The turf is chillin'

I was at Oklahoma State University yesterday to give a couple of presentations at a tree workshop. ("Are you pining for healthy pines?" hah, clever, eh?? maybe not...). My OSU colleagues Damon Smith (plant path), Eric Rebek (entomology), and Mike Schnelle (hort) were great hosts and they also gave some excellent presentations.

But...

Just outside the door.... was the OSU turf research center, and I was excited to find this symptom (in the above photo) in some bermudagrass.

What is going on here?

This is a form of chilling injury. Chilling injury like this usually occurs when temps are between about 32 and 54 degrees. Symptoms tend to appear 24-48 hours after the chilling event. The bleached out areas are due to degradation of chlorophyll. Why the funky pattern? Nobody knows for sure, but it may have to do with small-scale differences in where the coldest air settles.

Ohio State has a collection of podcasts, and there is one that addresses chilling injury.

http://buckeyeturf.osu.edu/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,78/

Then, go to the December 2006 section of the archives (blue list on the right).

Or, go to this site:

http://buckeyeturf.osu.edu/profcast1/OSU_Turf_Podcast1.rss

And scroll down about halfway and you’ll see the file for Chilling Injury. You can click and either run it or download it to view later.