Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - e Blog

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1 September 9, 2011 Scouting Report 22 Sep Sunshine Course hosts iturf Expo: Soil Temps Drop to 60s, Poa annua Roots?, Dollar Spot, and Tim says Bewitched! Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - e DSettle@cdga.org Blog It now quickly feels and looks like fall. How do I know? You see I looked out my apartment window this morning and there it was. I found a yellow color decorating a favorite tree of mine. It was thornless honeylocust and it had begun to develop fall color overnight it seemed. The Chicago nighttime temps must have gotten to it this week we logged a couple 40-somethings. How do I know? In the human environment; by day our air conditioning is off more than it is on, by night our windows are closed and we are back into the closet so we can sport light jackets. In the turf environment; bentgrass is as healthy as we ve seen all year, superintendents are poking holes (aerification), and greens are lightning fast. That s all positive news. It tells you Fall color has begun. The first, honey locust and crabgrass, are turning yellow. Settle we are getting beyond the thrashings of a summer called But are we? I didn t mention Poa greens did I? Well, they continue to give us some trouble. This week they still didn t look quite right in Chicago. I was asked to rule out anthracnose basal stem rot a couple of times it was not. Instead, the problem was the inablity of Poa annua to respond to cooler soil temps with new healthy roots. Be patient, with cool-season turf, there is a lag time after shock therapy summer Under the microscope this week I saw new roots and a sudden appearance of root hairs. It tells me it s going to be OK. In fact, the best Poa plant health on greens was centered directly over needle-tine holes that were made very recently. I m speachless? Not really roots! Page 1

2 Weather Review: Windy? Yes it was. A little thing called Tropical Storm Lee (not named after Lee Miller, although he s coming to speak on Sep 22 iturf Expo/Turf Research Field Day). Windy weather made Chicago s Poa greens require lots of hand-watering/hose carrying. Superintendents and crew are getting tired of Poa no roots annua. In the next few weeks things will get better. Soil temps are now in the 60s and nighttime lows have begun to plummet. Hello September! Chicago Enjoys a BIG Plummet in Temperature 100 1st time in 17 years back to back 60s for highs so early 90 Temperature (F) May = last time night lows in 40s Low High Soil (avg. 2 inches) Aug 25-Aug 26-Aug 27-Aug 28-Aug 29-Aug 30-Aug 31-Aug 6-Sep 5-Sep 4-Sep 3-Sep 2-Sep 1-Sep Sunshine Golf Course (Lemont - a southwest Chicago suburb) 7-Sep 8-Sep Page 2

3 Where s Da Roots? A Return of Root Growth Seems Delayed Thursday, Sep 8, 2011 Diagnostic Blog I could have easily titled this "Off-color In Chicago" but then my mom might start calling my office with concerns that I have jaundice. So...to explain our current predicament in turfdom I will share my field notes taken earlier today at a Chicago area golf course. Diagnostic Visit 7:30am: Saw 10 green first. No real issues other than uniformly off-color. Nutrient deficiency likely on all greens. A granular fert was applied a week ago on Monday. Did very little. Greens continue not to handle golfer foot traffic well. A foliar nitrogen application would help (I like plain urea) but the planned application couldn't occur yesterday too windy. Still more tournaments are scheduled on these greens with a big league championship beginning today. Supe is tired. Will rule out anthracnose BSR but not likely. Poa is yellow and bent is red. Some bent is thinning in a few patches on about every 3rd green. The wind the past few days has been heck for superintendent and staff to keep up on the watering schedule. Watered last night and still no dew on the canopy = dry because it was windy through the night. They continue to hand water, but it is difficult. Greens are wet in the lower rootzone so it is only the upper inch that is demanding daily water management with hoses. Oh to be a Poa green following a difficult summer season. All will reverse soon. Can you hear that? Roots are growing. Better yet, root hairs are growing! This Poa annua golf green looks off-color and is also thin in places. The superintendent worries it might be anthracnose basal stem rot. It it is not and likely it is nitrogen deficient. Settle Page 3

4 Dollar spot-zilla is most impressive this time of year. Good news, bad news. The good news is that we now are dealing with fewer issues in the landscape as temperatures continue to cool. If you haven t figured it out yet, most of the action that comes our way from Kingdom Fungi occurs during peak summer warmth. There is one however that is our nemesis dollar spot. Dollar spot has a wide temperature range of activity. A few notes from Chicago on dollar spot development in Dollar spot began earlierr than usual because we warmed up earlier it began about Memorial Day. Then June continued to provide ideal conditions warm nights, frequent periodss of rainfall and leaf wetness durations of 10 hours or more. Then July and August came. In July progression may have been stiffled somewhat because our average high temperature was 90 on Sunshine Course. Very unusual as Chicago is a cool, humid environment and so dollar spot usually keeps developing all season. Late August and September have brought cooler days and nights. Now we re back in business since dollar spot s optimumm temp range is Number 1 green is now giving nice dollar spot data! Sunshine Course, Lemont IL. Settle Page 4

