Welcome to the "Turf Hotline" sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This message is being recorded for the week of April 21 - April 28,2000. For those of you who are interested in either a fax or an e-mail copy of this message, you can order the service by calling my office at (519) 824-4120 x 2597 or you can obtain an order form from the OMAFRA web site at:
www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/products/agrifax.html.
We are back to spring like weather at the time of recording this message. In fact, I even heard some thunder out there. This rain is a welcome site because many areas are below average in the amount of moisture that they have had so far this year. With rain comes disease. Some of the diseases to be on the look out for are yellow patch and Fusarium patch. If temperatures get a bit milder, you may also see some red thread on perennial ryegrass or fine fescues.
Raccoons, skunks and starling are busy digging up grubs. Again, spring is not the ideal time to treat for grubs. Damaged areas can be reseeded in early to mid-May. Make sure that you get good seed to soil contact and keep the newly seeded areas moist. Sodding is also another option. Sod is now available at garden centres.
Last Saturday, when we had the short warm spell, I did see some hairy chinch bugs moving back into turf. This will continue when we get some warm weather. Another insect to expect soon is the return of the black turfgrass ataenius. They can be observed on warm afternoons flying back into the turf.
Forsythia flowers are developing quickly now with the warmer weather. Pre-emergence crabgrass control should go down any time now. With Dimension you can apply until the crabgrass is in the 1-4 leaf stage. Do not apply Dimension to newly seeded areas.
As I mentioned last week, a pesticide company is looking for sites to test a product for both European chafer control as well as hairy chinch bug control. If anyone know of sites that are infested with both these pests could you please give my office a call at (519) 824-4120 x 2597.
The 2000 edition of Turfgrass Management Recommendations put out by the Ministry is now available. It has all the new pesticide recommendations in it as well as information on turfgrass fertilization, turf species, seed companies, etc.. To order your 2000 edition of Publication 384 you can telephone the OMAFRA head office at 1-888-466-2372 or call the GTI at (519) 767-5009.
Again, thanks for phoning the hotline for this week. The next hotline message will be recorded on Fri. April 28.
