Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This is the final message for the 2005 season.
Weather
We have had excellent weather for turf growth over the last couple of weeks. There has been adequate rain and warm temperatures and the turf has recovered very well. There is some chilly weather in store for the Thanksgiving weekend and then a return to more seasonal values.
Diseases
With the very cool nights Fusarium patch has become active. Fall control of Fusarium patch is a good way to help insure that you have less pressure from pink snow mould over the winter months. Dollar spot has been pretty active up until now, but you can expect it to slow down soon. Rust is finished for the season and there may be a bit of a flare up of red thread if we get some cloudy, rainy weather in the next week or two.
Preventative snow mould protection should be applied just prior to permanent snow cover.
A new disease – bentgrass dead spot- was confirmed in Ontario by Dr. John Kaminski of University of Connecticut. He did his PhD studying this disease. It has been named Ophiosphaerella agrostis. It affects creeping bentgrass on new greens on sand based root zones. The initial symptoms of this disease include small, purple-red clusters of leaves that turn tan and eventually die back to a 2.5- 8 cm dead spots When the disease is active the outer leaves of the spot have a reddish hue. The disease spots rarely coalesce and they develop into completely dead spots that resemble ball marks. If you examine the dead leaves they often contain fruiting bodies called pseudothecia. They are flask shaped and contain ascospores that are dispersed through wind and water. Conditions that favour the disease are full sun and dry weather. Dr. Kaminski has been doing some work on cultural controls and fungicide controls for this disease. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Kaminski coming to speak about his work on this disease at the 2006 Ontario Turfgrass Symposium which will be held on Feb. 20th and 21st at Rozanski Hall, University of Guelph.
Insects
There are only a few stray European crane fly adults flying now in the Guelph area. This year the flights were more drawn out than the last couple of years. The wet weather will probably help insure that the eggs that have been laid over the last few weeks and in the upcoming weeks will hatch. This is good news for us because we are going to be conducting some research trials this fall using nematodes to control leatherjackets.
The only other insect that could be problematic at this time of year are grubs. Damage on sandy areas has started to show up. This wet weather certainly helps to mask the damage. If you catch damage in the next week or two there is still time for a curative treatment with SEVIN T&O.
Weeds
Right now we are having perfect weather for broadleaf herbicide applications. The dry spring and summer thinned turf in many areas and the broadleaf weeds have taken hold nicely. Now is a good time to control the hard to control weeds such as creeping Charlie.
Moss on golf greens continues to be an ever increasing problem and it will very quickly colonize those areas that have thinned out from all the stress this summer. We are conducting a coordinated moss control trial here in Ontario and in British Columbia with the product Kocide 2000. Stay tuned this winter and spring for our results. The data from these trials will be used to support a minor use label expansion for Kocide 2000.
We have yet to have a hard frost in most of southwestern Ontario. You still have time to scout areas for potential crabgrass treatment next spring.
Late Fall Fertilization
The late fall fertilizer application in most parts of Ontario should be applied towards the end of October of beginning of November. The grass should be green, but no longer growing. At this point you are most interested in applying a quick release nitrogen source. For a review of the principles of late fall fertilization you can visit the link below.
Thanks for phoning the turf agriphone message for this week. As mentioned this is the final message for the 2005 season and I look forward to providing this service to turf managers again next year.
– See more at: https://lawnsavers.com/turf-hotline-2005/turfgrass-management-agriphone-for-october-3-2005.html#sthash.0k8dQqI1.dpuf
