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pythium and brown patch


July 3


Technically it’s a holiday here at K-State. There are a few intrepid graduate students around, and my wheat pathologist colleague stopped in to ponder a few of his own samples, but overall it is very quiet. I’ve been busy sorting through a few turf samples that came in yesterday afternoon, and feeling somewhat relieved that since KSU is closed, no new mail will come in today. I'm sure I'll pay for it with a double whammy next week.


Pythium blight is rare on putting greens in our region, but a case did pop up this week. The assistant superintendent said that the damage seemed to be following mowing patterns. And overall it seemed to have tracked in from the approach and greens surrounds. Mycelium is visible in the image below. They did not observe mycelium on site at the course, but after incubating in the lab overnight it popped right out and I id'd it with the microscope. The turf was very lush and green. I don't have the specific information on their fertilization, but overly high N can make turf more susceptible to this disease and that may have played a role here.




More Pythium blight is showing up in fairway height turf as well, including in one of our research trials as shown in the next photo. There is a slightly low spot in the middle that seemed to get hit. The Pythium area is in the middle-distance.



Brown patch is still on the rampage. I know this is a golf course blog, but I can’t resist posting a photo of my "favorite" brown patch lawn in my neighborhood.


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