Welcome to the “Turf Hotline” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the week of Aug. 11 – 18, 2000.
Back to more moderate temperatures now with daytime highs in the mid 20’s and nighttime lows in the mid teens. We did get almost daily showers this week and the forecast is for more of the same.
The summer diseases such as Pythium and brown patch will no longer be active with the cooler temperatures. Dollar spot still continues to be very active on golf course turf and home lawns. We have had a flare up of red thread here at GTI over the last few days with cooler weather and daily showers. Still lots of rust around. Rust likes cool wet conditions followed by hot conditions. It also likes turf that is stressed. To help control this disease, mow regularly and fertilize. Rust has been very severe this year giving many stands of perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass that orange/yellow tinge from afar. As nighttime temperatures begin to cool down, we could see some Fusarium patch activity starting up again. We have had very few reports of necrotic ring spot or take-all patch this week.
Japanese beetle flights continue to be heavy again this week. Most hairy chinch bugs are in the later nymph stages or are adults by now. There has been some damage, but it is much less severe than the past two summers. I have started monitoring for European chafer grubs. There are some first instar grubs around now. The young grubs are feeding anywhere from very near the surface to about 2.5 cm below the soil. In about one week curative treatments for grubs can begin here in the Guelph and surrounding area. Make sure to water the insecticides in as soon as possible after the treatments. The same holds true for nematode treatments.
Norm McCollum, the research plots superintendent at the GTI found some leatherjackets yesterday while harvesting some sod off the research plots. This is the first time we have seen leatherjackets in this area. If other turf managers are finding leatherjackets outside of the Niagara area, could give my office a call at (519) 824-4120 x 2597.
Anytime now, you can apply the first of the fall fertilizer treatments. This first treatment will help the turf recover from any summer damage (although there has been very little turf damage to speak of this summer).
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. The three choices of afternoon workshops are:
Problem Solving for Turf Managers
Turfgrass Disease Workshop
Effective Irrigation
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. Aug. 18, 2000. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2000/-turf-agrifax-week-20-2000-august-11-2000.html#sthash.FZHIysfk.dpuf
