Chicago District Golf Association Scouting Report

Transcription

1 Chicago District Golf Association Scouting Report Timing, timing, timing. It s that part of the year where winding down starts with much of the heavy play starting to decline on the courses and many managers pull the trigger on cultural practices. It can be an awkward time of the year for many of us cultural practices disrupt some excellent surfaces and so memberships are not happy. A majority of courses pencil in the dates for these practices at least a year in advance and gladly stick to the dates. During a normal summer turf has gotten beat up at this stage and many of us need to open up the putting surface to get oxygen back into the roots and promote recovery. This year has been a little different temperature wise and many of the courses I have seen have had greens in excellent condition. The issue is that if you don t pull the trigger on the practices now, recovery may not be there and markings may last all the way into next year especially if we get an early cold snap. This juggling act is really hard to balance and always leaves someone unhappy however you handle is your choice but make sure it s done in a diplomatic way! Finally, we need rain last weeks effort wasn t enough and there is not much in the forecast currently don t get into wilt situations leading to potential problems you don t and for managers on Poa greens using probes make sure you are at the 1.5 inch depth and watch for the early part of the week, labor day might be gone but weather wise there will be a lot of water loss don t get caught out! Enjoy the holiday! Climate: Dryness is now the word however some of you may be happy to have put a hold on roughs exploding. Rain fall did occur late this week, but not everywhere and it didn t fall in a helpful manner for the most part. Temperatures were definitely up there with >90 F recorded on 5 days. This also lead to a push in soil temperatures, but with declining day length the effect nay be decreased Temperature (degrees F) Air minimum Air maximum Soil Avg. (2 in. depth) Sunshine Course (Lemont - a southwest Chicago suburb) Figure 1. Temperatures at Sunshine Course, Lemont, Illinois, August 2013

2 Rain fall in the locality, was spotty but Sunshine Course did receive 0.2 in the late week precipitation (Figure 2). This coming week take care especially on the cooler days its even better weather for water loss out of stomates therefore stay dragging hose for another few days if you can! Daily precipitation (inches) rainfall event Sunshine Course (Lemont - a southwest Chicago suburb) Figure 2. Precipitation at Sunshine Course, Lemont, Illinois, August 2013 Light integrals have been relatively consistent this week (Figure 3), and despite the fact that the day lengths have shortened, light intensity is still high at mid day. The trend should be one of declining in total light seen going forward which will turn conditions back in favor of Poa annua Daily light integral mol.m 2.d Measured daily light integral Possible Ideal Sunshine Course Lemont IL Figure 3. Irradiance values at Sunshine Course, Lemont, Illinois, August 2013 Humidity extremes were on the low side (Figure 4), this week which did not help with water loss from turf thus pushing hours up and making more opportunities for the specialists trained in hose operation! The dryness probably helped somewhat the development of disease problems but the wind associated with it definitely has a hair drying effect!

3 Temeprature F Cumulative time (Hours) Humidity >90% Humidity >90% Date Figure 4. Total daily hours above 90% humidity, August 2013, at Sunshine Course, Lemont IL In central Illinois there was no rain what so ever I believe all week and the figures from Peoria confirm this. It was hotter in Central Illinois with four straight days early in the week above 90 F which makes for a tough life especially when water has been missing (Figure 5). There was no rain (Figure 6) what so ever I believe all week and the figures from Peoria confirm this. To return the water lost over the week via evapotranspiration (Figure 7), would require 27,154 gallons of water per acre to give you a 1 inch depth Temperatures F Minimum Maximum Peoria CC, Central Illinois Figure 5. Maximum and minimum air temperatures August 2013, Peoria CC, Peoria County, IL.

