Welcome to the “Turf Hotline” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the week of July 14-21, 2000.
We have had mainly dry weather this week with some thundershowers arriving last night. Daytime temperatures have been hot but so far the nighttime temperatures have been moderate. There was just a bit of drought stress showing up locally on non-irrigated turf late in the week, but the rain last night has alleviated that.
This week the conditions have been perfect for dollar spot. Leaf spot and “melting out” have been more of a problem this week because of the hot, humid conditions. The red thread has disappeared, but has been replaced by rust. The diseases such as take-all patch, necrotic ring spot and summer patch, which are most evident when we get drier hotter conditions, are starting to show up more now. These root diseases are most noticeable when we have high evapotranspiration rates. The impaired roots are not able to keep up with the evapotranspiration needs of the plants and the result is the dead ring of turf. Still more reports of anthracnose basal rot. Again, this disease is often worse after topdressing or verticutting. Wounding the turf provides an entrance into the turf plant for this disease organism. There are no fungicide controls for this disease. If we do continue to get hot weather there may be some brown patch showing up. Pythium will only be a problem if our nighttime temperatures climb to above 20°C, so stay tuned to the weather station.
The European chafers flights have been tapering off this week. Japanese beetles flights have begun now in the Niagara area. Black turfgrass ataenius grubs are causing some damage on collars and fairways now. This situation will be worse if we continue to have dry weather. Some very small hairy chinch bug nymphs have been reported. The young nymphs are bright red in colour. As they mature they turn brick red. They can usually be found congregating in the crowns of grass plants, so keep an eye out for this pest over the next couple of weeks.
There have been some late applications of broadleaf herbicides because it was difficult to get the treatments on earlier. These applications should be stopped now that we are getting in to hot weather.
As far as fertilizing turf, usually this time of year turf is dormant. With all the rain the turf is still growing and may benefit from a fertilizer treatment about now. This is especially true on sandy sites.
Again, thanks for phoning the hotline for this week. The next hotline message will be recorded on Fri. July 21, 2000. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2000/turf-agrifax-week-16-2000-july-14-2000.html#sthash.niCnMK2b.dpuf
