More T's

Hello from a hot & humid Kansas.


I'm a bit out of the loop and catching up after being gone on my Tajikistan adventure last week. More on that below.


It was so humid this morning that, after spending the night in cool, crisp, air-conditioned comfort, my camera fogged up in protest when I tried to snap some photos. The other big news around here is the uncertainty of what is going to happen to the Big 12, with some of our neighboring institutions bolting for other conferences.


On the disease front, dollar spot is active and I had my first brown patch sample of the year.


Now that it is heating up, zoysia is filling in/recovering where large patch was active.

Nozzle adaptation: Do you use hand-held or backpack sprayers? Then, this pub’s for you.

Dr. Bob Wolf, our Application Technology Engineer, has completed a new publication about hand sprayer calibrations. It is based on his presentation at some certified pesticide applicator trainings (CPAT) last fall. You can access it here:

http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/ageng2/mf2915.pdf

The publication includes information on how to convert a simple hand-spray wand into a wand with a flat-fan nozzle. Why would this be useful? As you know, some of the flat-fan nozzles have drift-reducing technology which can help reduce problems if there is wind. So, if you are interested in flat-fans for hand-spray equipment and were not sure how to convert, you might find this useful.

In addition, there is a section that explains how to add a spray management valve (SMV) for better control of pressure and flow during spraying. Bob notes that SMV’s can be purchased from Gemplers and other such suppliers.

K-State Research Plots

Wednesday was my first visit to the Rocky Ford Turf Research Center for more than a week. Just like my home garden, where everything seemed to grow a foot or two while I was gone, things have changed a lot at Rocky Ford.

Large patch:

As you can see in the photo, healthy zoysia is starting to fill in at the centers of the patches. My PhD student Ken Obasa is using digital imaging to help track the recovery time of zoysia grass under different treatments. The size of the patches is one thing, but tracking time-to-recovery is an important component.

Dollar spot

I have 3 separate dollar spot trials this year, looking at various rates, timings, and active ingredients. In the photo above you can see a few dollar spot infection centers in an untreated plot.

Moss fertility study

The red dots here outline plots where we are examining the influence of different fertility regimes on moss development. MS student Cole Thompson works on this project as well as some other moss and dollar spot studies.

Zoysia sun/shade physiology

These are flats of zoysia that will be used for a sun/shade physiology study that Kenton Peterson will conduct as part of his PhD program. In fact, since Wednesday the plants are now in the ground. Why are some of the flats brown? There was a surprising reaction to an herbicide. Those plants are now replaced. Sometimes, in research, we find interesting and unusual things by accident. It is interesting how different varieties or crosses of the same species can have such dramatically different reactions to chemicals.

Kenton joined us a few months ago after completing his MS at Nebraska. We try not to hold his Nebraska background against him, though that may become more difficult if the Cornhuskers bolt for the Big 10.

More on the T's.

Frank did a great job sorting out all those DMI's that start with T.

Now, this doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but I was just thinking about another T earlier this morning. That would be, Mr. T.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rBidCkJxo

Last night, my brother sent me a link to Mr T's video of "Treat your mother right." "Mother, there is no other, so mother, treat her right, treat her right." I'm not sure if it can really be called "music" but it is interesting.

Maybe Mr. T can do a song about treating your turf right. I'd really, really love for that to happen.





And, one final T, for Tajikistan.

If you are curious about my trip, there is a brief overview here:

http://blogs.ksre.ksu.edu/ksuturf/2010/06/so-why-were-you-in-tajikistan/

There is a description, links to a few photos, etc.