Sun, Ice, and Climatological Normals

Since my last post I've been to England and the UAE, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan. I've seen most grass types but not many diseases; a bit of fairy ring, some dollar spot, slime mold, and Curvularia. What I have seen is a lot of variability in the weather, and especially in Asia I have seen the typical cloud cover, rain, and associated low sunshine hours that are so widespread during these months of the year.

When we look at the factors that influence turfgrass growth, we can identify nutrient status, water status, temperature, and light as being the primary factors. But with drainage, supplemental irrigation, and fertilization, turfgrass managers are able to control the nutrient and water factors, at least in theory, which leaves just temperature and light as the factors influencing growth. I find it useful to look at the climatological normal data, as seen in the chart below for August, or in this interactive chart with data for the entire year, to evaluate how the temperature and sunlight may influence turfgrass growth at a particular location.

Zoysiagrass outperforms seashore paspalum and bermudagrass in low-light conditions, both in the research setting and in the field throughout Asia. In tropical Southeast Asia, where the temperature remains relatively constant throughout the year at an optimum level for warm-season turfgrass growth, it is the light factor that controls the growth of the grass. Zoysia is especially well-suited to that environment.

An environment that creeping bentgrass is not well-suited to is the summer in Japan; a place like Osaka (where bentgrass is almost universally used on putting greens) is hotter during August than cities such as Singapore, Honolulu, and New Orleans. I've been making some measurements of the changes that take place in surface temperature and soil temperature when ice or ice water are applied to creeping bentgrass greens in Japan. I've been surprised at the persistence in soil cooling from the melted ice, although clouds and rain have moved in this week and I've been unable to continue these experiments.

Greetings from Canada

Hello there! My name is Katerina Jordan and I am a turfgrass scientist at the University of Guelph in Ontario. I was asked to be a part of this blog and am posting a brief introduction for those of you who don’t know me.

Most of Canada has a much shorter season than in the States, but our superintendents are no strangers to a wide variety of diseases on their turf. This season has been a tough one for managers here in Ontario as we experienced a cool, wet spring followed by some of the hottest temperatures on record combined with prolonged periods of drought. Many turfgrass managers in the U.S. are used to excess heat and drought, but for most of Canada this kind of summer is very foreign to us. On the up side, the lack of moisture has kept a number of diseases at bay, but the turf (epecially the Poa annua) is suffering quite a bit from the prolonged stress. Fortunately, we are headed into the end of our summer as temperatures start to drop significantly by mid-August.

Major issues that we deal with here are dollar spot and anthracnose throughout the country, take-all patch and summer patch in Ontario as well as some of our prairie provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan) due to very high soil pH levels, and plant-parasitic nematodes in British Columbia, the eastern provinces and here in Ontario. However, the diseases that we deal with the most in the colder provinces are the snow molds – both gray and pink.

I look forward to updating readers to goings on here in Canada based on discussions with superintendents and from the samples we receive in our diagnostic lab.

Good luck with the rest of the season!

Botrytis, Dog's Footprint, and Hot July Weather

Megan informed us last year that there are some edible (or drinkable) plant pathogens. I saw a few turfgrass pathogens during an early winter visit to Australia last month — some dollar spot on seashore paspalum, leaf spots on Cynodon, pink snow mold on creeping bentgrass, and the mysterious and as yet unidentified fairway patch (black fungus) disease affecting Cynodon fairways at Sydney. But my favorite disease was a drinkable one in the Barossa Valley of South Australia: the Peter Lehmann 2009 Botrytis Semillon.

Ten summers ago, before I went to grad school, I was a golf course superintendent in Japan (and during the three summers before that I was a superintendent in Shanghai). We all looked much younger then, but one thing that hasn't changed is that China and Japan remain really difficult places to grow creeping bentgrass. I'm spending most of this summer at Japan to observe golf course maintenance practices and grass performance, to collect some data, and to remember what it is like to be a golf course superintendent.

