Fusariummy

My last post showed how the growth potential for cool season turfgrass in Western Canada was not at all like that that is commonly used. The common growth potential with peaks in spring and fall is more typical of areas like California. I have compiled the data for a number of areas in Western Canada to show what the growth potential for bentgrass looks like. It turns out that the only place in BC or Alberta that really exhibits a slowdown in growth potential in the summer is Osoyoos. Naturally Osoyoos is the warmest and driest city in Canada. I have always joked that Vancouver is "God's Country" and this graph just goes to prove that. Look at how long our maximum growth potential lasts. This part of the world is the perfect spot for growing cool season turf grasses. Looking at the Banff growth potential you can see just how short of a growing season they really have. Edmonton and Calgary have longer growing seasons that Banff but they struggle to reach even 75% of the gr...

How do you decide how much nitrogen to apply and when? I have always used research showing the relationship between disease pressure and nitrogen rates as the basis for my fertility program. In general, nitrogen rates higher than 2kg/100m2 per growing season resulted in more fusarium. Fusarium is my number one pest so obviously I plan most of my agronomic practices around prevention of this fungal disease. Once I had the total rates I would basically just divide the total by the number of growing months I had in my climate or 8 giving me a number of around 0.25kgN/100m2 per month. I would then tweak these amounts based on the following growth model for cool season turf. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/TOOLS/TURF/ESTABLISH/seasongrth.html For the most part this growth model is exactly how cool season turf performs in most cool season climates. The only problem is that being on the West Coast of Canada I maintain turf in an extreme range of this climate. My climate is extremely not extreme o...

I've been thinking a lot about moss lately. My casual observations on my moss study have been very interesting so far this year. The small study green had zero moss when the study began this spring but had a history of heavy moss infestation in the past. Obviously this was the perfect spot to study moss. The only problem I've had so far this year is that almost no moss has developed on the putting green at all! What the hell? Moss is losing the battle here in early May Well as always I have a few thoughts and observations to share that could explain why. Who knows? What I am thinking is that moss is affected by traffic or wear only at certain times of the year. Early this spring and summer I noticed that the existing moss on my putting greens was dying. It was black and basically being taken over by the turf. I was "wearing" my greens daily with a lightweight roller. By the time summer had arrived the moss had all but disappeared in the typical areas on my putting gre...