Light at the end of the tunnel (e.g., It's August)

It's been a busy week for golf course superintendents in the region as diseases are in high gear and the heat and temperature stress are causing many golf course putting greens to decline. We are hearing a lot of reports of yellowing and discoloration to bentgrass putting greens, possible nematode issues, and the typical diseases that we would expect to see at this time of the year.

Rain storms that swept through much of the mid-Atlantic provided some much needed relief from the drought we were in, but in many cases the rain fell too fast and basically moved via the surface. The good news from that was that many of you who had ponds that were getting low got a "refill". The bad news is that this did little for replenishing the soil and also washed out a few hundred bunkers. There were even reports in parts of southeast PA of flooding due to the massive storm that came through last week. On the other hand, there were also courses that DID manage to get the slow and steady rain that helped to wet the soil. Following these rains, dollar spot became VERY active and anyone not covered with fungicides saw cotton candy fairways on Tuesday.

Heat stress continues to be the biggest issue throughout much of the region and I can't stress enough that just because the turf is declining doesn't mean that it is pathogen related. In many cases, the soil temps are just too high and/or the growing environments too poor. As we hit the home stretch of summer, it is important to continue to be diligent on your water management. Yes, I know that it is not practical for many of you to get out there and hand-water everything as the courses with a $2,000,000 budget do, but the bottom line is that if you are using your overhead irrigation to "syringe" then you are probably over watering (this was from a USGA agronomist who I believe it going to write an article about it for an upcoming issue of the USGA Record).

Active right now: dollar spot, brown patch, Pythium blight, anthracnose, fairy ring, summer patch, others?

Website update: We are in the process of finalizing the details/construction of the new website for Turf Diseases. Some planned features include:

• More authors for more updates
• Restructuring of regional updates in line with USGA Regions
• New "Research" section for the latest research updates from the scientists
• New "Tech" section (you'll have to wait for the launch to find out more)
• Disease profiles and Image galleries
• Disease updates from superintendents

Heat Wave Forecasted for Next Week

We have seen relatively few disease issues in the TDL the past month or so. Throughout Upper Midwest temperatures have been warm, but we have also been quite dry. However the forecast for next week is very different. Highs for next week will been in the low to mid-ninties, more importantly night time temperatures will exceed 72 for most of next week. I included a 7-day forecast from NBC 15 here in Madison, but areas west and south of us will likely experience even hotter temperatures. I know that doesn't compare with the excruciating heat experienced by those in the Southeast and Central US, but the forecast is significant for the Upper Midwest. Especially considering that many courses have substantial Poa annua populations.

IF YOU haven't done so already, this weekend or early next week is a great time to protect your plants against brown patch and Pythium blight. Environmental conditions next week will be ripe for these two diseases. Moreover, anthracnose, dollar spot, summer patch and leaf spot could also flare up depending on where you are with fungicide applications. I mention leaf spot because we have been dealing with a Bipolaris leaf spot in the Midwest for two or three years that does not respond well to applications of iprodione. This disease also remains active throughout the summer months and has been problematic primarily for older golf courses. The disease tends to be more severe on certain clones of older creeping bentgrass fairways causing a "splotchy" reddish appearance to fairways. It does not manifest into distinct symptom. An image of typical stand symptoms is below.

Last year we initiated a fungicide trial at a course in Wisconsin to investigate chemical control options and found that Heritage TL, Insignia and a tank mixture of Chipco 26GT and Daconil Ultrex suppressed symptoms when compared to the non-treated control. Chipco 26GT by itself did not suppress the symptoms, indicating that Daconil Ultrex was more effective in controlling this disease. Note that I use the word suppress we have not been able to prevent the development of this disease, only suppress the symptoms. Here is the report from last year's trial. This has been a difficult disease to work with because it only seems to affect certain clones. Thus it took some time to figure out how to rate it.

Some other things to consider for next week: limit mowing by alternating mowing and rolling, skip clean-up passes, raise the mowing height and absolutely avoid applications of DMI fungicides to putting greens.

Anthracnose, Summer Patch, F-bombs, Nematodes and Cee Lo

Anthracnose & Summer Patch in California

'Hey - Did-ya Miss Me?' Anthacnose was plentiful in the UCR diagnostic lab this week

I was back in California this week and greeted with triple digit temperatures - normally I'd say the dry heat of California is better than the steamy heat of Washington DC, but 112 degrees in Riverside was still pretty bad!

I always say that anytime we get wide temperature swings, anthracnose is likely to rear its ugly head, and this last week was no exception - Naveen was getting quite a few of these samples in the lab.

As John had mentioned earlier this week, summer patch has been pretty active on annual bluegrass greens and we saw it on a few samples in California as well. Back in the 'good old days' of the 90's, it seemed like anthracnose and summer patch control went hand in hand, but recent developments have resulted in some 'complications'.