In the past week I saw some moss (above) and slime mold and dollar spot on creeping bentgrass, large patch on Zoysia japonica roughs, and the splendidly-named "dog's footprint" disease (Curvularia, below) on Zoysia matrella fairways.

Why do I say that China and Japan are really difficult places to grow creeping bentgrass? Have a look at this chart of world cities plotted by average weather data:

As we look at the average data for July, Tokyo is a little cooler than Atlanta, Osaka and Shanghai are both warmer than Atlanta, and there is less sunshine in the Asian cities than there is at Atlanta. At Atlanta you may find creeping bentgrass greens or ultradwarf bermudagrass greens. But at Shanghai, Tokyo, or Osaka, more than 95% of the greens are creeping bentgrass. It gets worse in August and September, when Shanghai, Tokyo, and Osaka all have higher average temperatures and less sunshine than Atlanta. "Change to ultradwarf bermudagrass, then, if it is so hot!", you might say, but in winter it is colder in the Asian cities than it is at Atlanta, and the annual sunshine hours in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Osaka are about 70% of what they would be at Atlanta. There is no easy answer. Here are the temperature readings I saw just before I left Japan yesterday. I'll be spending this coming week on a much cooler continent.

Mites, Weather, Australia, and Dollar Spot

I'm posting this from Australia where the winter is just beginning. At the Redlands Research Station near Brisbane today I saw plenty of dollar spot on seashore paspalum. Pictured is a plot of Sea Isle Supreme. These are the typical symptoms of dollar spot that occur when the growth of seashore paspalum is slow.

I also saw some interesting mite damage yesterday on bermudagrass (or green couch as it is called here). From a distance the area pictured below looked as if it were suffering from drought stress, but upon closer inspection these severely stunted shoots, so typical of mite damage, were found. Last year I saw mite damage at Bangladesh and wrote about it in this post.

At Thailand last week I visited four golf courses. There were two with zoysia greens and two with TifEagle greens. One had seashore paspalum fairways, one had zoysia fairways, another had bermudagrass fairways, and another had native grass fairways. I'm fascinated by the types of warm-season grasses that grow in different parts of the world, and clearly the weather has a lot to do with that. Some grasses thrive in one area, while others struggle. I put together a series of bubble charts that plot world cities by their climatological normals, the average weather data over a number of years.

I'll be updating these charts monthly on www.blog.asianturfgrass.com. As the northern hemisphere summer progresses, we will see that transition zone cities such as Atlanta, Osaka, Shanghai, and Tokyo move very close on this bubble chart to places where only warm-season grasses are grown such as Miami, Singapore, and Tahiti. The difficulty of managing cool-season grass during the summer is shown clearly when the average weather conditions are the same as in tropical cities.

Large Patch Resistance of Zoysia?

Last year I suggested that there are differences in large patch susceptibility between Zoysia japonica and Zoysia matrella. A photo of large patch posted last month on the Turf Diseases Facebook page by Dr. Mike Richardson and follow up comments by Dr. Richardson and Dr. Kennelly on the relative lack of resistance they have observed has prompted me to write on this subject again, for all of my observations lead me to believe that there are differences in susceptibility to large patch among zoysia varieties and between zoysia species. Click on the thumbnail images to see photos of large patch on zoysia in Asia, and you will see that the symptoms are most evident on Zoysia japonica:

Why am I convinced that there is some resistance to this disease?

• I've noticed that when Zoysia japonica and Zoysia matrella are growing in the same general vicinity, large patch may be present on Zoysia japonica but not on the Zoysia matrella.
• Research at the Chiba Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station in Japan has found that there are differences in resistance to large patch among zoysia varieties.
• Dr. Larry Stowell suggested there may be a mowing height effect on the disease where higher cut turf might be more susceptible but a greenkeeper at Japan assures me that at his course it is the Zoysia japonica at fairway height that gets more disease than the higher mown rough.
• Masahiro Kato has published on large patch resistance in zoysia and he found that the differences in resistance among varieties are related to differences in leaf sheath lamination structure.

