Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -

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1 August 6, 2010 Scouting Report A Difficult, Unkin Season: Humiity an highs set recors, Physiological ecline rules, Anthracnose BSR affects bentgrass, Dollar spot takes off, Pythium is a regular vocabulary wor, Brown patch amazes us, Summer patch ruins lawns an roughs, Tim summarizes brown patch ata, an Nick says TLC Chicago/Northern Illinois Upate: Derek Settle - DSettle@ga.org Be kin? As we entere a new month, many were thinking August might be kiner an gentler. I was one. After all, July gave us a ozen ays above 90 egrees an floo events were common. Since 1871 it ranke as top ten for both warmest an wettest. Then as August began, the 90+ egree highs in northern Illinois seeme to stop an soil temperatures fell by about 5 egrees. However, high above us intense thunerstorms have regaine control (see image). Ring of Fire terminology has returne to our weathermen s lips an, as in July, we continue to floo with regularity. The associate high humiity means a sweltering hot summer continues. Intense Thunerstorms. Chicago s south suburbs woke to heavy rain on Tuesay that flooe Joliet with 5.7 inches. In Lemont on Sunshine Course 2.5 inches fell (image). Settle This comes when most turfgrass surfaces are now efine by saturate soils. Soil pores fille to capacity can accept no more an many times surface rainage becomes the only way to ry as high humiities limit evaporation. With frequency, golf courses report closing for part of the ay following rains because flooe areas are impassable for long perios. Never min limiting traffic while saturate primarily preserves integrity of life turfgrass. Flooing is never goo, but misummer its amage will remain visible for some time as recuperative potential for coolseason turf is lowest when it s hot. A hot, humi summer continues, so unerstan an respect ecisions that restrict traffic an moify cultural practices. Cart paths may be require an ball roll spees may slow it preserves the game as a mature, pae-surface will remain. Be kin? Page 1

2 Many Regions Are Having a Difficult Growing Season the Eastern U. S. for example A upcoming hot, humi week is forecast for Chicago. High temperatures of over 90 egrees are expecte to return for northern Illinois next week. Turf Loss Avisories are now being poste in other parts of the country. The message: Be Careful. A USGA Turf Loss Avisory from the Mi-Atlantic Region by Stan Zontek, Darin Bevar, Keith Happ Be more concerne about plant health than green spee!!! There is an ol aage in our inustry, slow grass is better than no grass. This is not a joke. It nees to be taken seriously. Suggeste efensive management programs inclue: Compress spray programs. With heat, humiity an thunerstorms, fungicies o not last as long an isease pressure is greater. There is no better money spent than to protect the grass from isease. Raise mowing heights an use sharp mowers. This can help the grass survive. Mow less/roll more. The goal is to reuce mechanical stress to the grass plant. Switch from groove to soli rollers (an protect collars from the turning of mowers). Spoonfee the grass. Weekly sprays are best when applying light rates of fertility, iron (to keep the grass green) an growth regulators. Excessive grass growth epletes carbohyrates. Air rainage. On pockete greens, prune limbs, use fans an generally keep the air moving. When you are hot, you stan in front of a fan. When the grass is stresse, it nees goo air movement as well. Drier turf is also less prone to isease. DO NOT OVER-WATER. Han water. Lightly syringe the turf with the nozzle never going past horizontal. Any mi-ay watering shoul be focuse on cooling the canopy. If you are wetting the soil, you are not syringing! Remember, you can always a more water but wet, saturate soil amages roots, increases isease an contributes to turf loss via the Wet Wilt Synrome. If corrective watering nees to be one for ry spots, the extra water shoul be applie in the early morning or late in the evening. Do not overwater the grass in mi-ay heat. Surface aerate/vent the greens. This allows the soil to breath, excess moisture to escape an roots to regrow which helps the grass survive. In summary, be careful. This may be one of our hottest summers in ecaes. We all share the responsibility of keeping the turf on our golf courses as healthy as possible uring this perio of extreme weather. Again, be careful an have realistic expectations for golf course playability. Page 2

