Date: June 28, 2001
Category: Diseases Subject: Summer Turf Diseases
All of the summer diseases are active at this time, in particular: ANTHRACNOSE,
BROWN PATCH, COPPER SPOT (on velvet bentgrass), DOLLAR SPOT, RED THREAD,
SUMMER PATCH, and TAKE-ALL PATCH. The upcoming weekend will be hot and
humid, with warm, humid nights. These are the perfect conditions for BROWN
PATCH and possibly PYTHIUM BLIGHT. Ryegrass lawns are most susceptible
to these diseases. Newly seeded lawns of all kinds will be particularly
vulnerable. High N favors both of these diseases, so delay fertilizers
until next week.
On putting greens, relieve stress in any ways that you can: move the
cup more often, skip the clean-up pass, raise the mowing height or skip
a mowing until the weather improves. If you have active ANTHRACNOSE, wash
mowers between greens. Also, avoid sand topdressing until anthracnose
is checked.
Dr. Peter Dernoeden's excellent book "Creeping Bentgrass Management"
has photos and discusssion of the numerous summer stress turf problems
that are NOT fungal diseases, but can certainly look like them (see the
references for ordering information). In the meantime, the weather next
week looks better.
