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.

104! Again!

I was pretty surprised a short time ago to glance up and see sheets of rain and driving winds outside my window. A storm popped up out of the blue. High today is supposed to be 104. 2-inch soil temps in Manhattan have had some peaks in the 90's. Ugh.

When I got back to town late Wednesday afternoon I found a few turf samples waiting, and a few more rolled in Thursday and Friday. More of the same--steam-cooked roots.


Bacterial Wilt

Wow, you know, there's been so much chatter about bacterial wilt that I don't have much more to contribute. I'll just say that I, too, feel that it is important to be skeptical. If you've missed the BW discussions, scroll back through the blog and be sure to read the comments at the bottom.




Stress tips from USGA
The following link has some comments and tips from USGA agronomists:
http://www.usga.org/news/2010/August/Heat-Straining-Golf-Courses/
Here’s an excerpt, and you can go to the link for the full info:
“It is important that golf course superintendents use defensive golf course maintenance programs. That is, be conservative and pamper the grass. The turfgrass is under intense weather stress, which is compounded by an increase in disease pressure. Everyone should be more concerned about plant health than green speed."


Scientific Conferences

I spent Saturday through Wed at the national plant pathology meeting in Charlotte, NC. What do we do at these conferences?
The main thing is to exchange ideas about research. In human medicine, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work at medical schools, research institutions, etc, before things reach practical day-to-day doctor’s offices. Plant pathology is the same.

Genes and proteins

At the more fundamental level, plant pathologists are researching things like:
*How do bacteria secrete proteins into the plant to allow infection to occur? How do those proteins change gene expression in the plant? How can we develop plants that can defend against these bacterial proteins?
*How do viruses move around within a thrips (insect) before getting transmitted back to the plant? Is there a way to prevent this from happening?
*How can we use DNA sequences to more efficiently identify resistance genes?

“What’s in a name”? A LOT!

Knowing the correct identity of pathogens is also critical. Some pathogens are really hard to tell apart based on what they look like in the microscope, so these days DNA sequence information is often used to sort things out. At the conference, there were sessions about Phytophthora and Pythium, two genera of plant pathogens that are very tricky to identify. There are some poorly described species out there. It’s hard to understand how things grow, spread, cause infection, etc, when there is mis-identification.
In the turf world, we had a whole afternoon dedicated to new (and tricky) diseases of turf caused by organisms in the genus Rhizoctonia. Now that we have better DNA techniques, some things we thought were true in the past are being called into question. The speakers in this excellent symposium were Phil Harmon (FL), Frank Wong (CA), Bruce Martin (SC), and Brandon Horvath (TN), and it was moderated by Jim Kerns (WI).

Weather and plant disease

We all know that weather can be a big factor in plant diseases, but are there ways of precisely quantifying those relationships and using those relationships to make predictions? There were many sessions about that, including a poster by Damon Smith at Oklahoma State who is looking at weather variables and dollar spot.
These are just a few of the types of things that we do.
On top of that, we have committees that do things like:

• work with K-12 educators to help enhance science activities in the classroom
• assist colleagues who are researching important disease problems in developing countries with the hopes of increasing global food security
• work with graduate students to help them find appropriate career tracks
• work with the chemical industry to discuss ways to mitigate fungicide resistance

I always come back feeling somehow rejuvenated but exhausted all at the same time.

Melting turf and the turf pathology meetings

Turf around the country continues to decline and it looks as if there is no break in sight for some time. Many golf courses are having trouble and I even read a Wall Street Journal article today that talked specifically about the problems courses are having. In the article it states that "a handful of high profile courses had already had to close, and if the heat continues, others are likely to follow." It goes on to mention a few of the courses by name which mean to me that the problem is so bad that courses are even trying to hide it at this point. On top of that, the whole issue of this bacterial wilt problem hitting bentgrass is raising all sorts of questions among pathologists. I can't speak for everyone, but the general feelings among those that I spoke with so far this week is that it is a BS diagnosis. I will leave that for later in the week in hopes that someone else will elaborate more.

