Welcome to the “Turf Management Updates” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is for the week of Aug. 16-23, 2007.
Weather
The weather has just turned from hot, hazy and humid to clear skies, low humidity and high winds. Evapotranspiration rates will be very high for the next few days until the rain comes on Monday. These large fluctuations in evapotranspiration rates are very hard on the turf and hard on turf managers. Turf roots are probably at their shortest now and it doesn’t take much for the water in the upper turf profile to get depleted. The humidity will rise slowly over the week and we are expected to have at least one more dose of high humidity by Wed. and Thurs. next week. There was no significant rain in the province over the last week. I am sure that everyone is hoping that the rain in the forecast for Mon. does materialize.
I would like to give an update on the water situation in the southwestern part of the province. Things have not improved over the last week and in fact they have deteriorated. There has not been any significant rainfall in the past week. Many watersheds have from 20-40% of the normal rainfall. Many have issued level I low water response alerts which calls for a 10% voluntary reduction of water taking for large water users such as golf courses and sod farmers. More watersheds have moved to a level II low water response alert which calls for a 20% voluntary reduction in water taking. During these times when there is much attention paid to water takers, it is very important to have all the required paperwork in order, such as Permits to Take Water. The Ministry of the Environment may also be looking for water use records of each permit holder. It is also important that water takers follow water conservation principles during times like this.
Diseases
Diseases have not been much of a problem over the last week. The GTI Turf Diagnostics has found anthracnose and take-all patch. Summer patch is on the decline now with the cooler temperatures. Rust began last week and is mostly on perennial ryegrass, however I have seen some on Kentucky bluegrass in a sod field. The fluctuations between hot and humid and cool and dry weather have resulted in localized dry spots. The GTI Turf Diagnostics is ready and waiting to help you diagnose your turf problems.
Insects
Most hairy chinch bugs are adults now. It has been tricky on dormant lawns to detect any damage, so scouting for this pest becomes more important than ever. Bluegrass billbug damage is over for the year. In our monitoring, we are only finding adults now. We definitely are finding here in the Guelph area that the little bit of rain that we had almost two weeks ago has brought a lot of the turf out of dormancy. As a result, we now see areas of turf that have been damaged by both chinch bug feeding and bluegrass billbug feeding. There is still time to treat for hairy chinch bugs, but the bluegrass billbug damage has peaked and it is not recommended to treat the adults.
European chafer grubs are starting to develop now. We are finding the first instars at the moment. Leatherjackets are still in the larval stage, but we expect them to pupate sometime in the next two weeks.
Cultural Practices
If turf is being irrigated, it could probably benefit from a shot of nitrogen about now. Golf courses have either core aerated greens by now or are planning to core aerate in the near future. Most of the non-irrigated turf is still dormant and it is best to wait until it is actively growing again to apply fertilizer and herbicides.
Again, thanks for phoning the turf management update for this week. The next report will be recorded on Thurs. Aug. 23, 2007.
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