This is the 14th edition of the 2008 OMAFRA Turf Management Update recorded on Aug. 1.
The weather forecast for the upcoming week is for seasonal temperatures around the mid-twenties with some humidity building early in the week. There is more rain in the forecast for Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday. This June and July have surpassed the 1980 record for rainfall. This has resulted in some localized flooding in some areas. All the rainfall has had a huge effect on the turf. Many rootzones have been waterlogged, especially on heavy textured soils. In waterlogged soils, the pore spaces that normally have air in them are filled with water. Turfgrass roots need air to function properly and when air is lacking the plants will suffer. When you combine the wet soils with high soil temperatures the roots will die. We all know that a turfgrass plant can’t survive without roots. Some of the heavy rain events have been followed by clear skies and low relative humidity. These conditions just suck the water out of an already weak turfgrass plant. So, on golf courses, if your turf, especially your annual bluegrass isn’t looking so good, the wet soil conditions and high temperatures may explain that.
The rain and hot weather also has an impact on turf diseases as well. Summer patch continues to be a problem. The GTI Turf Diagnostics even had a sample from a sod farm with summer patch. Brown patch has slowed down with the lower relative humidity and relatively drier weather. Dollar spot has ramped up. The weather forecast for the next week will keep the dollar spot pressure up. Many golf greens are plagued with algae and moss at the moment because of all the rain. Expect algae and moss to start encroaching on the turf in any areas where the turf is thin.
The home lawn diseases that were active last week were rust, leaf spot and melting out and dollar spot. Still lots of mushrooms growing in thatchy homelawns because of all the rain. This is to be expected. The mushrooms grow out of the thatch and they don’t cause any turf damage. Mowing the turf frequently will keep the mushrooms in check. If you have any unknown turf problems, please contact the GTI Turf Diagnostics. Information on this service is available at the link below. You can email them at
diagnostics@guelphturfgrass.ca or telephone at (519) 824-4120 x 58873.
Japanese beetle flights have really slowed down over the last week. The ideal window for Merit applications targeted for European chafer and Japanese beetle is finished. If you plan to use nematodes for grub control the timing is late August to early September.
Because homelawns are nice and green for this time of year the chinch bug damage is very visible for a change. It starts as fist size patches in sunny areas of a lawn. In areas without a pesticide ban, hairy chinch bugs can be treated with deltamethrin or carbaryl.
We are starting to see the empty puparia (plural for puparium) from leatherjackets on the closely mowed turf here at GTI. This means that adult crane flies are emerging. At this moment, I am not sure what species are hatching. We will attempt to catch some adults over the next week and identify them. It is very early for European crane flies so I am expecting that it might be the common crane fly that is emerging. It has been another week of heavy black cutworm feeding on golf course turf. Turfgrass ants are a persistent problem on golf course turf as well.
A note on summer fertilization – during most summers un-irrigated turf is dormant for anywhere from 2-6 weeks. When that happens we don’t recommend summer fertilization. This year because it is so wet, turf could probably use an extra shot of fertilizer about now because of all of the growth during the month of July.
Crabgrass has been going crazy over the last few weeks. All the rain and heat provide the tropic like weather that is perfect for crabgrass. Most of the plants are too big to control with Acclaim. In a few weeks, it is a good time to scout areas for crabgrass and then treat those areas next spring with a pre-emergence herbicide.
Our GTI Turf Field Day is just a few weeks away. It is taking place on Aug. 21, 2008. Current areas of research that you can learn about include disease and insect biology and control, pesticide alternatives, evaluation of turf varieties, velvet bentgrass establishment and management, thatch management, irrigation scheduling, sportsfield overseeding and grassland ecology, to name a few. The program runs from 8:30 -1:00 with lunch included. For registration information follow the GTI Turf Field Day link below.
Thanks for calling the Turf Management Updates. This message will be updated on Fri. Aug 8, 2008.
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