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Turf Agrifax - Week 17, 2001 (August 3, 2001) |
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Welcome to the "Turf Agriphone" sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of Aug. 3-10, 2001.
The hot hazy humid weather has been with us now most of this week and it is forecast to stay through the long weekend. There have been some isolated thunder showers moving through. Conditions have remained extremely dry and now many areas are down to about ¼ of the rainfall from last year. Non-irrigated turf remains dormant in most areas. For golf course turf there will be a chance of the summer diseases like Pythium blight and brown patch developing as well as anthracnose as long as the hot, humid temperatures remain. This is especially true when nighttime temperatures remain in the twenties. Dollar spot and take-all patch are also active right now. On home lawns that are being irrigated, necrotic ring spot and dollar spot are showing up now.
Japanese beetle adults flights have tapered off now. We are just outside the window now for Merit applications for Japanese beetle and European chafers grubs. There have been some severe outbreaks of June beetle grubs in the Barrie/Orillia/Horseshoe Valley area. The difficulty with June beetles at this time of year is that they are already very large. Merit will not be affective against the second/third instar grubs and it also is not labeled for June beetle grubs. The choices then are diazinon, and carbaryl. These two products are probably less effective than Merit. The bottom line is that these June beetle grubs might be difficult to control at this stage. For more information on grubs click here.
There have also been reports of bluegrass billbug damage in a few areas. There have been reports of black turfgrass ataenius damage on golf courses over the last two weeks and there has also been a lot of cutworm damage.
Hairy chinch bugs are still actively feeding in lawns right now. Because many of the lawns are dormant, we are not seeing the brown patches caused by chinch bug feeding. These adults will be feeding on dormant turf for the most part and we will probably run into a situation like we did in 1999. Come late August when the rains return, people will find that their grass is dead. For more information on hairy chinch bugs click here.
Crabgrass is doing well with all this heat. Acclaim Super can still be used, but you must have good coverage to get good control. It is not recommended for use if the turf and the crabgrass are under drought stress.
It is best to suspend all cultural practices and fertilizer applications until the rains return and turf comes out of dormancy. You may want to consider watering turf at this time with about 2-3 cm of water. In areas that have gone up to six weeks without rain, this will insure that the turf will survive this drought.
The Sports Turf Association is having their annual field day on Wed. August 15, 2001 at RIM Park in Waterloo. For more information contact Sports Turf Association at (519) 763-9431.
Again, thanks for phoning the Turf Agriphone for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. Aug. 10 ,2001. |
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Turf Agrifax - Week 16, 2001 ( July 27th, 2001 ) |
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Welcome to the "Turf Agriphone" sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of July 27 - Aug. 3, 2001.
It is still incredibly dry, but we have exchanged the hot humid weather with warm dry weather. Much of the non-irrigated turf here in our area has gone dormant. You may want to consider watering with about 2 cm of water every week just to keep the turf alive. Dormant turf will stay alive for up to six weeks usually, but we have many areas in the province that have not had a good rain now in almost that amount of time. As far as precipitation is concerned, most locations have only received half of last year's precipitation and some areas such as Peterborough and Trenton have only received one third of last year's precipitation. With the current weather there will be little risk of the summer diseases occurring now. We will still see dollar spot, take-all patch and anthracnose basal rot over the next week. On irrigated home lawns there is some dollars spot developing now.
Japanese beetle adults flights have slowed down now. We are very quickly approaching the end of the Merit window for European chafer and Japanese beetle grub control. The label recommendation is to apply it from June to Aug. 1st. Again, be sure to water it in.
Hairy chinch bug adults are present in lawns right now and are feeding very actively. Because the lawns are dormant, we are not seeing the brown patches caused by chinch feeding. Chinch bugs will be feeding on dormant turf for the most part and we will probably run into a situation like we did in 1999. Come late August when the rains return, people will find that their grass is dead. There has also been some billbug damage reported in the Toronto area. There have been many reports of lots of sod webworm moths out right now. Damage from sod webworm is usually seen in about a month's time.
It is best to suspend all cultural practices and fertilizer applications if turf is dormant.
The Sports Turf Association are having their 14th Annual Field Day on Wed. Aug. 15, 2001 at the Millenium Park Complex in Waterloo. For information on how to register, please call the Sports Turf Association at (519) 763-9431.
Again, thanks for phoning the Turf Agriphone for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. Aug. 3, 2001. |
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