Welcome to the “Turf Hotline” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the week of Sept. 8-15, 2000.
Lots of nice weather over the last week. More of it is in store for us over the weekend with highs in the mid-20’s and lows in the mid-teens. It is starting to get a bit dry in some areas so for probably the first time this year we could do with some rain. There is a chance of rain in the forecast for the next couple of days. I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to say that this year.
Necrotic ring spot and take-all patch symptoms are very visible again this week with more dry conditions. With the dry conditions, dollar spot is less of a problem at the moment. We will be starting to see Fusarium patch beginning to develop any time now once we get some cooler weather and especially cool, wet nights. With the good growing conditions, the rust symptoms are not as evident now and the grass seems to be outgrowing it.
On the insect front, the European chafer grubs continue to develop. They are mainly in second instar now. In some dry areas around the base of trees, the grub damage is starting to be noticeable. Japanese beetle grubs are developing quickly now, but surprisingly the adult Japanese beetles are still flying. Curative control for European chafer grubs can be done anytime now. For curative control for Japanese beetle grubs you should wait a while until the adults are no longer flying. Remember with grub control products that the products must be watered in to get down to where the grubs are feeding to have successful control. Crane fly adults are flying now in large numbers in the Niagara area. The adults look like big mosquitoes and they are landing on the turf now. The adults are also swarming on the sides of houses, buildings, etc. at the moment. The females will be laying their eggs at the moment and these will develop in a couple of weeks into small leatherjackets. The leatherjackets will feed on the crowns and leaves of the turf throughout the fall. If there are large numbers of adults visible at the moment, it might be advisable to spray in early October to control the leatherjackets. The other insect to look out for over the next couple of weeks is the sod webworm. When damage from this caterpillar does occur, it is usually toward the end of August to mid-September.
We are moving outside of the window for the first application for the fall fertilizer treatment. This should be done by mid-September. The second fertilizer application should be applied in late October or early November. Any seeding to be done this fall should be done soon also because the window for successful fall seeding is up until mid-September.
Fall broadleaf weed control should begin soon. These treatments can be made up until the first week in October, or as long as the weeds are actively growing.
This has been Pam Charbonneau. The next hotline message will be recorded on Fri. Sept. 15, 2000. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2000/turf-agrifax-week-24-2000-september-8-2000.html#sthash.lceDbuOg.dpuf
