Welcome to the “Turf Hotline” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the week of Aug. 25- Sept.1, 2000.
We have had warm days and cool nights for the most part this week and the forecast is for more of the same. The daytime temperatures are creeping up a bit but the nighttime temperatures are staying cool in the mid teens. Lots of sunshine in the forecast for the next few days anyway.
Dollar spot activity has really fallen off last week with the drier weather on golf course turf and home lawns. Calls about rust are still coming in. 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. Lots of necrotic ring spot or take-all patch again this week with the slightly drier conditions. In spite of the drier conditions, anthracnose basal rot is still a problem.
Hairy chinch bug adults are still being found in the turf. In the next couple of weeks they should be returning to flower beds for the winter. Chinch bug damage occurred a little later than last year with some areas being hit fairly hard. The European chafer grubs are growing and some have reached early 2nd instar. They appear to be feeding just below the thatch now in most areas. Now is a good time for curative control if necessary. The insecticide choices at this time of year are chlorpyrifos, diazinon and carbaryl. The non-insecticide choice are the parasitic nematodes. Make sure to water the insecticides in as soon as possible after the treatments. The same holds true for nematode treatments. Japanese beetles are still flying. Postpone curative treatments for Japanese beetles until the adults have stopped flying for two weeks.
As far as fertilizing turf in concerned, anytime now you can apply the first of the fall fertilizer treatments. This first treatment will help the turf recover from any summer damage and green it up. With all the rain, the fertilizer that was applied earlier in the season has run out of steam. The second fall fertilization application can go on in late October – early November.
Now is a great time to seed new lawns or to seed damaged turf areas. Soil temperatures are still warm enough to get good seed germination at this time. It is also an excellent time for core aeration.
This has been Pam Charbonneau. The next hotline message will be recorded on Fri. Sept. 1, 2000. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2000/turf-agrifax-week-22-2000-august-25-2000.html#sthash.417ih6nc.dpuf
