North Central
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Turfpath: A Free App to Manage Turf Pests
Turfpath, a new mobile app available for free in Google Play and the App Store, is the newest resource for turfgrass professionals and enthusiasts. The app, whose basic function appears to allow users to interact by sharing their active pest problems, was launched this week. Download the app for free at...
Annual bluegrass decline on a golf green.  Photo courtesy Tim Steen
Purdue Putting Green Management Survey!
Help Dr. Bigelow of Purdue University gather information about management of cool-season turfgrasses on golf courses. The survey will help his research team formulate some future research projects that will help you! The survey only takes about 5 minutes to complete....
Calcium hangout on Turf Diseases #turfchat
TurfChat #12: Is Ca+ Necessary?
In this episode, Larry Stowell of Pace Turf and Micah Woods of Asian Turfgrass Center share their thoughts on the role of Ca+ as a foliar...
Iprodione-concentration
Degradation of Fungicides in A Winter Environment
The unseasonably warm winter has prompted many inquiries about the persistence of fungicides applied for snow mold suppression. We have an experiment that is evaluating the persistence of two commonly used snow mold fungicides, iprodione and chlorothalonil. Basically we applied the fungicides to plots thatwe keep free of snow cover and ones that are kept under snow cover for the duration of the experiment. We take two cup cutter samples from each plot. One is used to determine the concentration of the fungicides using commercially available ELISA kits for iprodione and chlorothalonil developed by Horiba LTD. The other core is...
Red thread-8
The All New Turf Diseases
Welcome to the new and improved Turf Diseases website! The redesign has been in the works for some time now and due to the limited budget (it makes me laugh even to hear the word budget) it took some time to get things moving along. So let me explain a few of the new......
Brown Patch-8
Getting out of hot water
Greetings. My name is Lee Miller, and I am the extension turf pathologist at the University of Missouri. I was invited to post a few weeks ago, and gratefully accept the invitation. Every once in a while I’ll join in on the fun with my fellow Midwest colleagues (Drs. Kennelly, Kerns, and Smith) to relay on some of my experiences from the region. As Damon (and the rest of the world) noted, it is hot almost everywhere in the U.S. and creeping bentgrass is dancing on the coals. Frequent syringing of greens is a must, but with this extreme heat,...
Heat Wave Forecasted for Next Week
We have seen relatively few disease issues in the TDL the past month or so. Throughout Upper Midwest temperatures have been warm, but we have also been quite dry. However the forecast for next week is very different. Highs for next week will been in the low to mid-ninties, more importantly night time temperatures will exceed 72 for most of next week. I included a 7-day forecast from NBC 15 here in Madison, but areas west and south of us will likely experience even hotter temperatures. I know that doesn’t compare with the excruciating heat experienced by those in the...
Beautiful Weather, Finally?
This spring has been one of the coolest and cloudiest on record. Just last week I was in Stevens Point, WI and soil temperatures barely reached 60 F. Still prime time for take-all patch and fairy ring preventative applications. To be honest not much is happening around the Upper Midwest. We have had reports of brown ring patch, but thats about it. Derek Settle at the CDGA has reported brown ring patch and a bit of dollar spot. We have seen and heard of multiple cases of creeping bentgrass turning red this spring. We think it is a combination of...
Snow mold data_censored
Recap of 2010-2011 Snow Mold Trials
It seems funny to talk about snow mold on April 26th, but thanks to mother nature there isn’t much else to talk about in the Midwest. We have experienced a very cool, wet spring so far this year. Just last week northern areas of Wisconsin received 7 to 9 inches of snow! We were very lucky that the dates we picked for our snow mold field days were nice, well at least the weather was nice at two of the locations. We have five locations for our snow mold trials: Brainerd, MN, Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul, MN,...
Poa annua management strategies (Part 2)
Last week I introduced the topic of annual bluegrass management practices that are gaining momentum in the United States and other parts of the world. While these practices have been met with some controversy, they have also made us as researchers spend a little more time investigating the implications of these practices for golf course superintendents. One program that has emerged among many superintendents (many with a strong voice on twitter including @nccturf, @MinikahdaTurf, among others) is the incorporation of various management techniques that seek to favor the bentgrass over the weaker Poa annua spp. While there is much variation...
Lot's of talk about Poa this spring
Winter damage can be a big problem in Poa. While some golf course superintendents are still seeing the last remaining traces of snow on their turf, most are starting to assess the impact of winter and potential damage. With the predominance of Poa annua as the primary species on many golf courses throughout the region, the potential for winter damage is always high and it appears that the winter of 2010/2011 may be as damaging as that in the summer of “the year that shall not be spoken“. According to a recent Northeast Regional update from the USGA’s Adam Moeller,...
To Spray or Not to Spray
It is really nice to experience a warm-up in Mid-February, but we know that it is a likely a cruel trick from mother nature. NBC 15 in Madison just said that Monday could yield 5 to 10 inches of snow, if all the expected precipitation is snow. Yet, today temperatures exceeded 40 degrees in Southern Wisconsin and is expected to exceed 50 degrees tomorrow! Its funny that I get excited about 50 degrees, when I was in North Carolina I considered that cold. As the warm-up continues, the snow will be melting and gray snow mold and Microdochium patch may...
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