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 27-May 4, 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.
The grass is growing fast and furious now. This is the time of year when keeping up with mowing is one of the greatest challenges.
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 good growing weather has helped the scars heal and many of them have green grass recovering in the centres of the scars. The Fusarium patch phase of pink snow mould is still very active. You can tell by the bronze outer ring on the pink snow mould scars (Figure 1). It is probably wise to apply a fungicide application to keep the Fusarium patch in check this spring. As long as we have cool weather, rain, heavy dew and cool nights Fusarium patch will remain active.
Vole damage is starting to recover (Figure 2). 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.
The spring grub calls are tapering off. 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.
Early cultivars of forsythia are blooming in the Guelph 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. The newer products like Dimension do not need to be watered in to be affective. 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. For Dimension, you must wait 3 months before reseeding.
There is a lot of winterkill this spring on stands of perennial ryegrass (Figure 3). We have an area here at the GTI where there was a thick ice layer in the late winter and the whole area is dead. I suspect that the same may be true for some perennial ryegrass sports fields and home lawns.
Now is a good time for core aerating turf. It is best to aerate when soil is neither too wet or too dry. Now is also a good time to overseed areas that have been damaged by snow mould or winter injury. Turf that did not get a late season fertilization would probably benefit with a light nitrogen application right now.
Again, thanks for phoning the Turf Agriphone for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. May 4. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2001/turf-agrifax-week-4-2001-april-27th-2001.html#sthash.Pw8D3MLD.dpuf