As we all know, anthracnose has become the primary concern of most guys out there with annual bluegrass greens, but summer patch can often be a hidden problem. Here are two observations regarding summer patch development this year.

#1 Targeting Anthracnose but Forgetting About Summer Patch
Sixty-five to sixty-eight degrees soil temperature in the spring is the magic range for initiating anthracnose & summer patch control programs with 2 to 3 applications of DMI-fungicides like Banner MAXX, Trinity, Triton, Tourney or Torque, but after that, control diverges quickly for these diseases. Fungicides like the Heritage (azoxystrobin) and Insignia (pyraclostrobin) are my top choices for summer patch control (thiophanate-methyl, e.g. 3336, is also a consideration), and should be applied monthly in the summer to keep summer patch in check. But....as we all know, anthracnose resistance to the QoIs and benzimidazoles in many locations makes these ineffective for anthracnose control. For mid-summer applications, products like chlorothalonil (Daconil), fludioxonil (Medallion), polyoxin-D (Endorse/Affirm) and Signature (Fosetyl-Al + StressGard pigment) are my go to materials. DMIs can also be effective, but applied in the summer heat may cause some unwanted PGR effects.

Superintendents worried primarily about anthracnose may be applying anthracnose-fungicides but forgetting to use Heritage & Insignia on a monthly program. As a result, summer patch can break through what seems like a good program that is unfortunately tailored specifically for anthracnose.

#2 Compass vs Insignia in Rapid Blight Control Programs & Effect on Summer Patch
Rapid blight is another disease that California superintendents battle in the spring and summer, and Compass (trifloxystrobin) and Insignia are the 'go to' systemic fungicides for rapid blight control (mancozeb is our only contact option), but differ in their physical properties. Compass is very strong as a foliar fungicide, but less systemic than Insignia and will not give you effective summer patch control. If you've been using Compass regularly in the summer, remember that you could be under-gunned for summer patch control, and have to apply additional materials.

Bottom Line: Anthracnose, summer patch and rapid blight management require specific fungicides - choose wisely and know what fungicides won't give you any overlap in disease control.

Anthracnose Rescue Fungicide Programs
If you have anthracnose breaking out on greens, it is most likely that you (i) have had a serious stress event, (ii) are too lean on fertility or (iii) have had a lapse in fungicide protection in your program.

Notice that 2/3 of the 'issues' are not fungicide-related. Correcting cultural practices and fertility is the top priority, but here are some thoughts on a 'rescue' program for active anthracnose outbreaks.

1. DO NOT BOMB IT WITH QOIs/STROBIES OR T-METHYL FUNGICIDES EVEN IF THEY STILL WORK FOR YOU. That is a recipe for resistance, big time! Anthracnose is already a high-risk pathogen when it comes to QoI and benzimidazole fungicides, and using them as 'eradiciants' in this way increases the chance of selecting out resistant populations.
2. CHLOROTHALONIL IS YOUR FRIEND. This is partially why I encourage guys to save up some of your 10 or so chlorothalonil applications for the summer. Chlorothalonil will not 'cure' existing infections, but can kill spores developing in acervuli and prevent new infections (if you let your foliar anthracnose go all the way in to the crowns, you're hosed, don't wait til that happens as you won't be able to get on top of it with fungicides in the summer). Being a contact fungicide, you will need to apply frequently to ensure that you have lasting coverage on plants. Applying the normal label rate, at a shorter application interval, is likely more effective than the max. rate once or at longer intervals.
3. MEDALLION, ENDORSE & AFFIRM --- These are 'limited systemic' fungicides and can give you added control of anthracnose, but are at moderate risk for fungicide resistance. I would not encourage them to be used as 'eradicants' but you can apply them to help with protecting plants once you have the active outbreaks arrested with aggressive chlorothalonil use. Right now, there is no resistance to these, & we want to keep it this way for the time being.
4. SIGNATURE, ALIETTE, & PHOSPHITES --- These have for the most part, 'indirect effects' on anthracnose, and will not work as 'eradicants'. The data I've seen shows that the active molecule in these fungicides is not super-toxic to anthracnose, and provide protection via induced plant defenses or other mechanisms; and you guys know how I feel about StressGard pigment being a good thing for annual bluegrass in the summer. Tank mixing them with your chlorothalonil will give you added protection but they will be acting on healthy plants vs. new infections and not directly killing the active anthracnose.

F-Bombs, Nematodes and Cee-Lo
Ok - I've gotten some (for the most part) good natured ribbing from some guys this week about my comments on Turf Net regarding what we know about nematodes.

http://www.turfnet.com/view_news.php?obj_id=606

Call me crass, but the F-word is strongly correlated with the discussion of turf diseases; it's one of those words that in its various forms has use as a noun, verb or adjective, especially when discussing anthracnose, summer patch or rapid blight, and annual bluegrass in general.

