Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the period of Aug.18-25, 2006
The temperatures over the last week have been fantastic for turf and for people too. There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow and things are starting to dry up and the rain would be welcome. More moderate temperatures are in store for us for the next week.
Diseases
Disease development this week was the same as last week. There will most likely be more take-all patch symptoms developing with the clear skies and the high evapotranspiration rates. Daily light syringing will help mask the symptoms. Remember also that roots are very shallow at the moment so it is unlikely that turf is drawing moisture from the entire root zone. Because of this there could still be some turf loss over the next week or so due to root loss. Dollar spot will also be very active again this week. There is more rust again this week. Usually a shot of nitrogen will help the turfgrass plants grow out of the symptoms.
Insects
Hairy chinch bug damage appears to have peaked. There is still time to treat if large numbers of chinch bugs are observed. European crane flies haven’t started to pupate yet. We are probably a month away from peak adult crane fly flights in the Guelph area. We are again seeing lots of pecking damage on greens because of starlings looking for leatherjackets in golf greens. The late first and early second instar European chafer grubs are developing now also.
Weeds
Now that the tropical conditions have passed there will be no new crabgrass germinating. That doesn’t help the situation for the crabgrass that is already there. Any turf areas that were thin have been almost taken over by crabgrass. Many lawns instead of the nice dark green colour are lime green. In many of them, there is more crabgrass than Kentucky bluegrass at the moment. At this point, make note of the infested areas and treat preventatively next spring for crabgrass.
Cultural Practices
As I mentioned earlier, it would probably be a good idea to apply some nitrogen in the next week or two. With the cooler temperatures, turf is going to go through a flush of growth as long as water isn’t limiting. This is the first step in the fall fertilization program. Now is also an excellent time to overseed damaged turf areas.
GTI Turf Research Field Day
Our GTI Turf Research Field Day is coming upon us quickly on Thurs. Aug. 24th, 2006. This is a big year for us with two new turf faculty (Dr. Eric Lyons and Dr. Katerina Jordan) conducting research at the GTI site. There are also many product evaluation trials to see as well as moss control research, beet juice extract research to mention a few. It is definitely a must see if you are a turf manager. There is information about the field day on the GTI web site. See the related link below.
Again, thanks for phoning the turf agriphone message for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. Aug. 25th, 2006.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2006/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-august-18-2006.html#sthash.t71QJwT4.dpuf
