Cooler Temps and Microdochium Patch

I waited until today to post this because I wanted to confirm the diagnosis, but Microdochium patch is now active in PA (and probably many other areas). The cool wet weather that we have had over the past few weeks has brought on a few cases of Microdochium patch on putting greens and tees.

I will refer you to Jim's post last week for more information on the disease and also to the Photo Gallery. The photo gallery is a great place to check out images from various diseases and they include both signs and symptoms of the disease.

Other than active Microdochium patch, many are in recovery mode from old dollar spot damage. Depending on your geographic location, you may even be fighting active dollar spot symptoms. Cooler temperatures, however, should mean that the end is in sight for this disease. For those in the mid-Atlantic region (Northern VA, Maryland, and the Philadelphia area), you may need to stay alert as moderate to severe dollar spot outbreaks occurred very late in the year in 2008.

The only other disease that I have seen in abundance in the field is lingering cases of rust on perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass. At one regional golf course, the roughs had been thinned out some by the disease. However, the real trouble were the complaints from the golfers about the orange "stuff" on their shoes. Had I been there to hear the complaint, my comment may have been "You're not supposed to be in the rough anyway."