You Are Here: Management Updates 2004 Archive May 20, 2004

Date: May 20, 2004
Category: Diseases
Subject: Take-all Patch, Bacterial Wilt, Anthracnose

Some difficult diseases are currently active on golf courses. The various stresses (variable temperature and rainfall, aeration, sand top-dressings brushed in) contribute to these:

Take-all patch - On bentgrass, typically young, but any age in sand-based greens or fairways. Lower pH if needed with ammonium sulfate. Reduce stresses such as compaction or excess thatch. Apply Insignia™ or Heritage™, watered-in before the fungicide dries on the leaves. These give good curative action if the plants are not too badly infected.

Bacterial wilt - On annual type Poa annua, usually on old push-up greens where these plants have filled in areas of winter damage and where the root environment is poor. Abrasion from sand top-dressing enhances the problem. There is no chemical treatment or cure. Try to improve the growing conditions to favor bentgrass.

Anthracnose - Usually on Poa annua but can occur on bentgrass. This used to be a disease of summer stress periods, but it occurs almost all the time now where stresses overcome the ability of the plant to fight the fungus. See the online fact sheet 'Why is it So Difficult to Control Anthracnose?' in the Turf Disease Fact Sheets section for more information.

- Submitted by: Dr. Gail Schumann