On the other hand, in all seriousness regarding the comments, we really don't know enough about nematodes on turf, and really really don't have enough chemical controls for the problems - making me drop the F-bomb to drive home the point.

Compared to the 30 or so university turf pathologists in the US and dozen or so different fungicide active ingredients, we have like 4 turf nematologists (Crowe, McClure, Wick & Mitkowski come to mind) and 1 nematicide (Curfew), plus any Nemacur stockpiled in the shed, that can control nematodes down in the soil .

You know I love me some fungus, but considering the issues caused by nematodes like root knot, stem & gall (Anguina), spiral, sting and others, and more importantly - the high amount of "mis-information" about nematodes and their control out there - it's a good time to put some attention and funds towards this. That's my 2% of a dollar.

Finally, if you can't get enough of the F-Bomb, check out Atlanta-based Cee Lo's new music single and song here:
http://www.youtube.com/ceelogreen#p/u/1/CAV0XrbEwNc

(WARNING: DEFINITELY NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR CHILDREN)

If you're not offended by the F-bomb and like Old School Motown-Style R&B, it's certainly worth a listen. I suspect they will have taken this one down from the internet by the time you read this blog today, but I'm sure you'll hear about this one soon.

OK - Back in DC as of the Morning and Signing off from the Right Coast.....

Cool Temperatures Bring a Sigh of Relief!

Temperatures in the Midwest are finally cooling down. This week has been a godsend as I heard from a superintendent this afternoon. Yes temperatures are going to rise again this weekend, but the nighttime temperatures are supposed to remain below 70 degrees. I agree with John that this is the time to start overseeding, fertilizing and maybe even aerifying to bring the greens back to life before winter. However, I do not think this is the time to start bringing the mowing heights back down and starting on paclobutrazol programs. I tend to be very conservative and I think this week is an ideal time to allow the plant to grow under the least stress possible.

This week’s cooler, dry weather has shut down most of the diseases we have dealt with this summer. I don't know this for certain for every location in the Midwest, but I do know that my phone was very quiet the last few days. We still are getting samples of Poa annua crapping out either from heat stress or summer patch or a combination of both. This was an exceptionally difficult summer for golf course superintendents. Most the turf loss this year was due to heavy rains in June and July coupled with high day and nighttime temperatures. Soil temperatures in many locations I visited exceeded 95F, which is not a good growing environment for any cool-season grass to say the least.

The major lesson I learned this summer was the importance of establishing a written set of maintenance and playability standards. By putting categories like day-to-day green speed, firm, fast or green, lush gives the golf course superintendent a lot of flexibility. For example, a hypothetical course has established a maintenance standard of 9 foot green speeds every day. By simply stating this standard allows the golf course superintendent to vary practices to achieve this ball speed. Viable options would be alternating mowing and rolling, switching to smooth rollers, and raising the mowing height in an attempt to minimize turf loss. I do understand that setting maintenance standards may not work for each situation, but it may be something to try especially at a public play facility. You may think I am crazy for talking about this, but based on my observations this summer establishing a set of maintenance standards seemed to work.

This is also the time to start thinking about snow mold applications. Here is a link for our snow mold trials for 2009-2010. The key with these reports is to look at the treatments that provided the best control (lowest disease severity) at the site closest to your site. We test a wide variety of chemicals and combinations at five locations in order to provide golf course superintendents with a plethora of options. We do not distill the reports down to the top ten best products because the best products and combinations may not be within the budget of many golf courses. So we always recommend finding the product or products that provide the best control and fit within the constraints of your budget.



Timing of snow mold fungicides was a fairly hot issue early this spring, largely due to some perceived failures of very good snow mold fungicides. We still do not have a great answer, so are initiating a fairly large fungicide timing experiment this fall. We expect to see good control from systemic products when they are applied well before snow cover, and good control from contacts closer to snow cover. We will let you know next spring, so stay tuned.

Healthy grass makes weak grass look worse.

I'm still hearing a lot of reports of active summer patch.

Although diseases are still present, the pressure from the extreme temperatures and the short nights are coming to an end. High temperatures throughout the Northeast are expected to be in the upper 60's to mid 80's depending if you are inland or along the coast.

Despite weather changing for the better and growing conditions improving, this is presenting a problem for some as the turf that made it through the summer is starting to look good which is making the turf that was on the edge or that didn't fair well look even worse.  Regardless, now is the time to overseed and start getting that grass back prior to winter.

I have also heard of some that have shut down their greens or entire course in the last week or two. The overcast and wet conditions in some areas appears to be giving rise to bacterial wilt problems on annual bluegrass. Since legal control measures are limited to non-existent, it is important to raise mowing heights, dedicate a walk-mower to affected greens, mow when it's dry, and wash equipment with a 10% bleach solution to help reduce the damage. Aggressive cultural practices like topdressing and aerification should be avoided during this times too which may cause problems for some since the calendars may be fixed for these activities to take place.