A Cornucopia of Disease in Southeast Asia

I sometimes find such healthy grass that I have little disease to write about, but this week was an exceptional one. I went from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok, Singapore, and Da Nang, seeing a number of grasses and on them an assortment of pathogens. Click the thumbnails for a full-size image and description.

If there were an award for diseases, seashore paspalum would win this week, with two different unidentified diseases and slime mold and dollar spot, with a bonus for some extraordinary drought stress. In the image below, there is an unidentified patch disease and dollar spot on a seashore paspalum fairway in Bangkok. And you can see the drought stress in the drain lines going to the catch basin in the background. But wait! Can you see the patch of Zoysia matrella in the center-left of the photo? The Zoysia matrella that is free of disease and doesn't have the drought stress of the paspalum even though it is growing in the drain line? Seashore paspalum does not grow well at all in Southeast Asia in areas of low soil moisture content.

Seashore paspalum grows wild in tidal swamps and in intertidal zones. Which is exactly where I found it growing on the beach at Da Nang (below), in its natural environment, and free of diseases. But come in from the beach a short distance, where the high tide does not reach, and I found wiry Zoysia matrella growing in the dunes.

There was brown patch on bermudagrass at Vietnam and bermudagrass white leaf, which I think is the most unsightly disease, on bermudagrass at Singapore and Vietnam.

Most of the diseases, you notice, were on seashore paspalum and bermudagrass. I saw two types of broadleaf carpetgrass this week, both free of any disease. This grass thrives in the umbrageous conditions so ubiquitous in tropical Southeast Asia, as does zoysiagrass.

And for those more interested in cool-season grasses, you probably read with some interest the post from Dr. Kerns and Dr. Soldat a few weeks ago about managing potassium on cool-season turf. I'm fascinated by the Park Grass experiment and its results showing that potassium and lime application cause a proliferation of dandelions and other weeds, and the most recent issue of the Green Section Record has an article with some insights into that experiment and how the results "carry lessons of high importance in the growing of golf turf."

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.

Potassium, Hokkaido, and Snow Mold

I'm at snow-covered Hokkaido for some seminars this week and one of the things I have mentioned in the seminars is the possible increase in snow mold damage that can occur with high rates of potassium application in the fall season. Dr. Kerns mentioned the research being done at Cornell now to investigate this phenomenon.

We came across this observation on an L-93 field trial that we had designed to study soil testing methods, not snow mold. What we found, as you see below, is that plots treated with potassium in the previous year (and to which no fungicides were applied to prevent snow mold) had an increase in snow mold damage compared with plots to which no potassium had been applied in the previous year.

In both 2003 and 2004, when the snow had melted from the research green, we observed a linear increase in gray snow mold damage with increasing rates of potassium application.

Hokkaido has heavy snow mold pressure. Many of the golf courses are under snow for four months. The photo below shows the effect of fungicide application in the fall (at right) vs. no fungicide (at left) in the snow mold damage to a golf course rough at Obihiro in mid-May. Clearly, one would not want to exacerbate the disease intensity by unwarranted application of potassium.

Turfgrass Diseases in India

I spent this week in India and saw active dollar spot, fairy ring, probable bermudagrass decline, and also this unidentified disease on a bermudagrass green at Kolkata.


I suspect this is pythium blight, due to the apparent streaks of disease moving downhill with the drainage pattern, and because of its occurrence on two greens that appeared to have saturated soil conditions. Upon consulting with the conductor of this website, the possibility that this may be a leaf spot disease was also raised. And as I consult my Compendium of Turfgrass Diseases, I see that the environmental conditions for pythium blight and leaf spot diseases of Cynodon overlap to a large extent.


Disease control is obviously more difficult in a country such as India where there is not easy access to diagnostic laboratories. A disease such as dollar spot, seen on a bermudagrass fairway above at Bangalore, is easy to diagnose and control. But pathogens such as bermudagrass decline or leaf spots can be more difficult to diagnose with precision.