3 Intense Thunerstorms Continue With Frequency in 2010 Chicago an many other Illinois locations set recor rainfall totals for July. For example, since June 1 Miway has recore 19 inches this summer. This is ouble what we shoul normally see. Not since 1957 have we experience a wetter summer accoring to airport weather stations at Miway an O Hare. It turns out the problem is not the number of ays of rain, but instea is ue to the intensity of storms. This was illustrate on July 23, when most Chicago suburbs experience from 4 to 8 inches of rain. In 2010, rain oes not come in tenths, instea it is inches. Aug 3 Thunerstorms: Chicago's South Suburbs Flooe Inches of Rain (Preawn from 2 am to 7 am) Joliet Glen Ellyn Manhattan Oswego Flossmoor Aurora Oak Brook New Lenox Woorige Lemont Lisle Bolingbrook Daily Average Relative Humiity (%) Jul 4 August: Highest humiity recore so far in 2010 Dew Point was77 egrees, not higher since June, Jul 5-Jul 7-Jul 9-Jul 11-Jul 13-Jul 15-Jul 17-Jul 19-Jul 21-Jul 23-Jul 25-Jul 27-Jul 29-Jul 31-Jul 2-Aug 4-Aug 92.8 Sunshine Course, Lemont Aurora CC, Aurora Crystal Tree CC, Orlan Park Page 3

4 A hot week is forecast: 90+ egrees the secon week of August across Illinois source: July Numbers Are In: Tim McGill, Chicago Weather Center Blog poste Monay August 2 The average high in July was 87.1 about 3.6 above normal. The overall (both high an low) average temperature was 77.7 ranking this July as the 7th warmest since recors began inches of rain fell, more than oubling the average amount. This ranks July as the thir wettest since We saw two aily rainfall recors fall uring July inches of rain fell on July 23r breaking the ol recor of 2.26 inches inches on July 24th of rain fell shattering the ol recor of 1.48 inches. This July Sets Longest Hot Streak Above 80 Degrees 28 ays Tom Skilling answere a question this week. What is Chicago s longest streak of ays at or above 80 egrees? This July the city set a recor for consecutive ays above 80 egrees, logging 28 from July 2 to July 29, but lowering the criterion to inclue highs of 80 egrees increases the string to a recor 42 ays establishe from June 27 to Aug. 7, Moels Forecasting a Hot Scenario Next Week: Gilbert Sebenste, Northern Illinois Univ. The computer moels have now all converge on a solution for a hot an humi week next week, with temperatures in the 90s by ay all week long with high humiity. While not certain, there is now a high risk that a significant heat wave lasting at least 5 ays will occur next week, starting on Sunay an lasting through at least next Friay. Even if tempere at times by thunerstorms, which is possible...plan for this to occur. Heat inicies coul be consierably over 100 egrees in the afternoon hours of Monay-Friay, unless thunerstorms cool us off. Page 4

5 Combination of Issues Now Creating Havoc: This Week Many Chicago Suburbs Flooe South Suburb: Fairway surface rain, otherwise combine injury exacerbate by this week s flooing woul be far worse. Low, poorly raining fairways o not fare well in A combination of black algae, Pythium blight, an brown patch injure this L-93 bentgrass fairway on Sunshine Course. Settle North Suburb: Fairway surface rain, otherwise combine injury exacerbate by this week s flooing woul be far worse. Same story, ifferent ay, ifferent golf course. A low bentgrass/poa fairway is amage by a combination of physiological ecline, brown patch, an Pythium blight. Settle Page 5

