Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of April 20-27, 2001. This service will continue until mid-late September and the message will be updated weekly on Fri. mornings. For those of you who are interested in either a fax or an e-mail copy of this message, you can order the service by calling 1-888-466-2372 or you can obtain an order form from the OMAFRA web site at: www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/products/agrifax.html.
The grass did green up fast over the last couple of weeks, but mother nature has put things on hold due to the snow and the cold temperatures. There should be some improvement this weekend with temperatures in the mid teens. There is not too much that is new in the turf world this week, however.
Again, as far as the snow mould goes, a light raking or verticutting will help the snow mould scars dry out. Mowing will take off a lot of the dead leaf tissue. A very light nitrogen application will also help heal the snow mould scars. The Fusarium patch phase of pink snow mould will continue to be active for a long time yet, if we get cool wet weather. It may be wise to apply a fungicide application to keep the Fusarium patch in check this spring.
Now that the turf is green the voles damage has become very evident. These vegetarian rodents chew the grass blades down to the crowns during the winter under the snow. To help the runways fill in, rake the areas to remove the dead grass blades and put down a light application of fertilizer now. There also seems to be quite a bit of mole damage as well. The star nosed moles that are common in these areas leave mounds of soil just outside their exit holes. The moles are the ones that feed on insects and they seem to prefer beetles, white grubs and earthworms. They seem to prefer moist areas near streams and such.
It can’t be spring without mentioning spring grub control. The grubs are very large, which makes them much less susceptible to the insecticides. They are not feeding much and they are relatively inactive at this time of year. Two things that are needed for insecticides to work are the grubs need to feeding or moving around a lot in the soil to insure that they get good exposure to the insecticides. Spring grub control is not recommended. The recommended time for grub treatment with curative products is late summer, early fall. The other product Merit, which is registered for grubs is definitely not active against grubs in the spring. The timing for grub control with Merit is June or July. It would be wise to make note of customers or areas that have grub problems this spring and target them for a Merit application in the summer.
At this point in the spring, it is best to rake up areas where grub damage has occurred and re-seed the areas.. Sodding the damaged areas is also an option.
We are starting to see the forsythia blooming in some areas now. This is the signal that crabgrass will be germinating soon. It is time to think about those spring preventative crabgrass applications. We only recommend using these products in areas with a history of crabgrass. Remember not to apply these crabgrass products to lawns that have been reseeded because the products will prevent weed seeds from germinating, but they will also prevent grass seed from germinating.
Again, thanks for phoning the Turf Agriphone for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. April 27. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2001/-turf-agrifax-week-3-2001-april-23rd-2001.html#sthash.ge4F2ahO.dpuf