Two other factors further complicate disease control at India. First, many of the greenkeepers do not have ready access to information about turfgrass diseases and their control, nor do all greenkeepers understand what type of cultural practices can optimize plant health and minimize disease problems. Second, the types of sprayers used on many golf courses can be difficult to use, somewhat difficult to calibrate, and inconsistent in both droplet size and spray volume.

A tractor-mounted sprayer with a hand-gun is a typical agricultural sprayer found at many golf courses in India.

And the type of manual spraying system with a foot-pump as shown below is not the fastest or most precise way to apply products to the course, but if this is the only sprayer available, then it must be used.

There is a lot of golf development happening now at India and plans are underway for more greenkeeper training. One expects that greenkeepers will soon have access to more information about turfgrass diseases along with the types of maintenance equipment necessary to optimize the growing conditions and control turfgrass diseases more effectively.

Ontario IPM Accreditation Program

Last week I had the chance to speak at a educational seminar in Waterloo, Ontario that was hosted by Nutrite and the Ontario Seed Company (thanks for a great event by the way). The event was attended by approximately 300 golf course superintendents and assistants, many of which were there to learn about the issues they were facing/about to face with the "Ontario IPM Accreditation Program". On the agenda to speak about this was Brenda Nailor, Ph.D.  Dr. Nailor, a regulatory and pest management consultant for the green industry, was on hand to drop the bombshell that every superintendent was going to have to go through hell over the next several months update everyone on the current developments with the program.

Starting the program off, Dr. Nailor asked for everyone having to fill out the numerous forms (upwards of 120+ for some) to stand up so she could give them a "tip" on how to make things easier on them during the process.  "Move your one arm across your chest, while pulling with your other hand..." said Nailor as she led each of the form-filers through a series of excercises to stretch out because the superintendents would be "spending that much time in from of your computer." She then got serious and started relaying the updates from the MOE (Ministry of the Environment) and the Ontario IPM Accreditation Program. IPM Accreditation is mandatory for all golf courses by April 22, 2012.

 The program is "to recognize both individuals and golf courses that have demonstrated a knowledge and commitment to the principles of IPM through a process of certification, auditing and professional development." the program consists of 1) Certified IPM Agents and 2) IPM Registered Golf Courses and Facilities with a bunch of other nonsense mixed in. For the first component, "certified" agents basically have to take an exam, pay some fees, and continue to obtain CEC's as part of their education.  No big deal in my opinion other than the fact that these all come with added costs and annual fees. The big component comes in the reporting procedures and the fact that every golf course is going to have a public meeting where they must present in detail their "annual report" and their "map".

Below are the forms and procedures that must be completed:

1. Desk Audit Checklist: Just a list to ensure that you have filled out all of the forms below...essentially a form for a series of forms.
2. Scout Forms: Must be filled out once per week and includes environmental conditions, location, pest or condition, # of pests observed, possible contributing factors, and action taken.
3. Product Application Forms: Basically a pesticide application form similar to what everyone usually fills out. Forms must include 2 reasons for fungicide use, calculation of the actual active ingredient used and follow-up observations 3 to 7 days after application.
4. Equipment Calibration Form: One for backpack and one for a boom-sprayer must be completed and a minimum of 3 calibrations must be completed on each piece during the season (unless used less than three times during the season, in which case, you must calibrate once)
5. Hot Spot Management Record: I'm not sure how this is different from the "Scout Forms", but superintendents must keep a "record of observations and actions taken to manage a problem area throughout the year and future management plans"
6. Annual Report: A summary of the total of all pesticides AI used, expressed in kg ai. This must be public and posted in public and made available at the annual public meeting.
7. Map: A detailed visual map of EVERY pesticide application made to all areas of the golf course summarized by total AI applied to each area (more on this below).
8. Training Documentation: Documentation of all training completed for anyone applying pesticides or scouting for diseases.  It was pointed out at the meeting that no one really knows what constitutes training but I would believe that spending 20 minutes per day on this blog should suffice.