Brown patch on a new putting green seeded in June.

More traditional diseases present include the resurgence of dollar spot, flaring of summer patch, anthrancose, and lingering brown patch. Remember that although we are getting close to the end of the tough weather, stretching your fungicide applications for dollar spot is not a good idea.  The disease is definitely going to increase in the coming months and curative/recovery applications are less effective than staying on top of things. As for summer patch (which I have been getting a lot of calls about), we are seeing breakthrough of even the best fungicide programs for summer patch this year.  Resistance is not an issue with this disease.  It is just that the extreme environmental conditions have proven just too much in situations where the disease is chronic or extremely severe. My recommendation for a season ending application is thiophanate methyl.

Other than that, things are starting to get a little more quiet and I see that the chatter of mid-summer is dwindling to a mere whisper.  It is almost time for a much needed break and a cold one...you deserve it!

Pathologist or Psychologist

How come we don't get paid as much as Dr. Phil?

Image from by greggoconnell

We have moved into August and hopefully that means only 2 or 3 weeks until some sort of a break arrives. This has definitely been a brutal July (and summer for that matter) and my discussions with golf course superintendents' recently has me feeling more like a psychologist than a pathologist.  Samples have been rolling in from throughout the Northeast with fears of everything from bacterial wilt to summer patch to Pythium.  As far as real diseases go, summer patch seemed to be making its way onto golf courses and athletic fields in the last week or so.  In many cases, people were disappointed about not getting more than 3 weeks of control from the usually effective fungicides. Since this year is anything but usual, I just write this off to extremely high pressure.  My recommendation for curative control has always been high rates of thiophanate-methyl.  I did read Dr. Vincelli's fungicide efficacy chart found here and he mentions that t-methyl has been erratic in its control so I was wondering what you all thought.  In my experience it has been the best, but perhaps geography plays a role in this.

Other diseases and anthracnose update.

In addition to the widespread outbreaks of summer patch, there have been reports of several other diseases including Pythium, gray leaf spot, brown patch, dollar spot, anthracnose, rust (in my backyard), and probably others. Just a brief update on anthracnose. Our research trials this year have been some of the best in recent history and there are several products standing out in the study. The new fungicide Torque (tebuconazole) is once again performing outstanding with less than 1% disease in plots as compared to the ~45% anthrancose in the untreated control plots. Also performing exceptionally well are Daconil (3.2 oz) + Signature (4.0 oz), Signature (4.0 oz) applied every 14-d in combination with Triton FLO (triticonazole) + chlorothalonil alternated on 14-d intervals, and several experimental fungicides.  Moderate anthracnose suppression is being seen within plots receiving only DMI or chlorothalonil, which again shows the importance of tank-mixing these fungicides (they look great in the study when combined).  On the flip side of things, the QoI chemistry is not holding up and there is likely resistance issues at our research plots at Penn State.  Oh, and I almost forgot about the fertility plots.  We have some fertility treatments in combination with Signature alone. Signature alone is providing about 25 to 50% control of anthracnose while Signature + the various fertilizers are providing about 60 to 80% control. So the take home message is to tank-mix and spoon feed to help suppress your anthracnose.

Spreading the word about the difficult year.
Both the USGA and GCSAA have put out their notices to golf courses describing the excessive heat and humidity this year.  This is good information for members and greens committees wondering what in the world is going on.  You can find the GCSAA's report here and the USGA's report here.  The difficult thing for most golfers to understand is "why does our course look bad when I played next door and the greens are great?".  Unfortunately, a lot of this can't be explained or not in a simple way.  Most of the time the difference is sound cultural practices employed previously and not anything done this year.  Those superintendents that were allowed to pull cores multiple times, install drainage on poorly drained greens, or selectively remove trees that were causing shade problems are the winners.  It could, however, be as simple as explaining to members that your crappy Poa greens just won't hold up like the bentgrass greens at a neighbors.

Another Successful Field Day and Poa annua takes a dump!

Welcome back Lane!

It seems like the entire US is struggling with heat, rain and dead grass. I left for Scotland on July 14th and the sample total in the TDL was fairly normal. The week I was gone we received over 50 samples. WHOOPS! Anyway it seems like Poa annua just crapped the bed because of the relentless rainfall followed by intense heat (at least intense for us). So I agree with Brandon and Lane's equation of No Wind + Heat + Rain=Dead Grass-especially Poa annua. The roots of affected plants are short, black and pitiful looking. We have had golf course superintendents reporting soil temperatures in excess of 95 F within the top 2 inches. When this occurs there is really nothing that can be done to save Poa annua!

