Weather
From the 7 day forecast it looks like the temperature and humidity will be high as of tomorrow and there are thundershowers in the forecast for Mon. July 11th. That night the low is above 20°C, but the rest of the nights will be cooling down the mid teens.
There has been a little bit of dollar spot over the last week, but nothing to write home about. It has virtually been a disease free week on most golf courses. The hot weather that was predicted last week did come, but there wasn’t the high humidity associated with it and it wasn’t super hot or humid at night – hence no disease. This week’s forecast leads me to believe that there won’t be much disease in store next week either. There may be a bit more dollar spot, but that is probably it. Water management now is critical for all disease development. Keeping greens on the dry side will go a long way to help prevent brown patch, Pythium blight and summer patch.
On home lawns necrotic ring spot symptoms are popping up like crazy. Overseeding with perennial ryegrass and using an acidifying fertilizer will mask this home lawn disease.
GTI Turf Diagnostics has had lots of samples with no pathogen detected, so the cause is aboitic/stress related. Some roots have summer patch runner hyphae on the roots, but no full blown symptoms yet. 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.
After my message last week I received 2 emails from the Niagara region reporting the first flights of Japanese beetles. European chafer adults have been flying now for a couple of weeks. On golf courses and sod farms, this is the ideal time to apply a preventative grub control product to control the next generation of Japanese beetles and European chafer in areas that have previously had grub damage. For home lawns with high adult beetle flights, plan to apply nematodes in mid- August through to early Sept.
On golf course, black turfgrass ataenius damage could show up anytime now, especially with the hot, dry weather that is in the forecast.
Hairy chinch bugs are developing quickly now. They love all of this hot, dry weather. There are reports of chinch bug damage showing up from the field. We are a few weeks away from bluegrass billbug damage.
Things are getting dry out there. Lots of turf is experiencing moisture stress. Most broadleaf weeds will be experiencing some moisture stress over the next week on non-irrigated lawns and temperatures are getting in the high range for the application of Fiesta.
There is no stopping crabgrass now in home lawns. I will just love the heat that is coming. On golf courses there is still some time to apply a post-emergence crabgrass control product.
OMAFRA Pub 384 Recommendations for Turfgrass Management Supplement now available on line.
Products registered to control pests on turf in Ontario are listed in OMAFRA Publication 384, Turfgrass Management Recommendations. The 2011 Supplement, which lists pesticide products that have received registration over the last two years, is now available on line. 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-8-2011.html#sthash.iHUi5crk.dpuf