OK, so it seems harmless right? Just document what you are doing and you should be fine. All of the above materials must be submitted before January 31, 2011 and this whole system is littered with problems on a logistical front. First, all superintendents who were probably the overachievers and those tackling this head on and who downloaded all the forms prior to 10 May...well the Ontario IPM decided to change the forms and now ALL forms must be transcribed since they will not accept the older forms. This could come in the form of upwards to 120+ forms that need to be redone. Next, the creation of the "map" that must accompany the "Annual Report" will take a GIS and mapping expert to figure out. Dr. Nailor used an example of a map downloaded from Google Maps with color-coded sections for all areas treated. This is fine if you applied one thing to your greens all season, but there are going to need to be numerous maps that someone is going to have to create and label. On top of that, superintendents are encouraged to not submit a zillion maps, but I just don't see how to get around it. My hope is that someone comes up with a single map with ALL of their applications on it that is so complicated it will take a graphics expert to figure it out (image below). One superintendent in the audience admitted that he was "behind the times" with computers and wondered how he was going to complete these tasks only to receive the answer of "they have to be done". I consider myself a computer wiz and still would need hours and days, if not weeks, to complete all the information.

Example diagram that may be used to explain pesticide use on golf courses in Ontario?

The BIG problem with all of this is going to be the required "Public Hearing" which must occur for each club. This must be done before November 20, 2012 (and after January 31, 2011) and must be open to anyone who wants to come. Details of the meeting must be published in a newspaper 2 weeks prior to the meeting and all neighbors within some distance (I believe 200 meters of the course) must be notified individually (the newspaper will not suffice). At the meeting, the Annual Report and accompanying Map must be made available.

From my observations during her talk and from a brief visit to the program's website it is obvious that while the program seeks to reduce the use of pesticides on golf courses (and I am fine with that idea by the way), they have absolutely NO idea of the impact that this is going to have on golf as a business and probably NO understanding of what this will have on the environment as well. I would say that a strong majority of the superintendents have a solid IPM program in place. A mandatory program with this much paperwork (with little to no assistance) and a mandatory "town hall" style meeting is not going to cause changes based on science, but rather emotion. While I think that some of this reporting and documentation will be good, it is likely that the public display will result in more stringent restrictions based on emotion and likely put some Mom-and-Pop golf courses out of business. Dr. Nailor's suggestion to anyone considering using the Ontario IPM Accreditation as an example was to "Take your time when developing regulations and ask for phase-ins." If there was anything that I took out of this was that the superintendents were lucky to have someone like Brenda and the University of Guelph there to help with all of the complications that are bound to arise from this program.

What is the Most Interesting Disease in the World?

I think of two diseases that, at least by name, are the most interesting in the world. Surely there are others. I'd like to hear them. Fairy ring must have some poetic names in various languages? But I still think it is difficult to beat zō no ashiato. Check out this adventure story to find out why.

and here is the exciting conclusion!

When is Scalping a Good Thing?

When is scalping a good thing? When it teaches us something useful. In parks and commercial landscapes in Southeast Asia, the normal maintenance for broadleaf carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus) or manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) involves infrequent mowing at low mowing heights. Grass may be allowed to grow to a height of 30 to 50 mm (1.25 to 2 inches) or higher and then it will be scalped down with a string trimmer nearly to ground level, to something less than 12 mm (0.5 inch). See the video below from a resort at Pai in northern Thailand. I was here recently for some belletristic work.

This scalping would seem like rather poor maintenance, but I suggest that the scalping is a good thing in that it teaches us something about these grass species and their adaptation to low light conditions. Broadleaf carpetgrass and manilagrass tolerate (or even thrive with) this regular scalping, while seashore paspalum and bermudagrass do not. Sure, the average turf quality would be better if the grass was mowed frequently rather than scalped, but this removal of 70 to 90% of the leaf area at one mowing produces a good turf for many resorts and parks and lawns and roadsides in this part of the world.