If you are losing grass please consult John's post earlier this week. He posted a lot of nice cultural practices that will help. Like raising the mowing height, alternate between mowing and rolling and carefully monitor soil moisture levels. However the most important point, is constant communication with the members, golf pro, general manager, owner, etc. Get them prepared for a loss in density and losing Poa annua. I know it sounds negative, but that is really the best thing to do. Especially since we have not had a hard summer in the Midwest for 3 years.

As far as diseases, we are seeing just about everything. This is sick for me to say, but this summer has been a pathologist's dream. We have diagnosed brown patch on creeping bentgrass, fine fescue and tall fescue. We have seen oodles of fairy ring through the Midwest and summer patch has just begun to show its ugly head. This has been another reason Poa annua is struggling so much in the Midwest. We have even seen a few cases of Pythium blight. We have not seen a lot of anthracnose however. The difference between this year and last year has essentially been temperature. Last July our average high temperature was 72, yet this year we are hovering closer to 82. When I was at NC State I helped Lane teach a turfgrass pathology class in the two year program and he always strongly emphasized to the students that the most important thing to a fungus is water. We had that last year, but temperatures were not conducive for growth. This year has been a different story. We have not been as hot during the day as North Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas, or even Pennsylvania, but our nighttime temperatures have consistently remained above 68 degrees. This is good weather for fungi and bad for turfgrass growth.

Yesterday we had the 28th annual Wisconsin Turfgrass Field Day at the OJ Noer Center. It was a fantastic day with great attendance. The topics ranged from Alternative grasses as a pest management strategy to Hydroseeding with Tenacity. We were really happy to have so many attendees considering the recent weather!

Now it is time to have a wee dram of whiskey to conclude my evening.

NO WIND = DEAD GRASS

I'm back.

For those of you who were hoping that my first post would be on bacterial wilt, I am sorry to disappoint you, but we have more important problems here in the Southeast right now.

Several years ago, I got a call from an angry homeowner who lived in a golf course community. The golf course superintendent had installed a fan adjacent to the green in her back yard. Said fan was preventing her from enjoying her patio, keeping her awake at night, and reducing the value of her property.

She must have been a scientist of some sort, because she asked me if I had a mathematical model that could be used to determine if a fan was necessary. So I broke out my plant physiology, meteorology, and calculus books and after several weeks of analysis, I came up with the following equation:

NO WIND + HEAT = DEAD GRASS

I don't think she liked that answer because I never heard from her again. But this summer is proving my equation to be correct: I have never seen fans make such a huge difference in the survival of creeping bentgrass putting greens as they are this year. Just about everywhere I've visited, the creeping bentgrass being impacted by fans is relatively healthy, whereas the turf furthest away from the fans or on greens without fans is really struggling.

It's been a difficult summer and there's no sign of it getting any easier. But if one positive thing can come out of it, we can use it to demonstrate the benefit of turf fans, fine tune the placement of existing fans, or fight for the money to install additional fans. Don't miss this opportunity!

On the disease side, a number of superintendents in our area are still struggling with Pythium root rot, and some summer patch is also showing up on creeping bentgrass greens. For more information about these diseases, please see the following post from last year.

We have also seen a couple of cases of Rhizoctonia zeae on creeping bentgrass greens. This pathogen induces similar symptoms to brown patch, but is active at higher temperatures and the patches or rings have more of an orange coloration. Most fungicides labeled for brown patch will provide good control of R. zeae, but this pathogen is not sensitive to thiophanate-methyl and is less sensitive to iprodione so you should avoid these products.

End of the Summer? Says Who?

"Frank, do you know what fire ants look like? Well, you should, because you're standing on top of a whole bunch of them..."
- David Hay, CGCS, Indian Wells Country Club

It's been a long week starting in Monterey at Mike McCullough's Northern California Golf Association's Assistant Superintendent's Boot Camp, leading to Harding Park in San Francisco and culminating in Palm Desert today. To the left, you can see our Pythium trials being conducted in collaboration with Tom Shephard at Desert Falls GC. I'm using indicator dye in my spray tank, so you can see my spray uniformity (or lack of!). Everytime I head to Coachella to do work - I can't help but think about the impromtu lesson on fire ants that I got from David Hay.

As far as Pythium - anytime night time temps are over 68F during the overseed, you're at risk for an outbreak. With night time temps in the 70s for the next few days - definitely watch out for Pythium developing if you are overseeding in the desert this week!

It's the Fall, and it doesn't quite feel like it....
Yes, it's late-September and it's supposed to be cooler, but we're still getting triple digit temps here in parts of California. Anthracnose and summer patch are still active on Poa greens inland, whie rapid blight is coming back in cooler coastal areas.

If you're about to aerify, nitrogen applications at this time should help reduce down both anthracnose and summer patch. Don't hestitate to give greens a healthy shot of N at this time. If you've got lots of anthracnose, a solid fungicide application wouldn't hurt either. If you have lots of active anthracnose now, it could come back to bite you in basal rot form if you go into the winter with weak greens.

