Welcome to the “Turf Hotline” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the week of May 19- 26, 2000. There is still time to subscribe to the “Turf Hotline”. You will receive a copy of each message weekly by e-mail or fax for $25 for the season. If you are interested, please give my office a call at (519) 824-4120 x 2597.
We have had cool wet weather over the last week. Some areas north of Toronto today are getting snow flakes instead of rain. The heavy rain and winds around Mother’s Day caused extensive damage to many golf courses, with trees down, bunkers washed out etc.. This rain has been great for newly seeded areas. There hasn’t been a need to irrigate these areas.
There is still a lot of Fusarium patch activity because of the rain and the cool night temperatures. I expect this to continue as long as the temperatures remain cool. The symptoms this time of year are very small rust to brown coloured spots. When there are lots of them it looks like someone splattered rust paint on the bentgrass and annual bluegrass. This disease on bentgrass is often mistaken for leaf spot. With all the rain, leaf spot is active on Kentucky bluegrass. No melting out to date because we haven’t had warm enough temperatures.
Still more reports of June beetles flying. You can expect the European chafers to be pupating now. Expect adult flights to start in a couple of weeks. There are still some reports of cutworms on greens this week. Turfgrass scale adults are laying eggs now. These are enclosed in a cottony mass. Black turfgrass ataenius flights have slowed down with the cool weather. For curative treatments, look for small grubs when the roses are in full bloom.
Crabgrass started germinating last two weeks ago. After all this rain, when the tempertures get warmer, expect another flush of crabgrass. With Dimension you can apply until the crabgrass is in the 1-4 leaf stage. Do not apply Dimension to newly seeded areas.
Now is the time for broadleaf herbicide applications. For the hard to control weeds like creeping charlie, speedwells, wild violets and henbit it is best to apply the herbicide while these weeds are flowering. With prostrate knotweed, it is best to apply the herbicides while the plants are still young.
Now is still a good time to apply a spring fertilizer treatment to turf that received a late fall fertilization. A 4-1-2 ratio is a good overall ratio for turf at this time of the year. Turf that has been recently fertilized is growing rapidly with the rain. Keeping up with mowing will be a big challenge.
The 2000 edition of Turfgrass Management Recommendations put out by the Ministry is now available for only $10. It has all the new pesticide recommendations in it as well as information on turfgrass fertilization, turf species, seed companies, etc.. To order your 2000 edition of Publication 384 you can telephone the OMAFRA head office at 1-888-466-2372 or call the GTI at (519) 767-5009.
We are offering our third annual turf disease diagnosis workshop on July 11 or July 12, 2000. We will start the day with a session in the field identifying turf diseases. We will move into the lab for the rest of the day to identify the diseases under the microscope. The limit is 20 people per day and the cost is $249. If you are interested in this workshop, phone my office for registration information at (519) 824-4120 x 2597.
Again, thanks for phoning the hotline for this week. The next hotline message will be recorded on Fri. May 26, 2000. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2000/turf-agrifax-week-8-2000-may-19-2000.html#sthash.FybQaCI8.dpuf