I like to think about scalping as applying artificial shade to the grass. Shade reduces the amount of light available for photosynthesis. And so does scalping, by removing nearly all the leaves. The grasses that can tolerate scalping in Southeast Asia are also those that are well-adapted to this growing environment. And these are also the grasses that have minimal disease problems and thrive on golf courses. Golf courses planted to bermudagrass or seashore paspalum generally have more disease pressure, whether that be bermudagrass decline or dollar spot or an assortment of leaf spots and other maladies.

Now consider broadleaf carpetgrass (above, on a fairway mowed at 8 mm [0.3 inch] in Hong Kong) and manilagrass, by comparison. These grasses can be scalped. And they are relatively disease-free. Other than fairy ring, I have never seen any disease on broadleaf carpetgrass anywhere in tropical Southeast Asia. In sub-tropical Asia it may suffer from large patch during the short winters. That’s all. The only diseases I have seen on manilagrass in tropical Southeast Asia are fairy ring and curvularia leaf blight. Just those two. Ever. The curvularia leaf blight (see below) only occurs during the rainy season and is relatively easy to control.

What's happening in Scotland this week?

The Swilcan Bridge and R&A in the background.

I recently had the opportunity to visit several golf courses in Scotland on a trip to speak to greenkeepers of the Central BIGGA (British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association) region of Scotland. As in keeping with the theme of the blog, there was no shortage of diseases appearing in the region, but the attention and importance of the diseases was anything buy high.

One of the amazing things that I have noticed in my recent trips to the UK is the lack of importance many of the diseases play when it comes to turf management.  Dollar spot and red thread (yes red thread) caused significant symptoms to much of lean fairway turf found in the region.  Unlike in the states, however, the dollar spot always seemed to be superficial and only caused spots and lesions to the turf. Red thread symptoms were similar, but would generally be considered much more severe than what we see on golf courses in the states.

Dr. Dernoeden getting photos for his collection

Fairy ring continues to be obviously one of the biggest problems on the golf courses in the region.  Many golf courses were now starting to utilize wetting agents as a means to manage the problem and prevent hydrophic conditions from setting in.  In severe instances, fungicides like azoxystrobin were being applied in combination with the wetting agents to combat chronic cases of fairy ring.  Another disease that we observed causing significant damage was take-all patch.  Not new to the UK, the disease continues to cause problems for greenkeepers in the region particularly in years with a wet spring.

Probably the most interesting "disease" found on some of the courses was the presence of what was referred to as dry patch.  This was different from localized dry spot, but basically was described by the greenkeepers as a sunken depression in the turf in which the thatch was being broken down by a basidiomycete fungus similar to what we see with fairy ring.  The patches, however, resembled take-all patch, but a quick smell of the thatch area gave the clear indication of the presence of a mushroom fungi.

The use of PGRs has become more common in the UK.

In most cases, the diseases observed were more of an unsightly nuisance.  The differences in management practices, the acceptance of brown conditions (as long as playability was not compromised), and the lack of golf carts on the courses were significant.  It continues to be my feeling that golf course management in the UK and the United States is gradually getting closer together.  The increased use of products like wetting agents, PGRs, and select fungicides by those in the UK and the relatively new trend of "firm and fast" and "brown is the new green" by those in the US seem to have the two management styles on a crash course.  It kind of reminds my of politics where you have a lot of people in the middle, but there will always be those taking an extreme right or left side.  Either way, it should keep things interesting over the next decade and beyond.

Check out Facebook or YouTube for a bonus video from Dr. Dernoeden.

Suggestions on the Right Maintenance for the Wrong Grass

Seashore paspalum is a high maintenance grass: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Frankly, this species is overused (and misused) in Southeast Asia, and thus many golf courses are left with a course requiring more inputs than they are prepared to give. Sure, seashore paspalum can be beautiful, but it is also expensive to maintain, and most golf courses would have better playing conditions for lower cost if they were to use zoysiagrass for fairways and roughs. Let me point out three things about seashore paspalum in Asia that I think everyone should be aware of.