Since rapid blight is encouraged by mechanical damage (like top dressing) - make sure to leach salts before aerification. If you've historically been at risk for rapid blight in the early fall, make a Insignia/Compass plus mancozeb soon after aerfication and top dressing on Poa greens.

2009 UCR Field Day
Last Thursday, we held a very succesful field day at UCR with over 160 participants. Thanks to our sponsors Aquatrols, BASF, Bayer Environmental Science, Dow AgroSciences, Green As It Gets, Inc., Grigg Brothers, Gowan Turf & Ornamental, RootGel West, Syngenta Professional Products and Valent Professional Products for helping us with our tent and BBQ lunch!

Turf disease -wise, I got to show off our anthracnose plots and results from 2009 trials which focused mainly on new DMI fungicides. A preliminary report can be found here. Also, we got to discuss results from our spring dollar spot trials. That report can be found here.

Signing off from the Left Coast until next week......

The A-Word, R-Word and S-Word

Just a few quick notes from the road - I'm somewhere between Jim and Megan's territory in St. Louis, Missouri on my way from St. Paul, Minnesota to Alexandria, Virginia today.

I talked a lot about anthracnose in last week's posting and the "A-Word" has been on alot of people's lips this last week in the West.

The "R-word" (Rapid Blight) also was pretty popular on Poa greens in California last week, especially in coastal locations.

The "S-word" (Summer patch) has not been super rampant, but continues to annoy superintendents here, magnifying any heat or stress damage.

Expect more of the same this next week on Poa greens for hot inland areas (anthracnose & summer patch) and moderate coastal locations (anthracnose, summer patch & rapid blight). The Central Valley (Fresno ) area is still staying warm at night and Pythium on cool season turf is likely there.

As for Rapid Blight: If you have TDS readings above 2.5 dS/m (0.5 on the Oakton TDS-4), you are likely at risk for rapid blight development. Applications of Compass, Insignia and Fore will suppress the disease but it will keep coming back until you get your sodium levels down. Nothing beats a good leach for Rapid Blight control, but it's also a pain in the butt to do properly.

Just a few more weeks until the end of summer – if you can hold out for another 4 weeks, life will likely get much easier!

New Design...Same Old Problems

If you have visited the Turf Disease blog in the past, then you will notice that the layout and overall look has changed. A few of the things that are new include:

1. Information buttons (top right): These buttons serve various purposes, but mainly allow you to access the blog by RSS subscribtion or via twitter, view disease images on our new flickr Turf Disease group, or share this information with others through Digg It, Stumble, and Technorati.

2. Search bar (top right): A search bar has been added that allows you to search the site for any topic that you may be interested in.

3. Navigation buttons (bottom left of header): We have added navigation buttons to help you select the content that is appropriate for you. These buttons include links to the home page and to each regional update section (NE = Northeast; SE = Southeast, etc).

4. Image Gallery: Perhaps the most useful addition is the image gallery link which contains various disease symptoms and pathogen signs that are used for identification purposes. We are contstantly working to increase the number of images in the gallery and will add more diseases as photos become availabe.

5. Disease Poll (right column): In an attempt to get the superintendents more involved in the blog, we will periodically post a poll to find out what troubles most are seeing in the field each week or other questions related to turfgrass disease management. Results of the poll are presented in real-time and this gives everyone some indication of what others may be seeing.

OK, as for diseases in the Northeast:

As you might expect, the warm weather and periodic rains are creating conditions favorable for your typical summer time diseases. Brown patch and Pythium are high on the list of potential problems in the field. While others may have seen summer patch for the several weeks, the first case that I had seen all year was last week in Pittsburgh. Also active in the Pittsburgh region was dollar spot and leaf spot.

Following a visit to the Buffalo area, last week was met with some cool morning temperatures and disease activity was relatively low. The only issues noticed was some dollar spot activity in the rough. The 10-day forecast has low and high daily temperatures of 60 and 80, respectively for that region. Throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, temperatures run a steady gradient from the upper 80s-90F in the Maryland region to the upper 70's-80F in Portland, ME. Along with these higher temperatures is the threat of precipitation which should bring along some serious disease pressure as we head into the home stretch of the season.

KEEP in mind that the threat of rain that can disrupt your ability to make preventive or curative applications should be monitored. Your window of opportunity to target serious diseases throughout August may be short and you should take advantage of any chance you get to take action.

It's gettin' hot in herre ....

Too dry? Too wet? Both can be trouble!
With temperatures hitting the 90s and 100s in many parts of California, summer stress & water management on greens are becoming more and more of an issue. As soil temperatures start to get into the 70s, cool season turfgrass – like creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass - starts to slow or even shut down physiologically.

