch bug control. If anyone know of sites that are infested with both these pest could you please give my office a call at (519) 824-4120 x 2597.
The 2000 edition of Turfgrass Management Recommendations put out by the Ministry is now available. It has all the new pesticide recommendations in it as well as information on turfgrass fertilization, turf species, seed companies, etc.. To order your 2000 edition of Publication 384 you can telephone the OMAFRA head office at 1-888-466-2372 or call the GTI at (519) 767-5009.
Again, thanks for phoning the hotline for this week. The next hotline message will be recorded on Fri. April 21.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2000/-turf-agrifax-week-3-2000-april-14-2001.html#sthash.7go4GjDB.dpuf
