Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of June15-22, 2001.
Hot, hazy and humid pretty much describes our weather at the moment. The forecast is for cooler temperatures on the Father’s Day weekend. The good thing about the hot weather, is that it is still cooling down below 20° C at night. This minimizes the chances of diseases such as Pythium and brown patch developing. There is a possibility that there is some anthracnose foliar blight developing out there. We have seen the very first dollar spots on our greens here in Guelph. It will probably start to be very active with all this hot weather. On home lawns, there is just the usual leaf spot. There has been some melting out reported with the onset of this hot weather. There has also been some red thread reported after all the rain and before all the hot weather.
More reports of small ataenius grubs coming from the southwest. We also have seen some black cutworm damage. We are starting to see signs of pupation from the European chafer grubs. I have had quite a few phone calls already about when to use Merit. The recommendation is to apply Merit anytime in June and July. Because the product has such a long soil half life, you don’t have to worry too much about exact timing. Merit applications can start anytime now. I would suggest that the best time however, is around peak adult flights which is usually July 1.
We are still seeing hairy chinch bug adults, but no nymphs yet. My summer student Meghan will start weekly monitoring for chinch bugs this coming week. We will keep you posted on when we start to see this season’s nymphs developing.
With all this hot weather, post-emergence herbicide applications should be winding down. With this extreme heat there may be some phytotoxicity from herbicide applications or some burning from fertilizer applications. During this extreme heat it is best to suspend all applications. Luckily, the weather is supposed to be turning slightly cooler on the Father’s Day weekend.
The crabgrass here in Guelph is tillering, it is best to move to Acclaim Super now for crabgrass control.
Again, thanks for phoning the Turf Agriphone for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. June 22,2001. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2001/-turf-agrifax-week-10-2001-june-15th-2001.html#sthash.njleLAzV.dpuf