This week is also the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society (APS) meeting in Charlotte. Several of us had the chance to visit a couple of golf courses down here during the trip and I gotta say that the bentgrass really is as bad as many have said on several courses (photo right). The stuff is just melting away. My caution to anyone in this situation down here in NC or throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast is to be cautious about your plans for aerification. This is definitely not a "follow the calendar" year in terms of planning aggressive practices on your greens...that is what happened to many last year and aerification at the wrong time can lead to some quick death. So, be cautious about planning these activities until you get some root growth that can hold it all together.

Summary of a research project.  
Well, I was supposed to summarize a research project that was talked about this week, but the only turf talks so far were on Sunday afternoon at the same time as my meeting for the APS/Plant Management Network Oversite Committee that I serve on.  So I missed all the talks.  I will say that I heard good things about the talks from the various graduate students and I look forward to seeing the posters tonight.  Tomorrow is the big Biology and Management of Rhizoctonia Diseases of Turfgrass, so I am excited to listen to a few of the talks being presented there.  To read some of the abstracts related to turf, you can search here.

A Lekker Conference in South Africa

I just returned (as in Friday night) from a week trip to visit golf courses in South Africa and speak to their superintendents (don’t call them greenkeepers) at their Biennial Talking Turf conference. This post is not necessarily about what is happening in terms of diseases at this moment, but a general overview of the grasses and types of problems that they encounter.

One of the primary purposes of heading over to South Africa (aside from giving two talks at the conference) was to attempt to collect dollar spot samples for a large project that Dr. Tredway is working on. Although I did see some “old” dollar spot symptoms on a variety of species, I am not sure how much of this we will be able to isolate from. My initial visits took me to a few golf courses in the Johannesburg region where the primary species were kikuyugrass (image right) and creeping bentgrass in the fairways and putting greens, respectively. I did manage to visit a golf course that had nearly pure Poa annua putting greens.

This brings me to my next thought on the whole visit to South Africa. Aside from the doctors’ warnings prior to my visit (more in a later post), I was pretty unclear as to the types of turf that they grow or the conditions in which they grow them in. Well, it seems to be fairly similar to the United States in terms of diversity with a primary exception being that our seasons are opposite. South Africa is just now entering the autumn/winter months and won’t see spring until around sometime around August/September (if I remember correctly). They do, however, manage similar grass species. The primary putting green species is creeping bentgrass and/or annual bluegrass. There are some courses that do have bermudagrass greens. One commonality among the golf courses is that most seem to be managing kikuyu fairways. I did see one course that had bermudagrass fairways.

As far as diseases, these too were very diverse. During my visits in the Jo’burg region, I only saw some dollar spot and what I believed to be spring dead spot on bermudagrass (although it was appearing in the fall) and kikuyu patch (which again I believe to be spring dead spot). Fairy ring was also prominent on the putting greens of another course. From the superintendents in the Cape Town region, I was informed of putting greens with active anthracnose, dollar spot and even Microdochium patch. Algae (which I attribute to either extreme summer temperatures causing thinning and/or excessive moisture) is also a major problem.

A major disadvantage to the superintendents in the region is the lack of educational resources on a whole. There is no formal turf education in the country and traveling to the states is extremely expensive for a majority of the superintendents. I did meet two individuals who were studying in the Penn State World Campus program and at Elmwood College in Scotland. Otherwise, much of their information comes from the web or books and little positive confirmation of the diseases they have are available. Despite these limitations, I found the superintendents to be very knowledgeable and interested in management strategies.

In trying to keep this to our readable two minute post, I will wrap up by saying thanks to all of the superintendents who showed me around their courses; Sue for inviting me to speak at the conference; Dr. Vargas (aka Elvis shown to the right) for once again creating an entertaining environment and for stirring the pot with his views on resistance management; Marinus for driving us around for the week; Aquatrols, Syngenta and Toro for sponsoring the event; and to everyone else I met. This trip provided me a lot of information for more international posts that I will put up over the next few months. In the meantime, check out the photos from the trip. It was truly the trip of a lifetime.

