Welcome to the "Turf Agriphone" sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of June 22- 29, 2001.

It has been a drastic change in the weather since this time last week. We are now having cooler than normal temperatures, with overcast skies and frequent showers. On average, we have still only received half of the precipitation that we received last year over the same time period. We are also ahead for crop heat units (a measure of accumulated heat over the season). The forecast for next week is for things to heat up again to the mid 20’s in the day and mid teens in the night.

On the disease front, the dollar spot has slowed right down, but I would expect to see some more dollar spot activity next week. There may be some lingering Fusarium patch with this last blast of cool weather. There were some reports of anthracnose foliar blight last week when the temperatures were hot. There will probably be more anthracnose as well. Even though the forecast is for warm weather this week, the night time temperature forecasts remain low, so the possibility of diseases such as Pythium blight and brown patch are minimal. For turf that has been topdressed or verticut recently, there is probably an increased risk of seeing some anthracnose basal rot. Home lawns have been relatively disease free. There have been reports of slime moulds occurring after the rain. There is a chance of red thread developing over the next few days with the rainy conditions.

I have had quite a few inquiries about the timing for Merit applications for grub control. The recommendation is to apply Merit anytime in June and July. Because the product has such a long soil half life, you don’t have to worry too much about exact timing. Merit applications can start anytime now. I would suggest that the best time however, is around peak adult flights which is usually July 1. I would expect that adult European chafer flights should be starting any day now. Next week, with the warm temperatures, we will probably see the first adult flights.

Turfgrass scale crawlers should be out anytime soon. They appear as red dots, about the size of the head of a pin. If you walk through the grass when the crawlers are out, you get them all over your shoes. The crawlers attach themselves to the base of the turfgrass plants and start feeding on the plant juices.

Bird’sfoot trefoil is in bloom right now. This signals the peak of hairy chinch bug egg laying. We should be seeing signs of nymphs in 2-3 weeks time.

The crabgrass here in Guelph is tillering, so it is best to move to Acclaim Super now for crabgrass control.

Again, thanks for phoning the Turf Agriphone for this week. The next agriphone message will be recorded on Fri. June 29,2001.