6 Tim Sibicky, M. S. - TSibicky@ga.org CDGA Turfgrass Research Manager Brown Patch on Fairways The 2010 season has been tremenous for evelopment of Brown Patch Disease cause by the pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. Unusual weather patterns an the meteorologist coine terminology Ring of Fire have really gotten annoying, not to mention the rain totals that we are beginning to measure by the foot. Experiencing this week some of the highest ew points, humiity an steaily increasing soil temperatures have all been contributing factors to outstaning isease pressures an physiological turfgrass ecline (often confuse with amage from isease, but it s not). Figure 1. Fairway plots on Sunshine Course show varying egrees of brown patch with DewCure having higher incience. A fairway stuy currently being conucte to test fungicie efficacy an programming for ollar spot isease on Sunshine Course still has yet to require any curative applications of chlorothalonil to maintain levels below the set threshol of 5% amage. The fairway location this year has remaine wet. In lieu of ollar spot, we have observe high levels of brown patch. Results show the treatments with DewCure appear to intensify isease symptoms of brown patch (previously ocumente by CDGA in 2008). In aition we were also able to see higher levels of isease within certain curative treatments, as well as the CDGA booken (begins with single Emeral application at 0.18 oz per 1000 sq. ft.). Also, increase brown patch isease incience with the use of DewCure has been observe in our biorational prouct stuies this year. Fairway Brown Patch Development % Brown patch per plot a 25 ab Sunshine Golf Course, Lemont, IL (ata from Jun 26, 2010) LSD@0.05 = abc 15 abc 10 bc 9 bc 3 c 1 c 1 c 1 c 1 c 0 c 0 c Page 6

7 An epiemic of brown patch isease has also evelope on the NCERA fairway bentgrass cultivar trial test at Sunshine. Last week, we were able to compare ifferences of resistance to ollar spot isease. This week we are able to compare the ifferent varieties versus brown patch. As seen in the chart below, the only colonial bentgrass Alister is by far the most susceptible on August 2, followe by creeping bentgrasses Penncross, Memorial, Bengal, CY-2 an A-4. Better varieties with resistance to brown patch inclue 007, Shark, Putter, Crystal Bluelinks, Crenshaw, Century an Alpha. However the varieties of Crenshaw, Crystal Bluelinks, Century, Putter, Inepenence an Imperial have been shown to be very poor performers when it comes to ollar spot resistance an this makes it ifficult to evaluate those for brown patch. It is important to weigh all the available options an unerstan the pros an cons before you finalize your ecision, whether it is a grass variety (lasts years) or a fungicie (lasts ays-weeks). Figure 2. Visual comparison of two creeping bentgrass varieties. Memorial (brown patch susceptible), an Crenshaw (ollar spot susceptible). % Brown patch per plot a Fairway Brown Path Disease Cultivar Comparison Sunshine Golf Course, Lemont, IL (ata from Aug 2, 2010) ab abc ab b b b b 8.33 LSD@0.05 =20.49 Figure 3. A graph of varietal ifferences of several bentgrass cultivars versus brown patch isease. Q. Can anyone name this insect???? A. Black Cutworm!! Page 7

8 Nick DeVries - NDevries@ga.org Research Assistant an Internet Communications Manager Website TLC This week in turf tech our website receive some TLC. The improvements inclue upate social meia links, a jquery banner slieshow, an flashy ownloa buttons. The banner slieshow rotates 16 ifferent pictures, an we nee your help eciing which ones to keep. Please me at nevries@ga.org with the banners you like the best. Also me if you want something like this on your website an I will help you with the coe. The new upates can be seen now at Don t forget that we have two years worth of scouting reports store on our website for your viewing pleasure. Tweets Early statistics are showing that Illinois has receive an 8.1% increase in golf rouns playe at public an private golf course. Source: USA Toay. The superintenent at Bull s Eye Country Club answers member s questions in a matter-of-fact way. Not granma s lemonae - How to Make Lawn Clipping Tea! Cheers Page 8

9 Final images nature Burr Oak, Quercus palustris, North Shore Country Club s Bicentennial Tree. As this tree began its life, a revolution transforme 13 colonies into the Unite States of America. Settle Slime mol sporangia use leaf blaes of a creeping bentgrass fairway to sporulate. Settle Thank you for your continue support an communication... Derek, Tim, an Nick The CDGA Turfgrass Program Page 9