Oh, and as for “lekker” in the post’s title. This was explained to me as an Afrikaan term that means something that is “better than nice”. Although there was no literal English translation, I took it as meaning “awesome”.

European Turfgrass Society Conference

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the European Turfgrass Society (ETS) Conference in Angers, France. This was a great opportunity to find out what other turfgrass researchers around Europe as well as other parts of the world are currently researching. With so many turfgrass programs and scientists in the United States, it is often hard to see a diverse group of talks at any one show. For instance, scientific conferences in the United States are usually sectioned into various disciplines such as soils, pathology, physiology, entomology, etc. For this reason, I end up migrating to the pathology and more golf-related talks and often miss a lot of other things going on in turfgrass research.
At the ETS conference, all talks are given in one session spread out over several days and mixed with various opportunities to meet and discuss the latest and greatest turfgrass trends with people from across the globe. Below are some highlights of things that I found particularly interesting at this year's conference.

1. Plant Parasitic Nematodes: Kate Entwistle of The Turf Disease Centre in the UK talked about the increase in nematode activity on cool-season turfgrasses in Europe. The potential for nematodes to cause damage to cool-season turf has been a bit controversial (in my opinion) over the last few years. Many "pathologists" often suggest that any turf that cannot stand the presence of some nematodes probably has other issues more pressing than the nematodes themselves. On the other hand, many "nematologists" often state that these pathogens are in fact the primary cause of many problems. Either way, it does appear that more and more cases of this problem are showing up. Dr. Entwistle stated that some of the main differences among species found in the USA vs. Europe is that the predominant species in the Europe are Meloidogyne and Hilcotylenchus.
   
2. Induced Systemic Resistance of Civitas: Dr. Tom Hsiang of the University of Guelph gave another entertaining (Great Introduction about Guelph...I may steal that one) and informative talk about his work to prove that the relatively new horticultural oil Civitas works by inducing natural plant resistance mechanisms. Utilizing Induced Systemic Resistance-related genes, his lab found that the enhanced expression of two jasmonate related genes following treatment with Civitas and inoculation of the M. nivale pathogen. In controlled experiments, Dr. Hsiang also found that Civitas reduced three diseases (dollar spot, brown patch, and Microdochium patch) by 20 to 40% when compared to an inoculated control. Based on field trials presented on this site and by some colleagues, Civitas has been shown to reduce certain diseases, but more field work is needed to work out programs and acceptable tank-mix combination's to provide complete disease suppression.
   

3. Preparation for the 2010 World Cup: Although not a scientific presentation about ongoing research, the talk by Dr. A.S. Schoeman on the preparation of the pitches for the World Cup was one of my favorite talks. Dr. Schoeman had a great fluidity to his presentation and gave some interesting facts about the upcoming events. This is the first time that Africa has hosted the World Cup and matches will be played at 10 different venues throughout South Africa. In addition to the ten stadiums, 15 training sites will be utilized and 3 sites will be used exclusively by the referees (what the heck do they need these for?). An interesting component to the preparation is that this will be the first time that matches will be played in HDTV, making the preparation that much more important. Other interesting points include:

• Most pitches will have Kikuyugrass as the base, but will be overseeded with perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass
• Logos (currently used for advertising during Rugby matches) will need to be removed prior to the event since these sponsors are not the same for the World Cup.  Current sponsors are asking that their logos be applied with "extra paint" which will make their complete removal more difficult!
• A few stadiums have "cannon" style irrigation and therefore it will be difficult to pre-dampen the fields (as some teams request) prior to the game without soaking the spectators as well.

For those academics who didn't get a chance to make it to this year's conference, it is a good time to start some relevant research for the European market. The next conference will be held somewhere in England (probably London) in 2012 to coincide with the summer Olympic games. I look forward to attending ETS in 2 years and just hope that mother nature (e.g., the Iceland volcano) cooperates a little better than this year. (Full story on this on Monday).

Great conference, but a tough spot to watch hockey.

