Weather:
There is coolish weather in store for the weekend and then the heat ramps up for Mon., Tues. and with the humidex it will feel like 32-34°C. Apart from thundershowers forecast for Tues., there is no rain in the forecast for the next week. We received about 20 mm of rain from Wed.-Fri. last week. It was much needed. Turf was starting to show the very early stages of drought stress. That is all but gone now and soil moisture levels are replenished in most areas now.
New dollar spot did not really develop last week. The prediction is that it will to be active this upcoming week. Even though we have some hot days coming next week, the night time temperatures are going to be coolish. This minimizes the risk of the summer diseases such as brown patch and Pythium blight developing. There may be some anthracnose foliar blight developing in the next couple of weeks. It is often a secondary or opportunistic disease that attacks stressed and weakened annual bluegrass. Cultural practices that reduce stress on annual bluegrass will help to minimize this disease. These include raising the mowing height, reducing mowing frequency, adequate nitrogen fertility and deep infrequent irrigation. Waitea patch will also still have a possibility of developing this week.
Things are setting up nicely for summer patch. The GTI Turf Diagnostics have found runner hyphae on annual bluegrass, but so far there are no disease symptoms associated with the runner hyphae yet. Hot humid conditions and thunderstorms usually bring on the disease symptoms. Although not a disease, many superintendents have been struggling with localized dry spots over the last couple of weeks. Aeration and application of wetting agents can be targeted on these areas. The recent rains will also help.
On home lawns leaf spot and melting out will continue to be a problem with the most recent rains and the warmer temperatures that are in the forecast for next week.
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.
European chafer adults are flying in many areas now. I have not had any reports of Japanese beetle flights yet and in fact there are reports of third instar Japanese beetle grubs still present on a few golf courses.
The annual bluegrass weevil damage is very evident now. I have had numerous emails and phone calls reporting damage from the later instars. I think the damage is almost over in most cases, based on the size of the larvae that I have seen (3-4 mm) as well as pupae in samples. There are quite a few reports of poor control with larvaecide treatments for annual bluegrass weevil. This has been the case throughout the Northeast US and Ontario. The weather conditions this spring made it difficult to apply insecticides (wet conditions, saturated soils). Also, when temperatures were hot one day and then cool for a week or two, it made it hard to predict when the adult ABW were migrating from their overwintering sites. If damage is severe from the first generation, an insecticide application on the hardest hit areas targeting the adults of the second generation might be warranted. The usual timing for this application in around July 4th. Soap flushes can be done to monitor for the adults in and around that time.
As far as black turfgrass ataenius are concerned, the adult flights seemed to be very late this year because of all the cold, wet weather. The adult flights ended about 2 weeks ago. The first instars will be showing up now and it takes roughly 2-3 weeks for the grubs to develop into 3rd instars (the damaging stage). I am predicting that BTA damage will probably peak in early July or slightly later.
On the home lawn front, hairy chinch bug nymphs have been reported from the field. This makes sense because the phenological indicator for peak egg laying of hairy chinch bug is full bloom of bird’sfoot trefoil and it is flowering at the moment. There also have been reports of turfgrass scale adults.
Clover, black medick and chickweed are in full flower right now on home lawns, golf course fairways, roughs and sports fields at the moment. The second wave of dandelion flowering is occurring. All broadleaf weeds are still actively growing and this is still an excellent time to apply a broad-leaf herbicide.
There has been a flush of crabgrass germination over the last week. It is now fairly widespread in many areas.
This will be the last reminder of the deadline for posting the golf course 2010 Annual Report– Pest Control Product Usage and associated maps. Both of these documents must be posted in a public area of the golf course and on the IPM Council of Canada website by June 30, 2011. Golf courses that submitted their 2010 desk reviews in paper form must obtain a user name and password for the Members Only portion of the website and upload their 2010 Annual Report and map before June 30, 2011. For more information, go to www.ipmcouncilcanada.org and click on the Members tab. There is also more information on the preparation and posting of the annual report in the Technical Guidance – Pesticides Act and Ontario Regulation 63/09 Golf Courses posted on the Ministry of Environment web site.
OMAFRA Pub 384 Recommendations for Turfgrass Management Supplement now available on line.
For 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 or email 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-june-24-2011.html#sthash.bfMYXZhe.dpuf
