Welcome to the “Turf Hotline” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the week of July 21-28, 2000.
We have had mainly dry weather this week after the thunderstorms and tornado that touched down in Guelph. Daytime temperatures ranged from seasonally cool to moderate, ranging from 18-25°C. Nighttime temperatures have continued to be cool with lows down into the low teens. There was just a bit of drought stress showing up locally on non-irrigated turf now and no rain in the forecast for most of the week.
Disease activity has been moderate. There is still some active dollar spot on creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass. Rust is very active on perennial ryegrass at the moment. Symptoms of necrotic ring spot and take-all patch are showing up because of the dry weather but these diseases are not nearly as prevalent or severe as they were last year.
European chafer flights have finished now in the Guelph area. Japanese beetles flights are continuing in the Niagara area. There are still reports that black turfgrass ataenius grubs are causing some damage on collars and fairways now. There are lots of hairy chinch bug nymphs around now. Most of them are in the 5th instar (white stripe is still visible). This is the time to control them with insecticide if numbers are warranted. There has also been a lot of bluegrass billbug damage reported. To identify bluegrass billbug injury, pull on the damaged leaf blades. If the pull out easily and there is frass present in the thatch, the damage has been caused by bluegrass billbugs. You may even see the white legless larvae in the thatch.
The annual GTI Turf field day is coming up on Tues. Aug. 22, 2000. There will be research plot tours in the morning, a barbeque lunch followed by your choice of one of the three one hour workshops in the afternoon. For more information you can call my office at (519) 824-4120 x 2597 or visit the GTI web site.
Again, thanks for phoning the hotline for this week. The next hotline message will be recorded on Fri. July 28, 2000. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2000/turf-agrifax-week-17-2000-july-21-2000.html#sthash.K8UMt7cI.dpuf