 

(Above) The crowd in Toronto reacts to the OT goal that sealed

the win and a gold medal for Canada...and a silver for the USA team.

This past week was spent at the Canadian International Turfgrass Conference and Trade Show and the New England Regional Conference and Trade Show.  Both were great shows and I had a chance to discuss some disease issues facing both groups. In Canada, the buzz was around the relatively new cosmetic pesticide ban.  This seems to be the first step in eliminating pesticides from turfgrass management.  While golf courses are currently exempt from the ban, many of the areas on the property are not exempt.  This includes such areas as the entrance ways to the facility as well as the turf grown around the clubhouse and other areas not directly related to the game of golf.  You can definitely expect a decline in turf quality in these areas.

More important than the areas around the clubhouse, however, is the ban on pesticides for athletic fields.  The inability to suppress weed species and other pests such as diseases and insects will likely start to appear.  Unfortunately, this will likely occur in the form of childhood injuries and other accidents due to poor playing conditions.  In a brief conversation with Dr. Vittum from UMASS, she expressed that in her role as a referee that she has had to cancel games in New England due to the potential for injury and her personal liability as the referee.  While this is an extreme case, these issues could become more prevalent in Canada due to this ban.

After leaving Toronto with my head hanging low due to the USA loss against the Canadians in the hockey finals, I headed to Providence where the NE1025 group was wrapping up its final meeting to discuss the progress with managing anthracnose basal rot and annual bluegrass weevils.  As part of the reports from each participant, we were fortunate enough to have Stan Zontek, Director of the mid-Atlantic Green Section, provide an update on his perspective of anthracnose in his region.  Here is Mr. Zontek's statement:

"Prior to this research initiative, anthracnose was one of the most common and devastating problem to golf course putting greens in those parts of the USA where Poa annua (annual bluegrass) is the predominant grass species on putting greens.  This research information, supported by field observations, established the fact that this disease was made worse by (1) the species of grass, (2) close mowing (in the quest for faster green speeds), (3) reduced fertilizer inputs (another factor for producing faster green speeds), and anecdotal observations that anthracnose was made worse by (4) frequent, light topdressings, vertical mowings, heavy foot and equipment traffic (including rolling) and the associated care a putting green receives to achieve fast green speeds.  Golf course putting greens were declining due to anthracnose in spite of the increased usage of fungicides.  In fact, fungicides were routinely applied every 5-7 days to greens with limited success in controlling anthracnose.

The research results from the NE-1025 group have shown that anthracnose can be prevented through higher annual rates of nitrogen.  The healthier the grass, the less prone it is to anthracnose and, significantly, the need for fungicides is greatly reduced.  The reduced usage of pesticides is definitely a positive result from this research. 

It has also been shown that mechanical operations like light topdressing, vertical mowing, rollings and even foot traffic are less of a problem than once thought.  When you couple these shifts in how the turf is managed, the maintenance of putting green speed can be achieved via the use of plant growth regulators (PGRs), the judicious use of putting green rolling and double cutting including the maintenance if not increase in mowing heights. 

The benefits of Poa annua seedhead suppression were also studied.  This too contributes to healthier turf, less anthracnose and better overall putting green quality during those periods of the year when seedheads are produced. 

To golf course superintendents in the field, the research results from all the anthracnose studies have provided a far better knowledge base than before this work was begun.  The results have been embraced by our industry to a point where anthracnose, which was formerly a huge problem on putting greens, has now become a minor problem to even being, non-existent.  These are spectacular results."

- Stan Zontek, USGA

(Above) Sclerotia within infested tissue can help you distinguish Gray Snow Mold from other snow molds.

All in all, these were informative meetings and the conference season is just about wrapping up.  Updates from around the region suggest that the snow is finally starting to melt and with that snow molds appear to be the largest problem.  Specifically, areas that often are damaged by Microdochium patch (e.g., Pink Snow Mold) are instead showing the symptoms of gray snow mold (Typhula spp.) due to the extended snow cover. It is important to check the infested tissue with a hand lens to look for the sclerotia embedded in the tissues because fungicide applications for gray snow mold are not necessary at this time.  If you are dealing with Microdochium patch, however, it may be important to continue to monitor the situation as fungicide treatments may continue to be necessary depending on the pending weather conditions.