4 Water volume (Inches) Humidity (%) Precipitation (Inches) Rainfall Peoria CC Figure 6. Daily rainfall events August 2013, at Peoria CC, Peoria County, IL Water loss / gain from plants Evapotranspiration (Inches) Humidity Disease: Peoria CC, Central Illinois Figure 7. Daily evapotranspiration rates and % relative humidity August 2013, at Peoria CC, Peoria County, IL This week has brought about some anthracnose activity (Picture 1). I suspect that the main factor is the lack of rain and that turf in particular Poa annua does not like it. The disease can be triggered by wilt and this is where the issue of using 1.5 probes on your soil moisture meters is really important for the Poa. Also if you didn t receive some of the downpours its time to baby the poa with water a little bit. The pressure will dissipate for many of you as the main golf season seems to be over once Labor Day passes so your concern with other issues may take precedence.

5 E Nangle Picture 1. Anthracnose Colleotrichum cereal (Formerly C. graminicola) on a course in Chicago this week Fairy ring (Picture 2) has also hung around a little bit, but the extreme effects have not been reported to much this year, and managers who have had previous problems reported relatively good success with early DMI applications this year. E Nangle Picture 2. Fairy ring on a dry area on a golf course in Chicago this week

6 Insects: Finally some activity!! Exciting for me but an annoyance for managers. The earlier part of the summer where many of us had sufficient natural rainfall may have meant that there was probably not as much migration from normally dry home lawns located beside/around many courses. This seems to have resulted in not as much damage to turf now that we have heat and dry conditions. Pictures (Picture 3&4) taken this week showed that the problem is there and its time to scout for stressed turf and do tug tests to see if roots are still intact. E Nangle Picture 3. The result of active grub digging in Chicago this week. Picture 4. The target of the digging this week in Chicago. Threshold levels for damage can be around 8 grubs/ ft 2

7 Weeds: With turf struggling without water, many more weeds have shown up, dandelions were really thriving at Sunshine course. Also noticed this week around some sprinkler heads was some sedge which enjoys life in the wet spots and is very competitive in this warm weather. A three way product will get the dandelions while many people will use Halosulfuron-methyl for control. Management strategy: This week I want to talk a little about product evaluation. As managers you are in a situation that means you must maintain a facility within an annual budget. I can guarantee that a majority of you did not get much in the way of budget planning unless you took a business minor in school. This means that it can be tough to juggle everything. Regardless of other costs, one of your most important decisions is based on how you decide to manage your control products budget. This is crucial to turf health and of course to your job! If you are using products for the first time 1) Test it on a spot on the driving range or somewhere that you can afford to take some burn in case there is phyto toxicity many of you do this which is refreshing. 2) Check for compatibility with other products you may use we talked a little about this earlier in the year. 3) If you are unsure about the product contact your local extension agent/or me for further information regarding its use. 4) If you are unsure about the quality of the product and the claims you are hearing ask for independent data. I don t think that despite the fact the guy down the road having the best greens in twenty years I would decide to spray my precious 3-5 acres. Independent data should come from universities or private researchers with excellent reputations. 5) If you are using a potential new seed cultivar you must try the new cultivar in a small area at the mowing height that you normally operate under. Taking some of these steps will give you some comfort while also ensuring that you are being fiscally responsible to the golf course and its members. FINALLY!!! This week was difficult as the picture was not necessarily the best, however some people came close but only one got the cookie. The issue was created by leaving a tractor sitting on turf for too long not a table as many thought. Table remains unchanged at the top. 1 K. Sams 8 2 K. Goss 7 3 T. White 6 4 D. Davis 5 5 B. Thompson 4 6 K. Peterson 4 7 J. Anderson 3 8 J. VerCautren 3 9 B. Bossert 3 10 D. Groelle 3 10 A. Palos 3 10 S. Hillyard 3 This weeks picture is a bit easier. What caused this? Answers to enangle@cdga.org

8 Reference: Dr. Lee Miller s most recent report is linked below dated As always if you have a question or query please do not hesitate to ask, and you can call or . Ed Nangle PhD Director of Turfgrass Programs Chicago District Golf Association Archer Ave Lemont, IL P C enangle@cdga.org