snow molds

First, my hypothesis is that the guy in Frank's post has chilling injury in his pants, not gray snow mold.

But, speaking of snow molds, we are starting to see some in this part of the world. We had an extended snow-cover that started in early Dec and as it has melted over the last 2-3 weeks pockets of snow mold have become apparent. I've been hearing about snow molds in golf courses but also in home lawns (particularly in low-maintenance lawns where the turf was very long and flopped over/matted down over the winter).

Since I have not received samples, I can't say for sure, but I suspect most of them are Microdochium (pink snow mold) since our snow-cover was probably not long enough for Typhula. And, even the pink snow mold is most prevalent on areas where the snow piled up extra deep, or in shady sites where melting was delayed.

John mentioned conferences, and though I am not the international-pathologist-of-mystery that he is, I did have the opportunity to participate in Nebraska's turf conference about two weeks ago. I talked about some of the work we've done at K-State with nozzles and dollar spot control.

While there I had some good conversations with Roch Gaussoin from U of Nebraska and Ty McClellan from the USGA. Ty and I have been playing tag to a number of turf conferences over the past few months--I've been running into him all over. Then, I also had a chance to meet my new turf neighbor Zac Reicher who is transitioning from Purdue over to the Cornhusker state.

And speaking of conferences, it is hard to believe that the GIS is coming up in just over a week. I'll be co-teaching a class with Frank and our colleague Phil Harmon on Monday. On Tuesday I'll be lending a hand at the "microscope class". I heard a rumor that Kaminski will be assisting in the microscope class too, but luckily my job description does not include keeping him in line :)