Welcome to the 8th edition of the “Turf Management Report” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the week of July 5-12, 2010.
Past weather and the forecast for the upcoming week
Well, unless you have been out of the province, you know that it has been hot, getting hotter and getting more humid. Last week wasn’t too bad, but this week will be a challenge for people and turf. The heat is to stay with us until Friday. Night time temperatures are not going much lower than 20ºC until Friday and then the nights start cooling off to around 18ºC.
Disease activity
Over the last week, there has been some dollar spot on irrigated Kentucky bluegrass cut at 4-6 cm and this morning with the hot night there was a ton of aerial mycelium associated with the dollar spot on the research greens at GTI. With these temperatures and either night watering or thundershowers in the evening, we are setting up for the onset of the summer diseases such as brown patch and Pythium blight. There could also be some summer patch in your future. Brown patch rarely causes damage to greens in Ontario, so there is rarely a need to apply fungicide preventatively for this disease. Also, the hot spell is only set to last until Fri. If you do have greens with a history of Pythium blight, it might be warranted to apply a preventative fungicide application on those areas that have had Pythium blight in the past.
Weed control products
At this point in the season, it would be a good idea to suspend broadleaf herbicide treatments with Fiesta. I think the label says not to apply when temperatures are higher than 30ºC and it is definitely too hot for Sarritor also.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2010/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-july-6-2010.html#sthash.SQ9Rtiy0.dpuf
