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Showing posts from July, 2017

Can I use clipping yield to prevent disease this September?

Managing turfgrass disease with the goal of reducing or eliminating pesticide use takes a lot of planning, careful observations and fine tuning. While we are currently in the middle of the summer turf disease cycle, I am already planning ahead for the most difficult time of year that I face when managing turf disease, September. September has always been a challenging time of year for me as we transition from managing for dollar spot to managing for fusarium patch. These disease are seemingly polar opposites when it comes to IPM strategies. High nitrogen reduces the impact of dollar spot and low nitrogen reduces the impact of fusarium patch. During the transition I am forced to pick a side and often lose the battle on both fronts. So far in my career, September is the only month that I have not been able to get through without the need for a corrective fungicide application for either dollar spot or fusarium patch. Last month I made an interesting observation about clipping yield and...