Welcome to the “Turf Agriphone” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of Sept. 16-23, 2005.
Weather
The five day forecast shows a fair bit of rain. This is certainly not a bad thing and it is what we expect for this time of year. Temperatures are also forecast to be seasonal. The rain will be good for any new seedings and any renovated areas.
Diseases
The rain over the last few days and the rain that is predicted to fall over the next week or two will keep dollar spot active. There was a big flare up of it after the rains on Wednesday. The weather that is in the forecast will also get Fusarium patch underway for the season as well. If conditions continue to be wet, you may also see some yellow patch. There have been reports of fairy ring as well.
There is still a lot of rust around. As I mentioned, it started much later this year than last year. At the moment, it is only the perennial ryegrass that is affected. The rain should help it recover and a little shot of nitrogen will also help. It is mainly a nuisance disease that does not cause any lasting turf damage. The rain may also result in some red thread on perennial ryegrass and fine fescues.
Insects
We are already starting to see a slow down in European crane fly adult flights. There were many fewer this year here at GTI than there were last year. This 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. It might not be a banner year for leatherjackets this fall, but I think that the populations will be higher than last fall and spring. This is good news for us because we are going to be conducting some research trials this fall using nematodes to control leatherjackets.
This is traditionally the time that we start to see damage from sod webworms. The species that we have here in Ontario feeds at the thatch/turf interface and the turf can easily be lifted to reveal the caterpillars. A 4 liter solution of water with 15mls of dishwashing soap can also be use to monitor for them. Just pour this on to about a 0.1m2 area. A new biorationale product called Success is now registered for control of sod webworms.
It is still pretty quiet on the grub front. Conditions were pretty dry when the European chafer adults were laying their eggs. It is possible that grub numbers will be down. There are reports from Dr. Pat Vittum from University of Massachusetts that the adult beetles in her area held on to their eggs until the rains returned. She is predicting that there will be some grubs that overwinter as 2nd instars and feed all next year. I don’t know if we will see this phenomenon here in Ontario. I did not see a European chafer adult beetle much past the end of July, so I don’t believe that we will see this situation in Ontario. On the grub front, if anyone is finding and small 1st or 2nd instar European chafer grubs, my colleague Jen Llewellyn is looking for some that she can harvest and put into nursery containers for a nematode trial. If you come across a large area of grub infestation, I would appreciate a call and she can come out and harvest some of them for you.
Weeds
We are now in the ideal window for broadleaf herbicide treatments for all those areas where the turf thinned and the weeds have taken over. Both the grass and the weeds are actively growing and you should get good results.
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.
You still have time to scout areas for potential crabgrass treatment next spring. Crabgrass plants will keep growing until we get a hard frost.
Cultural Practices
Golf greens that were aerated a few weeks to a month ago have recovered nicely. As I mentioned earlier, these rains will be good for newly seeded areas or overseeded areas.
This is pretty much the last week were you can apply the first application of your fall fertilizer. The second application should be timed for roughly late October to the beginning of November and the rates for both applications should be roughly .5kg of N/100m2.
Thanks for phoning the turf agriphone message for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. Sept. 23, 2005.
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