1. Seashore paspalum grows wild in Asia sparingly and only in the wettest areas. However, it is common to find bermudagrass or zoysiagrass growing in all types of environments (sun, shade, wet soils, dry soils) in the wild. Seashore paspalum has been growing in the wild in Asia for well over 100 years but it does not spread except in swamps. There is an excellent paper in Weed Science (Xie et al., 2009) about seashore paspalum and weeds in southern China. The paper is titled "Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of the Weed Community in a Seashore Paspalum Turf" and the researchers set out to measure the spread of weeds through a low-maintenance stand of seashore paspalum at Guangzhou. Weeds were measured every two months during 2007, which was five years after planting, and the turf had not received any herbicides. The somewhat surprising conclusion? I quote: "the seashore paspalum turf has been naturally replaced by manilagrass." Manilagrass is Zoysia matrella. Be aware that seashore paspalum is a grass that will tend to be overtaken by other grasses.

2. Seashore paspalum is pretty, but zoysiagrass is pretty too. And Zoysia matrella has a finer leaf blade than seashore paspalum and is easier to maintain. And some golfers don't like to play from seashore paspalum fairways. Their complaint is that the ball sits too low. Sometimes the seashore paspalum just doesn't want to grow and when that happens the ball sits down a lot more on paspalum than it does on bermuda or zoysia. Here is seashore paspalum at 15 mm and Zoysia matrella at 15 mm. Can you tell which is which? And if you can, is seashore paspalum that much better?

3. My advice for controlling dollar spot on seashore paspalum in Southeast Asia is to increase the growth rate of the grass. On greens and tees, use fungicides as necessary to prevent or control dollar spot. Use a chemical that will control dollar spot, and by all means apply it at the proper rate. On fairways and in roughs, however, it is usually too expensive to apply fungicides to control this disease. Seashore paspalum requires extra care to survive in Southeast Asia or it will be overtaken by zoysia or bermuda. Keep a constant growth rate by applying optimal amounts of nitrogen fertilizer (usually about 3 g N per square meter per month) and maintaining adequate soil moisture. If seashore paspalum growth slows because of inadequate nitrogen or dry soil conditions, it becomes extremely susceptible to dollar spot. Mow frequently with sharp mowers, and that will remove the dollar spot symptoms that do appear.

Winter Notes on Summer Impressions

After reading disease updates over the past two months from our university professors in the United States, I am thankful that I have a chance to work in many areas where warm-season grasses are grown, or where cool-season grasses are especially well-adapted, and to be able to avoid what seems to be nearly impossible weather for growing cool-season turf. What I've seen personally this summer is nothing too severe.

Figure 1. Damage from foraging pigs on a golf course at Nagano prefecture, Japan.

I've seen a bit of anthracnose on Poa annua at Japan, damage from foxes and rabbits at England, from wild pigs at Japan (Figure 1), some hydrophobic soil conditions at Dubai, even some lingering large patch into June on Zoysia japonica in the mountains of Nagano, and red thread at Scotland in July. Fairy ring appears ubiquitously on all types of turf (see Figure 2 below). Now I am hearing of extreme weather and heavy rainfall at Singapore that is causing challenges to turf, along with extreme heat in North Asia that is putting creeping bentgrass under severe stress. That is all I have to mention about diseases in this post.

But I do want to share a few thoughts that I have had this summer, which I make bold to post here thinking a few people may be interested in a temporary diversion from the mathematical certainty of x + y = dead grass. And as I am writing this from Bogor, 6° South of the equator on the island of Java, I can claim, in an astronomical sense, if not a meteorological one, that it is winter here today. Thus, my Winter Notes on Summer Impressions:

1. A quote that seems particularly apt this year is this one, from the introduction to the book Practical Golf Greenkeeping, published at London nearly 100 years ago. "To my mind . . . the most impressive lesson any greenkeeper can learn, is the one acquired under adversity. The real science in greenkeeping is not to be gained where difficulties in maintaining the turf are never experienced. Practical tests in overcoming trouble of any kind are the best way to obtain knowledge.” Small solace perhaps, but as true today as it was a century ago.

