Weather
The tornados that touched down on Aug. 20th have left a lot of damage in their wake. May golf courses are still cleaning up after them. The forecast from now until Sept. 4th is for (you guessed it) cooler than normal temperatures and cool nights. The night time temperatures are starting to dip and that is a good indication that fall is on the way. This results in heavy dew formation that really favours dollar spot development. The long range forecast calls for lower than average temperatures and some rain brought on by Hurricane Danny this weekend. The rain is welcome because the turf is really starting to dry up now.
Diseases
Dollar spot continues to very active on non-treated areas of golf courses and on some home lawns and sports fields. There will be no new cases of summer patch developing now with the cooler temperatures but there will still be some lingering symptoms. Anthracnose basal rot is another possible disease that you will see in the next week or two. If you are observing symptoms that resemble yellow patch, it could be either yellow patch or possibly Waitea patch. There have been several confirmed cases of Waitea patch in Ontario this summer so far. It is favoured by long periods of leaf wetness (greater than 10 hours) and temperatures greater than the high 20’s, shade, still air, watering in evening and high fertility. It requires similar conditions to brown patch, but the symptoms resemble yellow patch. Now that temperatures have gone down there is less likelihood of encountering Waitea patch. On home lawns, golf course roughs, sports fields and sod farms, rust pressure is still very intense. It is quite spotty however with some fields full of it and then other neighbouring fields have none. Usually a light application of nitrogen will help the turf grow out of the rust symptoms. If you encounter a disease that you can’t diagnose, there is information on submitting a sample to the GTI Turf Diagnostics at the link.
Insects
There have been lots of reports of chinch bug activity over the last week. I have had a few calls about hairy chinch bug control with the cosmetic pesticide ban. There is no product that can be used to treat chinch bugs. Some suppliers are working with some lawn care companies to experiment with nematodes to control chinch bugs. I have not heard yet if they are having any good results with nematodes. In a week of two the hairy chinch bugs should be moving to their overwintering sites so there is not likely to be much more damage. European crane flies began flying here last week. Adult flights are still light at the moment. My gut feeling is that with all the wet weather in the spring and summer it could be a banner year for leatherjackets.
There are still a few cutworms lingering and doing some damage. Both European chafer and Japanese beetle grub development seems to be a couple of weeks behind this year. They are in the early first instar stage at the moment in the Guelph area. I have had a few phone calls from various areas of the province looking for advice on timing for nematode treatments against European chafer grubs. Based on scouting that we have done in the past week, I think we still have at least another two weeks in which to applyl nematode treatments. For those of you that have responded to my request for grub trial sites, we have found an ideal one and I want to give a big thanks to those that responded.
Weeds
Now is a good time to scout for crabgrass to make note of areas that should be treated in the spring with corn gluten meal. Areas with weed problems other than crabgrass can get the fall treatment with corn gluten meal which will target germinating winter annuals and it should be applied from mid-August to mid-September. Dr. Nick Christians, who was the first to discover the herbicidal properties of corn gluten meal has a very extensive site devoted to it. See the link. Broadleaf weed control treatments with Sarritor can begin now that the temperatures have cooled down. There is no rush. Providing the weather conditions are suitable, it can be applied into late September to early October and still give good results. I have heard that it is in good supply.
Cultural Practices
If turf hasn’t had an application of fertilizer, now is a good time to apply a balanced fertilizer. This will be helpful for any areas that have thinned from chinch bug feeding. It is also a good time to aerate and overseed and fall is the best time to establish new turf. With the cosmetic pesticide ban, we have to be smarter about timing turf seeding to help minimize weed seed germination. If seeding a new turf area now, most of the weeds will be winter annuals that will die out by the beginning of June next year. – See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2009/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-august-28-2009.html#sthash.YNPHYCZM.dpuf
