Turfgrass Scouting Report: November 3, 2019

CDGATurfgrassProgram
Nov 3 · 6 min read
Sunshine Course covered in snow 11/1/2019

It’s that time of year again, winter is coming (or is already here) and many courses are getting ready by finishing up fall projects, with air compressors starting to arriving on-site for irrigation blowouts. The wet conditions over the past few weeks have created several challenges for many courses. Throw in the snow on Wednesday and Thursday, and much colder temperatures, and this has only enhanced the problem. Surprisingly, we have not seen any microdochium activity, given how wet we’ve been. Many superintendents are either in the process of making these applications ahead of the winter weather or have already gotten a jump start. Hopefully, the snow from this week will melt off and warmer/normal temperatures will return to the area in time for superintendents to finish the last of their preparations to put their courses to bed for the winter and enjoy some much-needed vacation time.

Weather

The main talking point this past week was the snow on Halloween. While snow isn’t abnormal for October, accumulations that we saw this past week are. Many places across northern Illinois saw anywhere from 1" to 5" of total snowfall over the last two days in October. An interesting little tidbit from the National Weather Service of Chicago: we have seen more snow this October than the total amount of snow for last December. Whether this is a sign of things to come, I don’t know, but the Farmers Almanac seems to think so.

Farmers Almanac 2019–2020 Winter Outlook

With all the snow, it is easy to forget that last week many courses were underwater due to the deluge of rain that we saw last Saturday.

Large rainfall totals were spread across much of Illinois, providing wet conditions and once again grinding many projects and winter preparations to a halt until dryer conditions returned. However, by the time we started to dry out, we saw the snow start to fly and freezing temperatures closely followed.

Water has frozen while draining from a downspout

So cold, in fact, that we even saw ice accumulation in shallow puddles and downspout drains.

2-meter Temperature Anomaly for November 3 to November 17, 2019

Looking ahead, the cold temperatures appear to hang around next week. We do see a few days of warmer temperatures on the horizon, but they are short-lived as cold air will quickly move to replace it.

Disease

It’s time to start thinking about snow mold applications and I wanted to take the chance to answer some questions. First, let us talk about fungicides and what strategies provide the best results.

Snow mold can still cause problems even if a fungicide has been sprayed

The primary pathogen that we see here in Illinois is Microdochium nivale which causes the disease pink snow mold or microdochium patch. There are other pathogens that cause different types of snow mold diseases. Typically we do not see them here in Illinois because these pathogens need prolonged snow cover.

Snow mold trial conducted in the Chicagoland area in 2014

A large amount of research that has been done on snow mold has taken place at the University of Wisconsin led by Dr. Paul Koch. The first question I want to address is what products should be sprayed. Referencing the work Dr. Koch has done, the major take-home message is the more active ingredients from different fungicide families will provide the best control. Ideally, using at least three modes of action have been shown to provide sufficient control.

Active mycelium of Microdochium nivale

The second topic that many people have wondered about is rainfall events and how they can affect fungicide efficacy. Dr. Koch has looked into this as well and determined rainfall can play a significant role in the depletion of snow mold fungicides during the winter months. The research has shown that rainfall or significant melting events can significantly affect the fungicide concentration in the plants. This corresponds to higher disease pressure as well. So, if we continue to receive high rainfall totals between snow mold applications and snow cover, re-application of these fungicides may be required, especially in areas conducive for snow mold development (i.e. shaded areas or poorly drained areas). For more information, please see the link to Dr. Koch’s article and visit the Turfgrass Diagnostic Lab’s website for more information.

Dr. Koch article — Snow Mold Fungicide Persistence

Pigment/Winter Trial from 2015

Lastly, I want to talk a little bit about turfgrass pigments. It’s not entirely a common practice to mix a turf pigment into a snow mold application. Some golf courses prefer not to use a pigment, because these pigments can create a drastic color difference, especially on older golf courses. There has been some interesting research done at Kansas State University looking at these pigments being used to increase canopy temperatures on zoysiagrass. The results show that these pigments can increase canopy temperature, which in turn will speed up the spring green-up process for zoysiagrass. When Dr. Nangle was here, we did a similar study here in the Chicagoland area on bentgrass. However, we did not see a temperature difference in the plots, although the turf appeared to be ahead from a quality aspect compared to turf that was not sprayed with a pigment. More research needs to be done on this topic, but it’s worth looking into if you have a cultivar of bentgrass which is slow to green-up.

Table looking at canopy temperature of zoysiagrass from R. Braun at KSU Thesis

Insects

It’s been very quiet as far as grub activity. We haven’t seen a lot of damage or digging this fall, even in nontreated areas. Given the amount of rain we’ve had, earthworm activity has been high instead. Again, this isn’t a bad thing, but this causes headaches for equipment managers due to the castings which can cause mowers to become clogged and stop working.

Earthworm castings on a fairway near a drainage basin

Management Practices

A little public service announcement about the ongoings on the Three-Hole Sunshine Course. We removed a few trees from the course this past week to improve drainage and before the renovation next year. Luckily enough, we were able to get this done before the snow came and this is another step we are taking in the Sunshine Course renovation.

Trees removal along the golf course access road.

Any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to contact us,

Ron Townsend, MS. Manager of Turfgrass Research. Chicago District Golf Association, 11855 Archer Ave, Lemont, IL 60439. W: (630) 685–2310.

Bobby Kerr, Ph.D. Director of Turfgrass Programs. Chicago District Golf Association, 11855 Archer Ave, Lemont, IL 60439. C: (312)-519–7940. W: (630)-685–2307.

CDGATurfgrassProgram

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Dedicated researchers and turf pathologists working for golf course superintendents in the Chicago area.

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