(Photo by Bob Vaughey, GCS, TPC Valencia)

Hot dry conditions can damage plants by pushing them past the point of permanent wilt, killing plants in the process. On the other hand, water saturated soils can lead to anaerobic conditions in the rootzone and superheating of the top layer of soil, effectively cooking plants on greens.

A key to summer heat management is the judicious management of irrigation. Creeping bentgrass can tolerate wilt and drought stress to a higher degree than annual bluegrass, while annual bluegrass still requires light frequent irrigation to compensate for the shallow root systems.

An important part of managing both turf species is syringing with light amounts of water during the hottest parts of the day. A light misting on plants during the day can drop canopy temperatures several degrees. On very hot, dry days, syringing can be performed a few times a day between play to maintain canopy temperatures at an acceptable level. However, if you overwater these areas (which is easy when irrigation technicians are aggressively trying to manage hot spots) – you can end up oversaturating the soil profile with water and scalding the plants.

A Shout out for Fairy Ring
Fairy ring and the development of localized dry spots can further complicate water and plant management on turf. Professor Mike Fidanza (Penn State University), one of the nation's experts on fairy ring, will be presenting a short web seminar on fairy ring this next Tuesday, July 21 from 1:00 – 1:40 PM EST (that's 10:00 – 10:40 AM for us West Coasters). Check out this link for more information: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/512391482

What Else is Going On?
Here in California, summer patch and anthracnose on annual bluegrass are starting to roll into the diagnostic lab at a higher frequency. No great surprise given the high tempertures we're having in many parts of the state. Southern blight is firing on a few locations in southern California, and Pythium is active in the Central Valley as night time temperatures are staying above 68F at night.

All I can say is batten down the hatches, because we're a long way away from the Fall and the summer disease season is only getting started here.

Signing off from the Left Coast until next week!

P.S. - I couldn't think of anything scatalogical for this week's update. Megan, the door's wide open for your Friday update if you so desire.

Anthrancose and summer patch are appearing in the southeast

In yesterday's post Dr. Kaminski asked, "Where is the summer heat?" Well, if you want heat we've got it here in the southeast. Brown patch has been raging for the last month, symptoms of fairy ring have been appearing sporadically, and we are just starting to see anthracnose and summer patch popping up.


A few samples of anthracnose on creeping bentgrass have been submitted to our Turf Diagnostics Lab at NC State, and we also have some developing on 'Dominant Plus' creeping bent at our research center. Conditions have fluctuated between hot and wet then hot and dry, which is ideal for anthracnose development. If you are growing a bentgrass cultivar that is susceptible to anthracnose, be sure that you have a solid preventive fungicide program in place as soon as possible.

Not all bentgrass varieties are susceptible to anthracnose. The Penn A and G series cultivars have good resistance to the disease, and problems are rarely seen on these grasses. Older varieties, like Penncross, Pennlinks, Dominant, and even Crenshaw and L-93, are most susceptible.

Beware that fungicide resistance is a common problem in anthracnose populations. Our recent survey of C. cereale populations in NC showed that resistance to the QoI class (Heritage, Insignia, Compass, Disarm) and thiophanate-methyl (3336 and equivalents) is widespread. In fact, we had a hard time finding populations that are sensitive! Bottom line - unless you know that your populations are sensitive to these fungicides, do not rely on them for anthracnose control. For other anthracnose control options, please see our Anthracnose Information Sheet on TurfFiles. Remember to avoid the DMI fungicides if temperatures above 90F are in the forecast.

If you would like to find out if your anthracnose population is resistant or sensitive to various fungicides, the NC State Turf Diagnostics Lab offers fungicide resistance screening. Please see our website for more details.



Right on time, symptoms of summer patch have started to appear in North Carolina as well. It seems like this disease always starts to appear right around the 4th of July. If you are managing Kentucky bluegrass or annual bluegrass, or have bentgrass greens with a history of summer patch problems, be sure to continue your preventive applications for this disease. The summer patch pathogen is active throughout the summer, as long as average daily soil temperatures are below 80-85F.

Get Ready for Anthracnose in the West

Sadly, Farrah Fawcett passed away from cancer today at age 62. I bet you that just about anyone who was a teen in the 1970s had a poster (like the one to the left) in their room.

We probably invoke her name at least a dozen times a week here at UCR since we work in Fawcett Laboratory. Often, when explaining where to send samples, we tell people that: "it's Fawcett Lab, as in Farrah Fawcett" - which often goes right over the heads of those superintendents in their early- and mid-20s. For that matter, many John Holmes references - in relation to optimal root length - also go over those guy's heads too. I have got to stop using 70s-pop culture references so frequently here in our lab.


Anthracnose Management
Here in the west, anthracnose is starting to pop up more frequently in the UC Riverside diagnostic lab. It could signal the start of the anthracnose season already. Although anthracnose can pop up on just about any cool season turf species, it's impact is very different on different species being used for different purposes on the course.

