Healthy Grass = Little Disease

I've seen a lot of healthy grass in Asia over the past couple of months. This tends to be the driest season of the year for much of Southeast Asia, and no matter what type of grass is being grown, I haven't seen much disease. A bit of curvularia on Zoysia matrella in Thailand, some fairy ring on Tifeagle bermudagrass that was a trifle peckish, and the ubiquitous dollar spot, especially on seashore paspalum.

For management of dollar spot on seashore paspalum, assuming it is still warm enough for the grass to grow, I recommend keeping the leaves drier, the soil wetter, and applying a bit more nitrogen. We've looked at various treatments of calcium, potassium, nitrate vs. urea as a nitrogen source, etc., and we have detected no effect on dollar spot intensity of seashore paspalum. Creating a more salubrious environment for the grass invariably solves the problem.

Speaking of salubrious environments, I don't think there is a better place for a turfgrass conference than Thailand. Working on behalf of the Thailand Golf Association, the Thai GCSA do a great job putting together all the logistical details of the Sustainable Turfgrass Management in Asia conference and we get tremendous support from The R&A and from the golf course superintendents who travel from all parts of Asia to attend this educational event.