When will my
seedheads sprout?
Weather:
What a warm March it was! This
warm weather finally curtailed in the first week of April but
boy what an early wake up call that was for the grass. Many
superintendents are saying the grass is greener than they have
ever seen it at this time of year. The
spell between March 24-28 was 12-19 degrees above average, and
the whole month for northern Illinois was 3-4 degrees above
normal. Some areas in central and southern Illinois were as
much as 7 degrees above average for the month!
For the next day or so, air temperatures
in northern Illinois are expected to remain above average but
crash into the 40's over the weekend. Soil temperatures which
spiked into the mid 50's during the warm spell in March may
do the same in this short period, but drop again into our normal
mid to upper 40's after the weekend. Rain totals for March were
close to normal, but it has been a dry April thus far. With
a very dry forecast over the next week, we may run into a deficit
on April showers for the first half of the month (and if it
heats up again some LDS may begin to show).
Poa Seeding Outlook:
The early spring warm-up and resulting
forsythia bloom has sparked numerous questions about appropriate
timing of sprays for seedhead suppression. Here at Golf House
and in central IL the first smatterings of seedheads have been
observed. In Bloomington, the seedheads are just starting in
fairways and here the seedheads are seeding in our seeded Poa
annua reptans ‘Trueputt’ tee (good indicator huh?!) and
in some rough areas. With the current warm spell, the seeding
process will continue, but a cool weekend could put the brakes
on it again (the normal spring see-saw). If you are applying
Embark, you may want to wait until the last frost to avoid phytotoxicity.
Proxy + Primo treatments, which are a bit safer, are supposed
to be applied before Poa sets seed, in the booting
stage.
That being said, the million or
so different biotypes seed at different times, some now and
some all the way into June, so multiple applications will be
necessary. Some superintendents (along with Randy and I) are
experimenting with spraying thrice with a 3 oz rate of Proxy
on a 21 day interval instead of twice with a 5 oz rate on a
28 day schedule. We sprayed our first set of plots on Monday,
along with many other superintendents on the South side. Our
next set of plots will be sprayed next Monday to see the effects
of waiting a week. For reference, last year we sprayed on April
18 about a week later (the spring is pushing us too!). .
Diseases:
Since the late March hot spell,
what little snow mold damage we had observed here at Golf House
has disappeared, (except for a few persistent pink spots). We
do not expect much snow mold weather for the remainder of the
year, especially with actively growing grass and a dry forecast.
We have seen a little (cool weather?) Pythium damage
on newly seeded areas, but otherwise turf in most areas is greening
up quite nicely.
If rain does fall in the next few
weeks, we may see the return of the Rhizoctonia zeae
rings (see photo
below) that have haunted some courses on Poa
annua greens, tees, and fairways. The pathogen is different
from 'yellow patch' caused by Rhizoctonia cerealis and
infects at a higher temperature regime (50-65 degrees for R.
zeae vs. > 50 degrees for R. cerealis). Like R.
cerealis however, damage to turf is often minor and when
turf growth increases the patches normally disappear.
Insects:
Last but not least, cutworm moths
have been blowing up in southern winds and were 'intensely'
captured (9-11 moths per day) in late March in southern Illinois
and Kentucky. Slightly less intense captures (8 moths) were
registered in Piatt and Sangamon counties. This year I will
be a trapper up here in Lemont and will be working on developing
a cutworm model, so any information regarding cutworm outbreaks
would be very helpful.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
A Few Additional Notes
- Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement of
a Microsoft Powerpoint & Computer Workshop on April 22 at
the Midwest Golf House. The event will be cosponsored by the
CDGA and USGA, and should be extremely informative ... so save
the date!
- Please send back your subscription form for
the 2004 season or drop a quick line to us. Invoices will be
sent out shortly as we get cranking again this season!!!
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.106
Photo 1: Distinct yellow rings caused by
Rhizoctonia zeae are often observed in these spring temperatures.
.jpg)
(Click
Picture to go to Cool Weather Brown Patch Update)
