Happy Chinese New Year and a Great Show in San Diego!

Last Sunday, Feb 14th was the start of the Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year 4708!). As far as the Chinese Zodiac goes, the Tiger represents power, courage and daring. As a result, the Year of the Tiger is supposed to bring a year of sucess or those who are bold and willing to take risks and show leadership. If you were born in 1902, 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, or 1998 - this year is supposed to be especially good for you.

If you're in the Bay Area - there's a number of New Year's related events going on in San Francisco, cluminating with the the SF Chinatown New Year's Parade next weekend on Feb 27: http://www.chineseparade.com/

Similar events in the West will be taking place in places like Los Angeles, Seattle and Honolulu.

If you just happen to be in Hong Kong for the New Year, you may want to visit this place:

But for some reason, these guys never seem to have the book you're looking for....

Mild in the West
The weather in the West is looking pretty mild. If you've been watching the Winter Olympics, you know that the temps have been in the 50s in the PNW - which should help with greens regrowth there in the aftermath of a number of winterkill events, and for California, it's been in the 60s and 70s with some showers here and there.

We're picking up some pink snow mold from California in the lab and brown ring (Waitea) patch has been reported as being active in a few locations, incuding our research green at UCR.



It's also about time for take all patch to start showing up on bentgrass in the West. Keep an eye out for reddish patches, rings and semi-circles popping up on your bentgrass greens.

Gabe Towers from Arizona sent in this picture of what looks like take all patch on bentgrass:




Great show in San Diego



It was definitely great to see all of the superintendents and fellow turf scientists in San Diego last week. Although the weather was a little colder than normal, it sure beat being snowed in in Washington DC!

As part of the educational events, I had the chance to help co-teach the Field Seminar & Tour with Larry Stowell and Wendy Gelernter from PACE Consulting.

We had over 150 superintendents from all over the world in our class and had the chance to tour four very unique San Diego locations: Torrey Pines Golf Course, Fairbanks Ranch Country Club, Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, and Petco Park. Jon Maddern, Brian Darrock, Tim Barrier and Luke Yoder did a fantastic job of showing our visitors some of the challenges of turf management in San Diego, including kikuyugrass, bermudagrass, seashore paspalum and annual bluegrass culture in southern California.

"This is your brain on kikuyugrass" Jon Maddern talks about kikuyugrass management at Torrey Pines Golf Course


Tim Barrier explains the agronomic challenges of growing annual bluegrass and non-overseeded bermudagrass fairways at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club


Luke Yoder explains the how to create the "home field adavantage" at Petco Park


Touring the greens at Fairbanks Ranch Country Club with Brian Darrock

Thanks again to Luke, Tim, Brian and Jon for hosting the event.

Ok - that's about it for the post today; there's been some other "interesting" things going on for me - but maybe I'll post on that one later or let John or Megan tell that story....

Until then, signing off from middle America in Eagan, Minnesota....