Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of May 12-19, 2006.
I think that all areas of the province received a lot of rain over the last two days and there is a bit more in the forecast for the Mother’s Day weekend and for next week also. The forecast is for cooler weather also. This is a welcome relief though because it was becoming very dry. Golf courses have had to irrigate over the last couple weeks which is virtually unheard of for this time of year.
Diseases
For the third week in a row, the only disease that was diagnosed at the GTI Turf Diagnostics was take-all patch. It is quite feasible that the disease was active last fall and earlier this spring when conditions were wet. Symptoms are showing up now because it has been so dry. The infected roots aren’t able to keep up with evapotranspiration rates and hence the early symptoms. Unfortunately, in Ontario, there is no fungicide that is currently registered for use on take-all patch. There are some cultural practices which can help with this disease. They are:
· Fertilize with acidifying fertilizers such as ammonium sulphate and avoid nitrate forms of nitrogen.
· Make sure that phosphorus and potash levels are adequate.
· Reduce thatch and promote deep rooting by aerating.
· Avoid excessive irrigation.
· If soils are low in manganese, apply manganese in April or October at a rate of 2.2kg/ha annually.
Since temperatures are still cool, manganese can be applied during early May. The manganese should be applied in high spray volumes to get the manganese below the thatch. See the link below for more information on rates, manganese sources and timing.
The rain will probably cause a flare up of Fusarium patch. There could also be some yellow patch (also known as cool season brown patch) and anthracnose basal rot. There has been active dollar spot in the Windsor and Ottawa area and it will be coming to a golf course near you soon. The phenological indicators for the onset of dollar spot are iris and peony full bloom and full to late bloom of lilacs. So far they are not in flower yet in the Guelph area, but will be soon. Once we do get all the rain that is in the forecast and the temperatures heat up, you can probably expect to see dollar spot starting. Some annual bluegrass samples are coming into the GTI Turf Diagnostics have had runner hyphae on the roots. This is an indication that summer patch is starting to infect annual bluegrass at the moment. Symptoms will not develop until mid summer. This is the time for preventative applications for summer patch. If you had problems last year with this disease, you may want to treat preventatively for it now. Consult OMAFRA Publication 384, Recommendations for Turfgrass Management for products and rates for summer patch. You can obtain ordering information by following the related links below. If you do have disease samples that you want diagnosed, you can send them to the GTI Turf Diagnostics. Information on this service is available at www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/turf_diag.
Insects
The heavy rains over the last few days (May 11 and 12) probably flushed leatherjackets out of home lawn turf and into driveways, etc.. If you are in the lawn care business, expect to start getting calls soon. Leatherjackets are beefing up now and if damage is going to show up, it will probably be in the next month or so. We have also had reports from the Muskoka area of leatherjackets on a golf course up there. To my knowledge, this is the first time that they have been reported up there. The good thing about golf courses is that the leatherjackets are very visible first thing in the morning when you are mowing greens, so it easy to know if you have them. If you do have leatherjackets, consult OMAFRA Publication 384, Recommendations for Turf Management for control options.
I am still looking for adult crane flies. We are interested to find out if we have the common crane fly (Tipula oleracea) here in Ontario. It has been reported in British Columbia, New York State and Quebec. So far we have not confirmed if it is present in Ontario. It can be distinguished from the European crane fly by its life cycle. Adult common crane flies fly in April and May. If you are seeing some adult crane flies this spring, please let me know and I can arrange to get a sample from you.
All of the overwintering insects that infest turf have been on the move over the last two weeks. This is considerably earlier than normal. There have been heavy flights of black turfgrass ataenius over the last couple of weeks. We have just started to see annual bluegrass weevil here at GTI. Monitoring for these adult insects can be done with a soap flush that is used for Lepidopteran pests such as cutworms. A 4 litre solution of water and 15-30 mls of dish washing liquid on a 0.1m2 area of turf is recommended. Another technique that works for annual bluegrass weevil is to submerge a golf course cup changer plug in a bucket with 1 L of water and 2/3 cup of table salt. Merit treatment for black turfgrass ataenius can begin anytime now. Annual bluegrass weevil can be treated when forsythia are half gold and half green. Consult OMAFRA Publication 384, Recommendations for Turfgrass Management for products, label rates and directions for control. For ordering information follow the link.
Weeds
On the weed front, forsythia is in late bloom in the Guelph area. The soil temperatures have been warm enough for crabgrass to germinate, but the limiting factor has been moisture. Now that we have received rain, it won’t be long before it germinates. If you are planning on using one of the corn gluten meal products, it should be put down now. If you are planning on using Dimension there is probably still a 2-3 week window left. Dimension can be used up to the 1-3 leaf stage before tillering. We encourage that pre-emergence crabgrass products only be used in areas with a history of crabgrass infestation.
As far as broad leaf weeds are concerned, after the next few days of rain it will be a good time to start the broadleaf herbicide treatments. The ideal time for dandelion control is when they are in the puffball stage.
As far as fertilizing is concerned, it is still a bit too early. We usually recommend to wait until late May before you apply your first fertilizer application for the season.
Again, thanks for phoning the turf agriphone message for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Friday May 19.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2006/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-may-12-2006.html#sthash.9sPlwScx.dpuf