Colder than a witches...

...well you know the rest.  (Had to start with that as one of my former students at UConn heard it for the first time from her dad this past weekend).

Posting updates in the winter is a tough task as things are getting busier with conferences and classes start next week, but I wanted to at least provide a brief "weather report" for the region.  If you want to watch the real report, you can do so here.

Since talking about turf diseases is pretty much a bust in the Northeast region at this time of the year, I thought that I would revisit some things within the website that you may not be familiar with.  Here are some things that you may have missed...

1. Did you know that you can view images of turf diseases in our photo gallery?  Check it out here... or click on the camera logo at the top of the page.
   
2. Want to find out what turfgrass conferences are coming up?  Check it out here... or click on the calendar logo at the top of the page.
3. Have you missed some updates from GCSAA? If so, you can click on the GCSAA logo and get all the latest headlines from the various departments of GCSAA on the twitter feed.

Have you STILL not signed up for twitter?  Well, it's 2010 and I suggest you get with the times (or not)...either way, if you have an account, you can now follow turfdiseases or a group of others in the turf industry with one click (it may be 2 or 3, but who's counting).  Click below to follow more turfers...



OK, that's it for the first Monday of the new year.  As we progress through the year, please feel free to let us know how we can make the site better (by email or as a post in the comment...which ever works best for you).

The Turf Nerds go to...

...Pittsburgh? It figures that in the year that I take a new position at Penn State, the annual Crop Science meeting ends up in Pittsburgh. In the past 4 years, the show has been to Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Houston. Well, in a year where budgets are slim and we are all trying to scale back it was probably best for me. I just feel sorry for those having to make the trip from the West Coast.

So what is the CSSA-ASA-SSSA annual meeting and why is it a hotspot for all of the turf nerds across the country this week? Well, this scientific tri-society of crops, agronomy and soils is probably the largest scientific conference for those university and industry personnel to catch up on the latest and greatest scientific research from around the country. If you are not familiar how scientific discoveries are made, just know that it is not an overnight occurrence. It generally takes several years to develop a solid project, find a graduate student or technician to assist with the work, analyze and write the results and then submit them for scientific publication. The last part (publishing in a scientific journal) can often take up to one year from the time of submission to the time that the research is actually seen in print. Then it takes another few months for the scientific publication to be rewritten in a format that anyone in the industry would actually be interested in reading before making its way into Golf Course Management, Golf Course Industry, Golfdom or similar trade magazine. So from start to finish, a project may take 3 or more years to go from idea to print.

So why do we go to these meetings each year? These meetings are the pinnacle of the latest discoveries in the field and allow for scientists to share ideas and form possible collaborations to advance the science more quickly or more completely. The information presented is usually the latest and often represents preliminary results to studies that are just getting off the ground. Presentations are given orally or as posters and graduate students even compete against each other for the top presentations in each category (I am actually one of the judges for oral presentations this year). Faculty also present their latest findings and industry representatives provide insights into what is happening on their side as well. The week is culminated in the business meeting where outstanding achievements are recognized and actions are put in place for the next year.

So I am off for Pittsburgh this morning (immediately following my class)...next year I am looking forward to Long Beach, CA!

Check out my list of interesting topics for this week...
Glyphosate-Resistant Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) in Missouri.

Physiological Changes During Cold Acclimation for Perennial Ryegrass Accessions Differing in Freeze Tolerance.

The Effects of Nitrogen and Trinexapac-Ethyl On the Severity of Brown Ring Patch On Annual Bluegrass Golf Course Putting Greens.

Developing a Predictive Model for Spring Germination of Smooth Crabgrass (Digitaria ischaemum) and Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) in Michigan.

Sodium Adsorption On Calcined Clays and Zeolites.

Above image used under creative commons license by author

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ztil301/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0