Weather
I think that most areas of southwestern Ontario and central Ontario received some very much needed rain over the past couple of days. You can already see some of the dormant turf bouncing back a little. There is some more heat and humidity in the forecast for the long weekend and into mid week next week. Any rain that is in the forecast is in the form of thundershowers. The one saving grace is that the night time temperatures are going to dip down below 20°C most nights.
It is a disease smorgasbord out there. There is dollar spot, brown patch, summer patch and anthracnose. I have not had any confirmed reports of Pythium blight, but I welcome any input from the field if anyone has had active Pythium over the past week. Luckily, the night time temperatures are going cooling down over the next week, so the risk of Pythium blight will go down. The rain and thundershowers though will bring on a rash of new summer patch symptoms. Also, most golf course turf is suffering from the heat stress, lack of roots and turf is not looking that great.
On home lawn turf, necrotic ring spot symptoms can still be seen. Rust has started to show up on perennial ryegrass in lawns and sports fields. Once things cool off a bit, a shot of nitrogen will help keep this disease in check. As with golf course turf, home lawn turf isn’t looking great. There is a lot of heat streaking/tracking caused by mowers, etc. driving on wilted turf. There is also lots of dormant turf and damaged turf that has been trafficked while dormant.
If you do encounter a turf problem that you can’t identify, you can always send a sample to GTI Turf Diagnostics. Information on this service is available on the GTI web site. You can also email them at diagnostics@guelphturfgrass.ca or telephone at (519) 824-4120 x 58873.
There is still a little bit of new damage from black turfgrass ataenius feeding. This really should slow down next week. Dr. Pat Vittum, University of Massachusetts is reporting wide spread damage from second generation annual bluegrass weevil. I am not sure what that means for us here in Ontario, but you may see some new damage to annual bluegrass from the second generation of this pest. There is some new cutworm activity this week also.
There is more Japanese beetles feeding going on again this week. Expect this to continue for a another couple of weeks. On golf courses, there is still time to apply a preventative grub control product to control Japanese beetle grubs this fall.
We did some post –treatment counts on our hairy chinch bug trial this week. The chinch bugs are developing quickly now and are mostly the third and fourth instar. This is a bit scary because there is already substantial damage and they will be feeding and developing into 5th instar and adults for at least two to three more weeks. Expect to see a lot of hairy chinch bug damage later this summer when the rains come and the grass greens up. Unfortunately there is no efficacious registered treatment for hairy chinch bugs in Ontario at the moment.
With the drought stress, dormancy and heat, now is not a good time to try to control broadleaf weeds. On the note of broadleaf weeds, this is just a reminder that only products with PCP numbers can legally be used to control weeds. Some companies are marketing iron based fertilizers that are not registered for use as herbicides. Little is know about the safety of these products on turf, especially at high temperatures like we have been experiencing over the past two weeks and continue to experience. Crabgrass is at the multi-tillering stage and putting out seedheads now. On golf courses it is too late to apply Acclaim Super.
During this unprecedented heat wave, refrain from all cultural practices except mowing. Increase the height of cut if possible. Cooling turf by syringing is helpful during the heat of the day to mid-afternoon. Some superintendents have reported that they have vented (punching holes to get oxygen to the roots) their greens several weeks ago and that is helping them get through the heat stress.
I appreciate the feedback. You can reach me by phone at (519-824-4120 x 52597) or by email at pamela.charbonneau@ontario.ca.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2011/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-july-29-2011.html#sthash.rGe4Bhbg.dpuf
