Green-up, and horse poo

*Green up*

The cool season grasses are greening up nicely here in Manhattan. So far I haven't seen many signs of greening up in the warm-season grasses here, but a few days ago a superintendent from South Central Kansas shared photos of bermudagrass showing a lot of green, more than he's ever seen for this time of year. Another from Central Kansas reported a little greenup in his area too, early for his site. How is the green-up of C4 grasses in YOUR area? Early? Are you ready???

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*Horse poop in the lawn*

This was my favorite turf question over the past few days. By a round-about way, I learned that it was even worthy of a few Tweets :)

Here it is for all to enjoy:

http://www.ksuturf.org/blog/2011/03/question-of-the-week/
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*Dicots are people too*

I know, it's a turf blog, but I can't help throwing in a few trees and ornamentals every now and then.

If you manage pine trees on your course, you might be interested in some info about pine tip blight. It's a very common disease in this region, and it occurs in the upper midwest and northeast, too.

I posted some stuff on a K-State website and you can check it out HERE

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Spring has Sprung!

Well it looks like ol' Jack Frost is slowly shedding his coat in favor of a pair of shades and t-shirts. Spring has been slow in coming, but with 80's on the horizon in the next couple of days it looks like everything is off to the races here. From a disease/stress perspective what does that mean to you in the Southeast? Well, for the warm-season grasses (like bermuda), we should be able to start seeing how bad the winter actually was by starting to see some greening up of the tissue.

Now is the time to start looking at the stolons and stems, to see if color is returning like you see in the image to the right. If the tissue seems dead and brown, it might be time to think about ordering up some sod and/or sprigs. Another disease issue that will start be the impact the winter had on the development of spring dead spot. In Tennessee, we haven't greened up enough yet to see the circular symptoms of the disease (see left image), but with the warm weather that is ahead, it is only a matter of time.

Finally, for those of you managing zoysiagrass, large patch (see image below), caused by Rhizoctonia, will begin to rear its ugly head again. This disease can also attack bermudagrass, but the damage is not usually severe enough to warrant fungicide application (see image far below- that's a large patch!) credit: Adam Nichols, Virginia Tech)

The question of how effective spring applications of fungicides are for large patch is a good one. I don't think we have enough data to conclusively answer the question. Hopefully, you made a few applications in the fall, as that is the best time to apply preventatively.However, if you have an outbreak of large patch that is actively growing, fungicide applications might be warranted to at least reduce the spread of the disease.

Our junior-year turfgrass students are setting off on their internships for the summer, so I will be posting much more frequently now that teaching is on hiatus for awhile. So I am off to start looking for large patch in my trials, but the difference is I get excited when I have a bunch of it, and it is uniformly distributed over my plots!

Stay tuned for the next couple of weeks as we look at what spring has for cool-season diseases/stresses next week, and the following week, what we need to start thinking about for summer (which will be here before we know it!).

Brrrrrrrrrr......Allow me to introduce myself

For those of you following Lane Tredway on the Turfgrass Disease Blog, I hate to disappoint you, but I will be guest hosting while Lane is off traipsing across the continents in search of those elusive turf pathogens. My name is Brandon Horvath, and I am a professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I was previously at Virginia Tech and located down in the Virginia Beach area, so I have been calling the transition zone my home for the last 5 years. In all seriousness, Lane will be making posts as an international blogger, since he is on his well-deserved sabbatical, and we here at the Turfgrass Disease Blog wish him safe travels.

So, I found myself wondering what I would discuss for my first post, and it looks like Mother Nature has decided for me: Wow! It's been really cold! I was in Michigan prior to moving down South, so the cold here is not too bad, but as my 4 year old, Alex, likes to say, "Daddy, its super, super, super, super, cold out!" That's kind of what I would like to think the bermudagrasses (esp. ultradwarfs) have been saying too, especially if you're in a situation where covering is a labor-limited situation and might not have been able to put the covers on fast enough. Here in Knoxville, the temperatures have hovered for the last couple of weeks with highs in the low-mid thirties, and lows in the teens. The real question that I am sure is not lost on many of you dealing with these conditions is, "Will my turf be alive in the spring?" The short answer is that we don't know enough to predict with a high degree of accuracy how bermudagrasses handle the cold. The newer varieties with improved cold tolerance (Riviera, Yukon, Patriot, etc.) haven't really seen much of these kinds of conditions since their introduction to the market, so it will be interesting to see how they fare next to standbys like 419 and Tifsport. The ultradwarfs (TifEagle, Champion, Mini-Verde, etc.) have moved somewhat North since the last major cold winter, so that will be interesting to observe too. I suspect that the really wet, soggy conditions at the end of the season, and the cold snaps we have had this winter are going to make for some pretty poor bermudagrass conditions this spring when it comes out of dormancy.

Many of you are probably already thinking, "So, how do I know how bad it will be, and can I do anything about it?" One of the easiest things you can do over the next couple of months will be to collect a few samples from turf areas you are worried about (e.g. shady areas on a fairway, low spots that collect water, etc.) and a few samples from areas that consistently perform well (e.g. well-drained areas, full sun, etc.) and begin to bring them inside and acclimate them to warmer conditions. The first step would be to bring them into an unheated, cold area sheltered from the elements in the maintenance facility. After a few days of slightly warmer temps, move them to an area that is warmer, but still cool (e.g. heated equipment storage areas). Following a few days, move them into a warmer area yet, and finally into an area in the shop that is warm enough that the plants (if alive) will begin to green up. You will need to keep them watered, not saturated, and monitor them for growth. Doing this every couple of weeks over the next few months will give you a good idea whether you will need to reserve some sod or sprigs for re-establishment or if those nightmares you had about whole fairways being dead was really just a bad dream. The important thing is to remember that by having some advanced warning of what you might be in store for will help you prepare your membership prior to any damage, and this will be a silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud.

I am looking forward to posting regularly on the blog, and look forward to hearing from many of you about problems and questions you might have as we tackle what's in store for 2010!

The Phantom Leaf Spot / When is it Going to Warm Up!

Not much going on in the Midwest. The weather has remained strange the past couple weeks. With day time highs in the mid 60's and lows ranging from the mid 30's to the mid 50's. Soil temperatures range from 58 F at 4 inches to 63 F at 2 inches in native soil areas. We are seeing a lot of leaf spot symptoms, but surprisingly enough we are not seeing a lot of spores in the samples. The samples have the characteristic reddish color with necrotic spots on the leaves, yet little to no sporulation on the leaf tissue. This has made diagnosis difficult because the plant and stand symptoms point directly at a leaf spot, but no signs of the pathogen. Each person that has submitted a sample has assured us that the area was not sprayed prior to submission.

However, if you do suspect leaf spot problems than an application of iprodione and chlorothalonil will do the trick, especially if the recent weather pattern continues. The forecast for this week if for warmer weather and more sunshine, which is usually the best medicine for leaf spots.

Turf managers that experienced winter kill are still trying to get areas to fill in. Because of the most recent weather pattern creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass growth has been very slow. Going back to one of John's earlier posts, the weather drives almost everything in golf course management. The best quote I've heard this spring is from Pat Sisk "We need to be patient, we can put down everything we have but if the turf isn't growing than its not gonna work."