2. I am becoming more and more uncomfortable when I hear imprecise terms and phrases related to golf course appearance and playability. Whether that be something about "firm and fast" or "brown is the new green," I find these terms to be imprecise and particularly susceptible to misunderstanding. I think of an article co-authored in 1916 by Charles Vancouver Piper, first chairman of the USGA Green Section, in which he wrote, "The function of language is to convey ideas. Unless the language is understood in the same way by writer and reader this function is not served and ideas are not transmitted exactly . . . It is becoming increasingly evident that the terminology of agronomy is not always clear."

Figure 2. Richard Windows of STRI using a stimpmeter at the Open Championship with symptoms of fairy ring visible on the green.

Golf is a game. The physical characteristics of the playing surface are crucial to the enjoyment of the game, but these characteristics are not well-described by terms such as firm, fast, brown, green, or sustainable, unless those terms are put into some type of context, or are measured. The STRI Programme, which takes a quantitative measure of the performance of the playing surface at a golf course and puts a value on ball roll distance, surface firmness, surface smoothness, and other important characteristics, is a system for measuring these physical characteristics and can lead to the exact transmittal of ideas. I had a chance to work with the STRI tournament agronomy team at the Open Championship in July. After seeing this firsthand, and thinking about it as a golfer, former superintendent, and scientist, I am excited about the usefulness of the STRI Programme and the removal of so much ambiguity from terms used to describe golf course appearance and playability.

3. Does anyone else think that "corrective watering" is a particularly egregious term? I first heard this at the US Open in June, and this week read an article about Sahalee and the US Senior Open where the term was used again. "Corrective" implies that something was done wrong, that an error is being put right. Wouldn't "supplemental irrigation" be a more appropriate description of water being applied to the turf? If "corrective watering" is a term that should persist, maybe "disciplinary mowing" and "interventional rolling" could be added to this malapropistic vocabulary.

Mites, a Corpse Plant, and Native Grasses

I was at Bangladesh last week and I saw something that, in years of turfgrass work in Asia, and hundreds of visits to golf courses and other turfgrass sites, I had not seen before. At first, I thought this was a broadleaf weed invading a bermudagrass fairway. From above, this looks a bit like Mimosa pudica, one of my favorite weeds.

In fact, this is bermudagrass, but it is infested with mites, causing a change in the growth habit and drastically shortened internodes. For a closer look, see the image below, with both normal growth and modified growth on the same stolon.

That is definitely not Mimosa pudica! I saw bermudagrass mite damage at Hawaii this spring but the stunting was not so severe and the characteristic "witch's broom" appearance of the mite-infested turf, at Hawaii, was more of a broccoli or cauliflower shape, rather than this compressed and narrow appearance as noticed in Dhaka and Chittagong. My friend Storm Lupier sent me photos showing very similar symptoms on bermudagrass in the Seychelles. And there was similar damage on zoysiagrass turf at Dhaka as well. The two photos above are bermudagrass; the image below is zoysiagrass.

If you have a problem with mites at your course, consult with a local expert or follow the advice in this publication from the University of Florida.

I saw a bit of fairy ring on broadleaf carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus) at Bangladesh and on hybrid bermudagrass at Indonesia this week. The fairy ring disease profile at TurfFiles from NC State summarizes the recommended control measures for fairy ring.

You may be aware of the corpse plant (Amorphophallus titanum -- you can translate that yourself); I have not seen one, and being at Bogor recently, I went to look for one at the Bogor Botanical Gardens. These extensive gardens are 193 years old and have over 15,000 plant species and thousands of orchid varieties. Alas, I did not see a corpse plant in bloom, but I did see pulchritudinous acres of broadleaf carpetgrass, growing in full sun and in the shade of massive tropical trees, and the grass was completely free of diseases. In Southeast Asia, the grasses that grow as native plants here are generally free of diseases when maintained as turfgrass; these grasses are broadleaf carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus) and manilagrass (Zoysia matrella). Sod farms near Bangkok can produce a crop of manilagrass in six weeks using no herbicides, no fungicides, and very little mechanized equipment. See how in this short video:

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”.