Weather forecast for the upcoming week
For the last message, I said we had May weather in April and April weather in May. Now I think we have July weather in May. It has been a crazy spring. The heat wave that we are currently in is only set to last until the end of the month. Starting on June 1st temperatures are forecast to be more seasonal with highs in the low 20’s. The heat wave has been stressful, but the great thing is that the night time temperatures are still cooling off. This is much less stressful to the turf than hot days and hot nights. The heat wave has warmed up soils quickly now and this has helped the new seedings on golf courses with winter injury. The key there is to keep the soil moist for the new seedlings. Progress has been slow on greens that were injured, but it is important to keep in mind how far the greens have come since mid-March.
Ontario IPM Accreditation for Golf Courses
As you know the IPM accreditation program for golf courses became mandatory as of April 22, 2010. The final versions of the desk audit forms that are required are now posted on the IPM Accreditation program web site. Follow the related links below to view the most up to date forms
Disease activity is heating up
Erica Gunn and Dr. Brenda Nailor have spotted dollar spot at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute on Wed. May 26. This is the earliest that it has been found. It is early days, but if the thunder storms strike your golf course, it is likely that the dollar spot will take off. Other disease reports from the field over the last two weeks include some anthracnose basal rot. The soil temperatures are in the range now for preventative applications for summer patch control. On areas with a history of summer patch it is advised to treat preventatively when the soil temperatures are above 16ºC at the 5 cm depth for four consecutive days. As part of your scouting in the IPM program you should be monitoring your soil temperatures so you should have this information at your fingertips. The GTI Turf Diagnostics has received samples with Pythium root dysfunction, take-all patch and Waitea patch over the last two week period. If you are encountering diseases that you can not diagnose, please send a sample to the GTI Turf Diagnostics. You can email them at diagnostics@guelphturfgrass.ca or telephone them at (519) 824-4120 x 58873.
We are seeing lots of localized dry spots at the moment. The onset of the hot weather just in time for the Victoria Day long weekend resulted in a lot of turf drying out very quickly. Localized dry spots can sometimes be confused with turf diseases. Localized dry spots are easy to verify. Just cut a sample of turf out of a suspected localized dry spot. If the turf below is dry as a bone then a localized dry spot has developed. To re-wet, apply a wetting agent according to the label directions.
Annual bluegrass weevil, BTA and other things insect-like
No doubt with the hot weather now we are probably only a week or two away from seeing the first of the annual bluegrass weevil damage. At this point treatment with Acelepryn will no longer be effective at controlling the first generation of annual bluegrass weevil.
BTA peak adult flights occurred last week, but the flights have been drawn out over a long period of time this year. This makes it hard to determine when the peak damage will occur. I expect that we won’t see the peak damage until mid-late June, but I will keep you posted.
Turfgrass ants are very active at the moment. In fact, if there is a pesticide company looking to do a trial on turfgrass ants, we could definitely do one here at GTI. Research has shown that treating the periphery of the green and a 10m swath just outside the green is an effective spot treatment for greens that have an ant problem. Dr. Harry Niemczyk has a good article on the turfgrass ant behaviour and its control. Be aware, however, that many of products that he recommends are not available to us inCanada at this time.
Leatherjackets are still feeding at the moment. Leatherjacket feeding will only continue for another couple of weeks. If you don’t see damage now, it is unlikely that you will see any this season.
I have seen quite a few June beetles in my travels over the last week. Again, as with almost everything this year, it is earlier than we usually see them. Currently, there are no insecticides registered for control of June beetles in Ontario.
For products registered to control insects on turf in Ontario refer to OMAFRA Publication 384, Turfgrass Management Recommendations.
Weed control products
Fiesta™, the new iron chelate has been available for a couple of weeks now. The field results seem to be quite favourable. Fiesta can be used in temperatures up to 30ºC. It will be interesting to hear if there have been any adverse effects on turf sprayed with Fiesta this week with the hot temperatures. If anyone out there has been applying Fiesta this week and has experienced any adverse effects, please let me know so that I can report them next week in the updates.
I have seen lawn care companies out applying Sarritor over the last couple of weeks. I have not had any feedback to date on the efficacy of the spring applied Sarritor treatments.
We are now in the ideal window for that first spring applied fertilizer application. The temperatures for the upcoming week will be ideal and hopefully the soil moisture has been replenished by some thundershowers this weekend. At the latest, there is supposed to be rain next weekend.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2010/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-may-27-2010.html#sthash.BrbqTNdC.dpuf
