At Cog Hill checking a small blemish on collar. Four tiny tillers are saying hello. Settle

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1 August 24, 2012 Scouting Report Augtember: A Nice Month, Root Growth Returns, Greens With Good Color, Summer Patch Recovery Begins, Take-All of Bent, and Tim says Fairy Ring! Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - e DSettle@cdga.org web Yes! Augtember is what a friend of mine typed from Georgia the other day. Well, I liked it! And it spoke volumes a period of cool tempertures has taken hold across a majority of the country. Dramatic. Yes, dramatic when you think about how it has followed the warmest July or how about the warmest month ever recorded in the United States? Yet, we didn t exactly know how to handle it at first this new month of Augtember. It would catch us a little by surprise at midday we found plants were still screaming for water. The lesson? Cool temperatures do not equate to an immediate return of plant health or a Houdini-like return of things like roots. But now, two weeks into this wondrous weather, we are beginning to see some nice things happen. At Cog Hill checking a small blemish on collar. Four tiny tillers are saying hello. Settle Bentgrass greens with restricted air movement are finally looking good again deep green color without chlorotic patches. Poa greens without roots are finally on the move and that would be down! There is only word that best describes this technical physiological aspect of new root growth for Poa annua var. reptans. Yes! On the turf disease front, a favorite category, we are not seeing much. Daily reports from superintendents are sounding lack luster? Disease pressure has been very low and there isn t much to report on that front. Or how about our current discourse on Augtember s weather? 45 degrees last night! It must be September!! Just a few more degrees and we would be having a frost. End of summer in 2012 and all I can say is Yes! Page 1

2 Temperature (F) Aug 2-Aug Augtember!!! Soil & Night Temps Fell...and Root Growth Returned High Low Soil 2 in. RH (%) nights become chilly 3-Aug 4-Aug 5-Aug 6-Aug 7-Aug 8-Aug 9-Aug 10-Aug 11-Aug 12-Aug highs jump, but it's not gonna last Sunshine Golf Course (Lemont - a southwest Chicago suburb) Northern Illinois Super Scout Cool weather continues and turf continues to improve. Rough has started growing, but we have missed the recent rains and our irrigation lake continues to drop and is now at the lowest level yet this year. No diseases to speak of. 13-Aug 14-Aug 15-Aug Aug 17-Aug 18-Aug 19-Aug Aug 21-Aug 22-Aug Aug Southern IL: Throughout Illinois it's Augtember and Bentgrass Recovers highs (like Sep) allow recovery Temperature (F) Aug 2-Aug Southern Illinois Super Scout With the 10 day forecast looking great for this end of the state we pulled the trigger on aerification of putting greens this week. Although soil temperatures are not perfect for root growth yet, they aren t far away and shoot growth has picked back up nicely. Disease pressure is low and with the most challenging part of the season in the rear view mirror, we can finish some projects and look forward to something besides fixing damage on putting greens. Page 2 3-Aug 4-Aug 5-Aug 6-Aug 7-Aug 8-Aug 9-Aug 10-Aug 11-Aug Hickory Ridge Golf Course (Carbondale - Southern Illinois) 12-Aug 13-Aug 14-Aug 15-Aug 16-Aug soil T stays below High Low Soil 2 in. RH (%) amazing cool nights (like Sep) 17-Aug 18-Aug 19-Aug 20-Aug 21-Aug 22-Aug 23-Aug 79 58

3 This week to an assistant superintendent I said I can count four tillers on this plant! 1. Recovery from Summer Patch. Cooler soil temps AND a root rot disease is now on the ropes. After a month of summer patch in our roughs we begin to see the reverse. A return of growth by Kentucky bluegrass means frog-eyes (center of dead patch sees turf regrowth). Settle Page 3

4 This week I said to a superintendent Summer is over when attention shifts to rough! 2. Rough Contamination. Though it spreads by rhizomes, Kentucky bluegrass can be outcompeted by two with a stoloniferous growth habit creeping bentgrass and Poa trivialis. Bent can be an agressive weed of lawns, roughs and fairways of Kentucky blue. Settle Page 4

5 This week I said to a superintendent It s looking better Rings are greener this week! 3. USGA Fairy Ring Research with Drs. Fidanza and Wetzel. A return of growth by cool-season turfgrasses especially given fairy ring activity, green rings of turf quickly grow tall and lush. The Dr. investigates a type II fairy ring on a Chicago golf course fairway. Sibicky Alternatives to fungicides. A large fairy ring is bracketed with treatments on a fairway and we ve begun to see some differences on day 21. Next week we will pull our soil samples. Settle Page 5

