This is the 20th edition of the “Turf Management Report” sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and it is for the week of Sept. 2 – 9th, 2011.
PLEASE NOTE: The Pesticide Recommendations in this report are meant for excepted uses (e.g. golf courses and sod farms) under the Cosmetic Pesticides Ban. Only the active ingredients listed under Class 11 pesticides in Ontario Regulation 63/09, can be used on home lawns, sports fields and other non-excepted uses.
It looks like mother nature is going to give us a last blast of heat on the Labour Day weekend with the humidex up in the 40’s for today and tomorrow. Then the cold front comes in on Mon. just in time for the kids to put those back to school sweaters on. From the Weather Networks long range forecast it looks like the daytime highs will be seasonal, but the nighttime lows will be above average. After the thundershowers this weekend, there is no rain in the forecast until the weekend after Labour Day. Rain has been spotty over the last week because it was mainly from thundershowers. I would expect that some areas are still dry.
There is a surprising amount of disease that is still active at the moment. There is still some anthracnose foliar blight, anthracnose basal rot, dollar spot and there might be a chance of brown patch flaring up on the weekend, but once the cool front moves in the brown patch will move out. Summer patch symptoms are easing with the cooler weather. Some take-all patch symptoms have developed over the past week.
There are still lots of necrotic ring spot symptoms around. Dollar spot continues to be very active on irrigated home lawn turf last week. Rust continues to be the big issue at the moment on sod farms, home lawns and sports fields. Rust infections occur during low light intensity when leaf surfaces are moist and temperatures are moderate – in other words an overcast, rainy day in summer. Optimal conditions for the growth and spread of rust is 20-30°C and turf that is growing slowly due to drought stress and low fertility. To help turf grow out of the rust symptoms, raise the mowing height, mow frequently, fertilize and if possible irrigate. Removal of clippings also helps but is not often practical.
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.
Black turfgrass ataenius adults are flying again. These are the second generation adults that will overwinter and come back into turf next year. European chafer and Japanese beetle grubs continue to develop. A sample come into the GTI Turf Diagnostics with a 2nd instar European chafer grub in it. This is still an ideal time to apply nematodes for grub control. Make sure that the area to be treated is well watered before the nematodes are applied. Do not store the diluted nematode mixtures for more than 3-4 hours. Apply on an overcast, cool day or apply in the early morning or early evening and water the nematodes in as soon as possible. There is a newly commercialized nematode species that has good host specificity for scarab grubs called Steinernema glaseri that might be worth investigating this season. We are outside of the window where the preventative grub control products will be efficacious. For more information on the biology of grubs follow the related link below.
Hairy chinch bugs are mostly adults now and the damage will not get any worse than it currently is. The cooler night temperatures will be driving the adults to their overwintering sites in the next couple of weeks. For more information on hairy chinch bug biology, go to the related links below.
From one last week to many this week, European crane fly adults are flying in the Guelph area now. Flights should continue for about 4 weeks and peak in about 2 weeks.
With the cooler, wetter weather and the resumption of turf growth, lawn care operators are starting their Fiesta treatments. This means that they can get a second application down if necessary at the end of Sept to the beginning of Oct. Just a reminder that only products with PCP numbers can legally be used to control weeds. Some companies are marketing iron based fertilizers that are not registered for use as herbicides.
Now is a time to reflect on the season that was and to try to remedy any problem areas that occurred this summer. The week in early August with temperatures in the high 30°’s and thundershowers tipped some turf over the edge. You can’t control the weather, but you do have some input on the other environmental factors that influence your turf. Now is a really good time to assess your growing environment, your infrastructure such as drainage, irrigation, shade issues, traffic issues and address those issues in the hopes of having better turf next year. There is a good article on the web that summarize the stresses that this summer brought on the Buckeye Turf site. It can be found at the related links below.
For those of you that are overseeding , the overseeding window in this part of the province (southwestern Ontario) is mid-August to mid-September. Ensure good seed to soil contact by raking bare areas. On larger properties and sports fields, core aeration or slit seeding will help insure seed to soil contact. Seeding rate for overseeding sports fields with perennial ryegrass should be 4 kg/100m2. It is essential to keep the seedbed moist. This may require watering up to 3 times a day until seeds have germinated and seedlings are well established. On non-irrigated sites the alternative is to let mother nature take her course and hope that we get some timely rains in early-mid September. After seedlings have been up for a couple of weeks, an application of fertilizer of 0.5 kg of nitrogen per 100m2 will help the seedlings get established.
The Sports Turf Association Annual Fall Field Day
The Sports Turf Association is holding their 24th annual fall field day on Thurs. September 22, 2011 in Oakville at Glen Abbey Community Center, 1415 Third Line, Oakville, Ontario. For registration information visit the STA web site at the links below.
I appreciate the feedback. You can reach me by phone at (519-824-4120 x 52597) or by email at pamela.charbonneau@ontario.ca.
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