Large patch season slowly on the rise

Hello from Kansas,

I've been slacking a bit in my postings the past 2 weeks. I have had some travels and some other things going on. The ornamentals side of my personality was pretty excited to host Margery Daughtrey, the ornamentals pathologist from Cornell, for a few days here at KSU last week to talk about new diseases in the greenhouse world.

AND, it's been fairly quiet on the diagnostic side of things, turf and otherwise.

My travels, a much-needed couple of days off, led me to Colorado for some vigorous, stress-relieving hiking at Rocky Mountain National Park, with nearly 50 miles of trails under my boots by the time we came home. While there, I learned that this:



.... was once a golf course. The park employee said that when the land got converted over to a national park, they excavated the old putting greens and brought in native soil because the native plants did not want to grow on the putting green mix. Decades later, the plant composition on those particular sites is still a little funky.


Back home in Kansas, dollar spot is still chewing away on putting greens, and one superintendent mentioned seeing the first initial symptoms of large patch. We are having wide temperature fluctuations, with highs on some days in the 70's, and on other days in the 90's, so on some days it still feels like summer and on other days it feels like fall (large patch season). The first apps in our large patch trials are out, with a few more to go. We have trials here at KSU and at one golf course a bit farther east.


Products that have worked well for large patch in trials here and/or elsewhere include Prostar, Bayleton, Tartan, Headway, Banner Maxx, and Heritage. This list is not exhaustive. For the most part we are talking flutolanil, DMI's, and QoI's.


Finally, for those of you managing trees and shrubs on the course, you might enjoy a review of how horticultural practices such as watering, fertilizing, and mulching affect insect and mite pests on those plants. Check it out HERE.