InteractiveTurf Newsletter newsletter@interactiveturf.com August 5, 2003 Singin' the Soggy Bottom Blues Weather review: The last two weeks of July continued much cooler than normal, and for many included far too much wind, lightning and rain. Many areas of northern Illinois were drenched with 6-10+ inches of rain in July, while the average temperature for the month was 1.5 to 2 degrees below normal. It seems we are stuck in a ‘northwestern flow’ weather pattern, where the jet stream and accompanying cool air weather systems track in from the Dakotas and Minnesota, setting up below normal temperatures and repeated thundershowers. In all, it has been a fairly easy summer to grow grass and maintain a golf course – as long as your (and your neighbor’s) drainage systems/storm sewers can handle the water flow. All those little ‘bird baths’ in fairways become painfully obvious in a year like this, but can give you a pretty good idea of where drainage improvements can be made. Luckily our drainage system cleared out these small puddles that we had after a 5 inch rain on July 27. Down South, some of you enjoyed our much milder temperatures especially in Urbana, Decatur, and Springfield which ran over a degree below normal, but others were about on average. Most of you down South also ran on above average rainfall (Bloomington - 218%!!!), with the notable exceptions of Decatur, Carbondale, and St. Louis which ran on 77%, 91%, and 64% respectively. This first week of August has given us much of the same with highs in the lower 80s for central IL, and high 80s for southern IL so hopefully the weather trend will continue. Diseases: Dollar spot activity, although definitely not new, has been on the rise the past few days in Chicagoland - including our first outbreak at the Golf House Short Course. If temperatures remain in the low to mid 80s over the next few days (and there are heavy dews), dollar spot might warrant your attention, especially if you are at the end of a fungicide control interval. Anthracnose on creeping bentgrass continues to show up, including a healthy dose on our research plots. We have also observed more Bipolaris leaf spot on bluegrass, rye, and creeping bent. With the cooler temps, large brown patch (R. solani) activity should slow, but we could continue to see activity by the cooler temperature Rhizoctonia zeae. In southern Illinois and St. Louis, the story has been dollar spot and fairy ring. Fairy rings are promoted by warm and moist weather with intermittent periods of drought stress. As noted above, these areas have not had as much rain as northern portions of the state, and when they have had rain it has hit hard and dried out quickly... fitting the bill for these predisposing conditions. Spiking or light aerification will help to break the hydrophobic layer that may be present in these areas, along with wetting agents. For outbreaks on greens, Prostar and Heritage can be applied at high rates to attack some of the basidiomycetes that may be causing the damage. Remember, unless the label states otherwise, water these fungicides in with a quarter inch of irrigation to get it into the thatch and root system. Insects: We have seen some bronzed linden trees after Japanese beetle feeding, but overall it does appear that beetle populations are much lower than in previous years for most courses in northern Illinois. We also have not heard of as much JB activity in central IL as last year, but in southern IL, JBs have been a persistent problem. This would leave us to two possible explanations. Perhaps the severe winter in northern IL of 2002-03 really did kill a few overwintering JB grubs, or the recent drenching, violent thunderstorms simply drowned or knocked the beetles off the trees and ornamentals. We have also observed some activity of billbug larvae (whether hunting billbug or some other type?) on fairways, and cutworm and sod webworm activity on greens. We also have reports of activity of cicada-killer wasps, which usually burrow in sandy soils in or around bunkers, and another unknown type of wasp that seems to want to burrow in sand. All of this rain of the last few weeks has of course unleashed a boat-load of mosquitoes, and a fairly harmless but high nuisance type of gnat (!), the latter especially bad closer to Lake Michigan. If you drive your golf cart through a swarm of gnats with your mouth open, you can skip supper because you will have met your protein requirements for the day…. Weeds: Moss and algae blooms are really becoming bothersome at this point, since both are likely favored by wet conditions maintained at the soil surface. Spiking, hydro-ject or solid tine, quadra-tine type of aerificiation will help move water off the soil surface and dry out turf, which will help alleviate some of these problems – once it stops raining. High traffic areas and clean-up circles are especially vulnerable to thinning following heavy rains, and may be areas that algal scums are first noticed. +++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks for your support of this, as well as all of our research programs, Randy Kane CDGA Director of Turfgrass Programs Midwest Golf House 11855 Archer Ave Lemont, IL 60439 630-257-8126 Lee Miller CDGA Manager of Turfgrass Research Midwest Golf House 11855 Archer Ave Lemont, IL 60439 630-257-2005 x.111 IT data totals for July