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  9-16, 2006.

The weather forecast for the coming week is roughly 3-4º cooler than normal on average.  The forecast for tonight is a chilly 6ºC.  The only rain in the forecast is for next Tuesday. 

Diseases

This week at the GTI Turf Diagnostics Lab there were samples submitted with Rhizoctonia.  Because the weather has been so changeable, it is difficult to say whether it was yellow patch or brown patch.  There were a couple of samples of Take-all patch and a couple of samples of annual bluegrass with summer patch runner hyphae, but there were no summer patch symptoms evident.  There was also a sample with Pythium root disfunction.  With the current weather forecast, expect yellow patch symptoms to continue to linger, there could even be a flare up of Microdochium patch which is also know as Fusarium patch.  With the slightly cooler dryer weather, dollar spot could slow down a bit, although it does well when we have heavy dews.   If you do have disease samples that you want diagnosed, you can send them to the GTI Turf Diagnostics.  Information on this service is available at www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/turf_diag   

Insects

A report of cutworm damage earlier this week turned out to be leatherjacket damage.  They were coming up the aeration holes and feeding on the edges similar to cutworms.  Cutworms have shown up in field crops so they can’t be to far behind in turf.  A soap flush with 4 litres of water and 15-30 mL of dish washing liquid can be applied to 0.1m2 of turf to see if you have cutworms in your greens.  It is really important at this time of the season to dispose of grass clippings away from the greens when you see cutworm moths flying around.  The female moths lay their eggs on the terminal end of the grass blades and they are cut off and taken away with the clippings.  In the clipping pile, the eggs will hatch into young caterpillars and move into the greens to start feeding and causing damage.  Simply disposing of the grass clippings away form the greens could reduce your need to treat for cutworms.

It is quite possible over the next week that we will see annual bluegrass weevil damage.  June beetle flights have been heavy in some areas.  European chafer grubs have pupated in most areas now.  Adult beetles will begin emerging in 2-3 weeks weather depending.  They like warm evenings to emerge, so if the weather ever warms up they will emerge.

I have had a few more inquires this week about controlling turfgrass ants.  They can usually be found just at the perimeter of a sand based golf green.  There are three products labeled for ant control, Dursban T, Sevin T&O and Demand.  Demand is a new turf insecticide registered for use on ants only.  Read labels carefully for application rates and other application instructions.

Weeds

This cool weather is extending the window for broadleaf herbicide applications. The crabgrass germination seems to have stalled a bit now with the cooler weather.  If it is still at the 2-4 leaf stage and can still be controlled with Dimension.  If not, you need to change to Acclaim Super.

Just a note on the moss treatment trial from last year.  The Kocide 2000 and the Greenleaf Rapid Green both did a good job at killing the moss.  In the spring there were patches up to 4-8 cm in diameter of dead moss.  With a bit of fertilization, the turf has filled all but the very large patches.  These dead moss areas could easily be plugged out and replaces with bentgrass sod from a nursery on a golf course green.  The experiment was a success and details will be available in the 2005 GTI Annual Report shortly.

The weather forecast is for ideal turf growing conditions over the next week, so turf should not be under heat or moisture stress this coming week an with the dry conditions, let’s hope disease development is minimal.