Fusariummy

On the West Coast of Canada we are now well into the time of year where fusarium is the dominant disease on turf. Reflecting on the summer of 2016 I can't help but feel somewhat defeated by turf disease. I required a traditional fungicide for dollar spot for the first time in 4 years on my greens. While this has left me feeling down about my disease management plan this year a closer reflection shows that while I lost the battle to dollar spot, I won the battle with every other turf disease on my course this summer. Looking back at the data, the battles I have had in previous years, what other courses in my area were dealing with I can feel really good about my disease management this past year. To recap the requirement of traditional fungicide on my course this year so far is rather easy. The last fungicide application of the winter was on Feb 22. From that time I was able to keep disease levels at acceptable levels until Sept 4 when I needed to take action against dollar spot. Th...

Turfgrass management is a constant battle. Grass vs disease, grass vs weeds, and even grass vs grass. Sometimes it's obvious who is winning the battle but sometimes the victorious organism is less obvious. This week while looking over some old pictures of the moss disease on my practice green (the moss is all gone by the way) I noticed something that I think could be useful for turf managers to quickly gauge which plant is winning and which is losing. Take a look at the following pic of poa taking over silvery thread moss with the help of some sort of fungi. It looks very similar to the next picture with is Microdochium nivale totally destroying my approaches a few years back. And this picture of cyanobacteria thinning poa on my greens. In all these cases the organism that is winning the battle has a round shape. In the first picture the grass is winning, and in the next two the grass is losing and the fungi/bacteria/algae are winning. Obviously if the conditions are favorable for ...

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...

This morning while checking on my moss study plots I was treated to a pleasant surprise. The study putting green was caked in fusarium patch just the same as the rest of my putting surfaces. I always gravitate towards the plot that is rolled 8x a day just to see how it is managing. The turf was slightly thinning but there was absolutely no fusarium present! At first I was a bit surprised but then again it's no big deal to not see any disease on a small 4'x4' section of the putting green turf even with severe disease pressure. I kept on looking at all the plots to rate them on fusarium severity. I made a hasty observation that plots that were rolled at least 4x/day had no disease where plots with 2-3x/day had some disease and the control plots were severely infected. Wow! We know rolling has an effect on Dollar Spo t but Fusarium? Really? These observations are very early and clearly demand further investigation. This moss study is a long term pet project of mine so it shou...

Late last year I made an interesting observation about how moss grew in relation to traffic patterns on putting greens. More about that can be read here . Shade makes it hard to grow healthy dense turf that can compete with moss. I have decided to study the effects of traffic and wear on moss populations on our practice chipping green this year. I have divided the putting green into plots that will be rolled daily the number of times indicated on each plot. We are using this green because in the past it has always had a problem with moss infestation due to the challenging growing conditions, namely shade, that are present on this site. The results from this study will hopefully help golf course superintendents better understand moss on putting greens and will hopefully help them manage their turf to control or prevent moss without the need for chemical pesticides. Thank you for your patients and understanding during this study.  Please continue to use this green as you normally wou...

Ok so moss has been on my mind lately.  It all started with a trip to a nearby golf course to look at their chemical moss control results over a few beers (pilsner).  We noticed that it seemed like the Kocide (copper hydroxide) was working pretty good.  The moss was turning black which signified that it was dead. The following picture started me thinking.  There was no moss where the tires of the triplex mower travelled on the clean up cut.  Why was this?  I posted in an earlier blog entry about possible reasons but I think I have figured it out.  Before we get into what I think I feel that it is important to go over some characteristics of moss and also what other are recommending for moss control. Moss does not have roots.  It has rhizoids which serve solely as anchors.  They do not absorb nutrients or water.  Moss requires any moisture to be absorbed through their above ground surfaces. Most papers that I have read on cultur...

On a recent trip to a neighbouring golf course we were checking out their progress on moss eradication.  In Canada, Kocide 2000 has recently been registered for use to control silvery thread moss.  As can be seen from the picture, we like to drink pilsner AND the moss control is working. Kocide 2000's active ingredient is copper hydroxide.  When sprayed in high volumes of water over numerous applications it has been very successful in controlling moss on putting greens.  Some people suggest that adding wetting agents and acidifying agents also help the efficacy of the Kocide.  Others add iron as well to reduce the effects that copper has on inducing an iron deficiency in the plants.  It is not uncommon for the turf to turn a bright orange colour after a Kocide application unless iron is also applied. The real neat thing about the above picture is not how great the Kocide is working but the two linear tracks of turf that don't have any moss on them.  Th...