For perennial ryegrass, the presence of anthracnose often signals low fertility, heat and drought stress. Here, anthracnose is usually just a secondary pathogen affecting stressed turf. It usually does not warrant control directly, but does often indicate that cultural conditions need improvement in these areas.

On creeping bentgrass, we typically see anthracnose on greens that are "lean and mean", especially when there is high humidity and overcast days. Again, in these cases, anthracnose is usually not the primary cause of damage but does signal that fertility needs to be increased and plant stress reduced. Typically, shutting anthracnose down with a fungicide application or two followed by increasing the fertility will solve the issue.

On annual bluegrass though, anthracnose is a real killer because its often the disease that puts the nail in the coffin for Poa greens.

Check out our presentation on chemical control options for anthracnose here: http://www.turfpathology.ucr.edu/Downloads/anthracnose_chemical_control.pdf

as well as the cultural management practices for anthracnose research being spearheaded by the group at Rutgers
http://www.turf.rutgers.edu/research/usga-anthracnose.pdf

Sucessful anthracnose management on annual bluegrass greens in the West should combine cultural practices like adequate nitrogen fertility and water management with a sound preventive fungicide program.

With regard to fungicides for anthracnose - there are plenty of ways to skin a cat, but in a nutshell - here's what has been effective for us in trials conducted over the past few years.

Early season preventive DMI applications (especially Banner MAXX) should be initiated before soil temperatures exceed 70F (65-68F is usually a good starting place).

Chlorothalonil fungicides, Medallion and Endorse are good choices for control when air temps are high and the risk of negative PGR effects of the DMI-fungicides are present (see Lane's recent entry on the DMIs). These should be applied at 14-day intervals in the summer.

Chipco Signature can be tank mixed with the fungicides listed above for added control and stress reduction. Although the mechanism for stress reduction provided by the combination of pigment and fosetyl-Al in Chipco Signature is still not fully understood, I'm going with the theory that it's "sunblock for Poa". Although results from trials in the east have shown a direct effect of phosphonate type fungicides on anthracnose - our trial results from California have shown that Chipco Signature applied by itself isn't very effective versus anthracnose and needs a good partner to maximize the effectiveness of the tank mix application.

Finally - I don't mean to kick a dead horse, but QoI and benzmidazole resistance appear to be pretty common for anthracnose in areas that have used them exensively for anthracnose control. Monthly applications of Heritage or Insignia are still very important for summer patch control in the summer, but don't rely on them exclusively for anthracnose control.

In Other News...
Brown Ring (Waitea) Patch was reported from Minnesota and diagnosed from Montanta this week. It sounds like this disease is continuing to pop up throughout many places in the U.S.

Signing Off from the Left Coast!

Should I water that in?

This is easily the most frequent question I get from golf course superintendents during the growing season. It is a difficult question, and there isn't always an easy answer.

We know that watering fungicides into the root zone is important for effective control of root diseases. However, in the real world, golf course superintendents apply fungicides to control a combination of root and foliar diseases, but we don't always know what effect watering-in has on foliar disease control.

To answer this watering-in question, you need to identify the primary disease you're trying to control, know where this pathogen attacks the turf plant, and understand how the selected fungicide moves in the plant after application.

In most cases, if a root disease is the primary target for a fungicide application, then it should be watered-in immediately after application. Once the spray dries on the leaves, it will be locked into the foliage and will not get into the root zone. Exceptions to this rule are the true systemic fungicides, like fosetyl-Al and the phosphite salts. These products are translocated downward in the plant and do not need to be watered-in.

The Fungicide Selection Tool, a new feature on our TurfFiles website, can help you select the best application technique for your fungicide applications. After selecting your turf species and the diseases you are trying to control, a list of fungicides is displayed. The list is ordered based on average efficacy against the selected diseases. After selecting a product or products to apply, you are taken to a page that displays mode of action, efficacy rankings, risks for fungicide resistance, rates and application intervals, and application instructions for each selected disease.

Update from Kansas

Hello,

It's Friday, it's Friday, and a beautiful day it is here in Kansas. Lucky me, I have some field work scheduled for the day.

The spring rains are continuing. Large patch of zoysia is popping up all over, including in our research plots (see image). While pulling some samples of large patch in zoysia at a golf course, I also found some rust (see image).

Now that the bermudagrass is greener, symptoms of spring dead spot are becoming more apparent.

Though dollar spot is not yet active at our research facility, I heard from a superintendent that they had dollar spot active on most greens.

Here in Kansas, it's time to be thinking about summer patch in sites that have a history of this disease. For more information, you can check out this website:

http://www.plantpath.ksu.edu/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=986

It focuses on Kentucky bluegrass but information is relevant to other grasses as well.

Summer Patch