6 This week said to a superintendent, That really was a big storm! 4. Tree Damage by Wind. Each year, storms will damage trees. It s difficult to forecast extreme weather events, but increasingly apparent that we must plan for such thunderstorms in summer. Honeylocusts seemed to be particuarly vulnerable to storm damage on August 3rd. Settle Page 6

7 This week I said to a superintendent, Could take-all of bentgrass fairways be returning? 5. Take-all of Bentgrass Fairways. As we shift cooler we now see return of early summer issues. Surprise! Injury would turn out to be, in part, take-all patch in a bentgrass fairway. Settle Page 7

8 This week I said to a superintendent, Could take-all of bentgrass greens be returning? 6. Take-all of Bentgrass Greens. A previously unsolved mystery looked all too familiar to me. A Penn A-4 green has a pattern of patches that look suspicious; especially given the rootzone has plenty of soil moisture. Later, under a microscope bentgrass roots showed take-all. Settle Page 8

9 Tim Sibicky, MS - TSibicky@cdga.org CDGA Turfgrass Research Manager Fairy Ring Curative Approach Fairy ring on cool-season turf continues to be active in and around the Chicago region. Although there have been cooler temperatures the last few weeks and it has favored much recovery of stressed golf course areas, those conditions may have caused active fairy rings to become more evident due to variances in growth by affected turf (stimulated by fungal nutrient release). Visual symptoms from fairy ring are frequently dark green lush rings or arcs (type II) when conditions promote active turf growth. Additionally, this excessive turf growth can scalp when compared to surrounding areas of normal growth. In turf areas affected by type I symptoms (dead rings) the damage is also likely more evident as the surrounding/unaffected turf now appears healthier. Unfortunately, areas affected by type I fairy ring can take several months to fully recover. Ongoing Research: A curative fairy ring study was established in Lemont at Cog Hill Golf and Country Club in early August to investigate several of the newest fungicide products on the market. Treatments were arranged so that type II fairy rings on the creeping bentgrass nursery green were each divided into 8 plots. Applications were made so triangular plots could be formed by use of framed-plastic to cover adjacent plots preventing overspray. Included in the study are 14 different treatments, half of the products are currently commercially available while an additional 7 treatments are experimental products. Of fungicides available, we are testing three DMI chemistries, Triton Flo (a.i. triticonazole), Torque (a.i. tebuconazole) and Bayleton Flo (a.i. triadimefon). Triton Flo has shown the most significant reduction of ring intensity and the fungicide is formulated with StressGard (greening effect). The results for Torque are statistically similar to that of Triton Flo but are still not significantly different from untreated checks. So far, Bayleton Flo appears not as effective curatively. The product Velista (a.i. penthiopyrad) is a brand new Dupont fungicide, in the same carboximide fungicide family as Prostar and Emerald. Ring color intensity (0 4, 4 is dark green) *Means with the same letter are not significant (P<0.05, FLSD) Figure 1. Green color intensity reduction of type 2 fairy ring (7 Aug versus 22 Aug) on a green. Page 9 Reduction of Fairy Ring Symptoms, Intensity of Color Change of intensity from 7 Aug (untreated) to 22 Aug (post treatment) single curative application on 4 Aug, 2012 Triton Flo a Torque ab Prostar70WG ab Segway ab Affirm ab BayletonFlo b Check b Velista b Check b

10 Cooler temperatures have caused ring intensity to fade slightly in a nursery green study, Lemont, IL. Nails highlight the ring so that the dimensions of each ring can be measured. Sibicky The DMI fungicide Triton Flo has performed well in reducing the severity/intensity of type II fairy ring in Lemont. For example, in this replication the ring is difficult to see. Sibicky Page 10

11 Final Images A post-july theme Post-July. Creeping bentgrass seedlings begin to do their thing, spreading begins. Settle Post-July. Even a tough annual flowering tobacco, Nicotiana alata, got beat up. Settle Page 11

12 Post-July. Poa annua has again begun to show off. The ash tree is no longer able. Settle Post-July. Coleus was a Superstar this summer it handled incredible record heat. Settle Augtember! We learned a new month and began to watch turfgrass regrowth Derek, Tim, Chris and Niki The CDGA Turfgrass Program Page 12