5 Tim Sibicky, MS Manager of Turfgrass Research Kentucky Bluegrass Varieties Kentucky bluegrass roughs and fairways have faced a whirlwind of challenges this year when it comes to maintaining healthy turf. Two of the biggest areas of concern have been disease and weed control as we have observed both of these issues in the Low-Mow Kentucky Bluegrass Cultivar Variety Trial on Sunshine Course s number 3 fairway in Lemont, IL. Disease has been evident with the presence of dollar spot (Sclerotinia homoeocarpa) and weeds have also proved to be difficult with the encroachment of crabgrass (Digitaria spp.). The study s focus continues to test 52 commercially available Kentucky bluegrass varieties for use as an alternative fairway grass. Since 2009 the study has been ongoing, surviving the consistently warm summer of 2010 and now the summer extremes of A Kentucky bluegrass rough has been blighted in large areas by dollar spot disease caused by the pathogen Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. Disease pressure for dollar spot has been extremely high in 2011 when levels of damage can exceed 80% or 90% if untreated. Sibicky The variety Bewitched (left) has excellent quality and good dollar spot resistance as compared with Princeton 105 (right) which has levels of disease approaching 10% damage. Sibicky Page 5

6 Dollar spot disease was allowed to develop throughout the summer months. After four monthly ratings, we are able to statistically separate varieties with better genetic resistance from more susceptible varieties. The Kentucky bluegrass varieties with most concern for dollar spot are, Harmonie, Limousine, MoonlightSLT, Julius, 4-Season, Princeton 105, Touche, Jumpstart and Spitfire. Meanwhile, all the other varieties to the right of Spitfire in the Dollar Spot chart below are not significantly different from one another (= all are dollar spot resistant). This year the Kentucky bluegrass cultivar study also yielded some of the best crabgrass pressure I have ever seen. By the end of July, many of the cultivars had levels of encroachment that exceeded 50%. Varieties with a denser canopy, or less open turf, do in fact provide better levels of resistance to weed encroachment. The varieties of Blue Chip, Rhapsody, Bewitched, Tsunami, Harmonie, Rugby II, Rush, Rhythm, Beyond, 4-Season, Limousine and Touche all reduced the levels of weed encroachment by crabgrass. An important note is that as canopy density increases, natural resistance to weeds increases. It is important not to forget the susceptibility to foliar disease can be influenced by canopy density and is why there may be a concern if using dense varieties like Limousine, Touche and 4-Season (= dollar spot susceptible). Dollar spot (% per plot) a b Dollar Spot Disease Damage Kentucky Bluegrass Variety Trial Sunshine Course, 3 Fairway Data from 9 Sep c cd cde def defg ehi ehi ehi f j f j h h h h h h h h PST Harmonie Limousine Moonlight SLT Julius 4 Season Princeton 105 Touche Jumpstart Spitfire Julia Cheetah Mystere Moonshine Rush Blackberry Bonaire Guinness Prosperity Bewitched Blueberry Perfection Beyond Tsunami Full Moon Blue Chip Everest Kingfisher Bandera Diva NuChicago Solar Eclipse Total Eclipse Arcadia Rhapsody Rhythm Alexa II Impact NuBlue Plus Sudden Impact Award Angus Blue Bedazzled Ginney II NuGlade Rugby II Moonbeam j *Means with the same letters are not significant (P<0.05, LSD) Area Under the Progress Curve (AUPC) a Crabgrass Encroachment (Digitaria Spp.) Kentucky Bluegrass Variety Trial Sunshine Course, 3 Fairway 3 Rating Dates (6 Jun, 13 Jul, 29 Jul ) ab abc b e b f b f b i b k b k c l j e l f l Full Moon Bonaire Moonshine Mystere Spitfire NuBlue Plus Jumpstart Ginney II Cheetah Blueberry Julia Bandera Guinness Kingfisher Moonbeam NuChicago Arcadia Alexa II Impact Blackberry Award Angus Blue Julius Sudden Impact Total Eclipse Princeton 105 Moonlight SLT Diva Solar Eclipse Perfection Prosperity NuGlade Bedazzled Everest Touche Limousine 4 Season Beyond Rhythm Rush Rugby II Harmonie Tsunami Bewitched Rhapsody Blue Chip *Means with the same letters are not significant (P<0.05, LSD) Page 6

7 Area Under the Progress Curve (AUPC) a ab abc a d 2011 Visual Quality Tall Fescue Variety Trial, Sunshine Course, Lemont, IL 5 dates (monthly ratings Apr Sep) a f a g a g b i b i d i d i e i f i f i ghi ghi ghi ghi Essential Tulsa Time Shenandoah Elite Gazelle II Inferno Aggressor Lexington Banshee Dynamic II Coronado TDH Toccoa Rhambler SRP Jamboree Endeavor II Wolfpack II Falcon IV Regiment II Rocket Firenza Grande II Traverse SRP Shenandoah III Tahoe II 3rd Millinium Falcon V Speedway Fat Cat Sitka Jaguar 4G Blackwatch Darlington Quest Talladega Tar Heel II Arid 3 Innovator Finelawn Express Guardian 21 Matador GT Jaguar 3 SIU 5 K 31 Southeast Bulldog 51 h k jk jk k *Means with the same letter do not differ significantly (P< 0.05, LSD) Final Images What does the iturf Expo on Sunshine Course look like? Lunch on a Princeville teebox a favorite image. Sunshine Course in Lemont. Settle Page 7

8 The North Central Region bentgrass variety trial. Sunshine Course in Lemont. Settle One of several tests of newer fungicides on display. Sunshine Course in Lemont. Settle Website weekly blogs: Weather, Research, Diagnostics Register for the upcoming 22 Sep Field Day Derek, Tim, and Nick plus Chris and Niki, The CDGA Turfgrass Program Page 8