This new shot of heat has brought increased humidity with it and humidity is one of the main contributers to disease. Most turf diseases are fungus' and the majority of the fungal diseases are relatively easy to control. The best way to prevent disease is to have a strong plant so it can fend off attacks, so proper water and fertility management is key to ensure it performs well as a playing surface and still be healthy enough to fight disease. Of course there are times when a healthy plant is not enough and a pesticide is needed to remove the pressure or cure an attack. There are a number of ways to set up a spray schedule - one practice is to spray before you get an attack - the thinking is that you knock back the inactive disease to where an attack can be less problematic. Another is to just wait and spray as a curative although that means having to have some tolerance for damage. Ideally a combination of the two is ideal.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the name given to the process whereby a Superintendent plans how to provide the surfaces required while still being as environmentally friendly as possible. IPM varies greatly upon people's tolerances for damage, requirements of the club, climatic conditions etc so there is not one option that fits all. Here at LedgeRock I try to minimize pesticide applications as much as possible. We preventative spray for a few nuisance diseases to help knock back the severity of an attack. For most applications I usually wait until there is a certain possibility of an attack or until I start to see the first indications of an attack. This means that the period between sprays is stretched as much as possible, therefore saving time and money while being more environmentally friendly. This method is especially useful in the fall where stretching the window of an application can mean that the weather changes negating the follow up application completely. I am also a firm believer in keeping the plants as healthy as possible so they can fight the disease themselves, reducing the need for chemical input.
As chemistry technology advances the products become more environmentally friendly as the rates are extremely low, so by minimizing the amount of applications it really decreases the amount of potential damage to the environment.
There are two main types of fungicides - contact fungicides essentially coat the plant so that the disease cannot 'get in'. The other is systemic which means the plant takes it up and fights the disease from within. Contact sprays need to dry on the plant and systemic pesticides need to be watered in so the plant can take it up through the roots. Their uses vary depending on the target pest, time of year, conditions etc.
So to this week. With the increased humidity and the 'perfect' 0.3" of rain we received, I expected we would see Dollar Spot appear, therefore in the rain yesterday we sprayed a systemic fungicide along with some fertilizer. This morning - on the fairways and tees - I was greeted to the most perfect Dollar Spot I have ever seen ..... The little white fuzz is the mycelium on the turf and as it goes away, it leaves little tan spots. It was very frustrating as we had sprayed for it yesterday but the product really did not have much time to get into the plant. Therefore I sprayed a contact fungicide today to stop it in its tracks so now it will attacked from both the outside and the inside. The contact could not be sprayed yesterday as it would not have been able to dry on the leaf. The spots will grow out over the next week or so but at least you now know what all the little white fuzz was today!!
Dollar Spot mycelium (white fuzz) on 6 fairway
The tan spots left on 16 tee after the mycelium has gone
