Hello,
I am back in the US after an agriculture development trip to Tajikistan. If any of you are curious about that, you can check out this website where I have some notes and photos. The photo above is me with the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border mountains in the background.
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https://picasaweb.google.com/mmkennelly/TajikistanVisit2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCMvxxJn_moCCKg
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Anyway, back here on the home front dollar spot is active in putting greens and fairways. Though I have not seen it yet with my own eyes, I have had a few reports of brown patch activity as well.
In addition, with some of the recent heat and wind there are some hot spots cropping up. Even though the irrigation is on, the hot dry winds may be reducing the water that actually gets down onto the surface in all spots. When it comes to hand-watering, make sure to put an experienced crew member on the task, since it can be kind of an art.
I keep thinking back to 2010... you want to minimize turf stress now before the really nasty summertime comes along.
In addition to hot spots, localized dry spot may be appearing in some places. The droplet test is always a good indicator:
No sprayer?
I had an interesting question today from a low-budget course that is having dollar spot issues. The course is in a small town in Kansas, and the place is so low-budget that they don't have a sprayer. They are relying on granulars.
Of course, one issue with that is that they aren't going to get the same coverage as with a spray. Then, it limits the chemistries that they can use. Not many materials are available in granulars.
It sounds like they have used a lot of thiophanate-methyl. Unfortunately, in some recent work in Kansas, I observed that most isolates are resistant to that mode of action.
The course has also used a lot of a granular triadimefon. As we all know, the DMI's can have resistance problems as well. The other granular they have used is iprodione.
So, there could be some resistance issues, and there are definitely some application-method challenges that may not be fixable.
It is an interesting situation, and I'll welcome any suggestions by you folks out there in the blog-o-sphere.
4 Responses to “dollar spot, brown patch, a bit of heat, and what do you do when you don't have a sprayer?”
We've used the granular fungicides for the last 3 years. I don't like it at all but I don't have a say in what I have to put down. The new owner never had anything to do with a golf course and buys whatever the chemical seller pushs on him. The granular is invisable coming out of the spreader so you can't truly tell what the pattern is or your coverage. Give the tank mix anyday, please!
Bump up fertility on fairways. Less dollar spot and promotes rapid recovery.
Brown patch may happen, but brown patch doesn't kill grass like dollar spot does.
Make sure the irrigation schedule is in check. Avoid late evening watering or mid morning watering that may keep canopy humidity intact while mycelium is present.
Or just wait until some of the modern granulars become registered.
Thanks for your comments!
Any chance there is someone can be hired to do the work. Some volunteer courses in Australia will get a farmer to do the spraying for them. Not the best situation but at least can get a spray.
Or use a backpack sprayer for the worst bits? Time consuming though.
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