Week of September 11th
- matthewbehl
- Sep 15, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 24, 2023
The first half of September has featured very high fungal disease pressure. In fact, it is the highest I have seen on turfgrass in my 24 years as superintendent. The constant rain, oppressive humidity, lack of sunlight, and warm night time temperatures have been the constant for this pressure. Pythium Blight was observed in step cut on September 12th, This is the latest in the year I have ever seen this disease. September 14th, I observed grey leaf spot a disease that is never or very rarely found this far north. Grey leaf spot is really considered a disease of the mid Atlantic region. A variety of other fungal pathogens have also been present. This pressure has led to constant applications and very short reapplication windows. This has been a very stressful time for me and the agronomy team. Once we get through this weekend and Monday it looks like things might dry out some and nighttime temperatures will begin to dip. Spray technician Jim Kindler spent a good portion of his Sunday on the spray tank freeing me up to deal with and treat a couple of issues on greens. Assistant Michael Curtin has also been spending a great deal of time on applications.
Greens are about 100 percent healed from aeration and this past Monday we moved back to our normal greens mowers and put our topdressing mowers away. As we move into next week we will start grooming, double cutting, and rolling as we prepare for the invitational.
More cultural work will occur to greens before the end of the season, but exactly what has not been decided yet. A lot of factors will be going into this decision making process.
I made the decision with the weather we have been facing, a four day tournament coming up that needs a lot of prep work, and dealing with very small staff numbers to solid tine aerate tees instead of coring them. For the current situation solid tine aeration is the best option. The hope is to do both tees and approaches twice with solid tines over the course of the fall. We initially experienced some mechanical problems with our aerator which slowed progress. Currently tees 2-8 are complete.
Each season we do preventative grub treatments to greens, tees, fairways, and greens surrounds. It is cost prohibitive to treat the property wall to wall and also not a good practice as stewards of the environment. In our rough areas, we scout for grubs and treat curatively when numbers are above threshold. This late summer period we have found a good deal of areas with high concentrations of grubs which have all been treated. More areas will crop up and be treated in the weeks to come.
We have fielded a lot of questions from members about grub control in their home lawns as of late. Yes, you can still control, but the right products must be used. A preventative grub control will not work at this time. A product containing Trichlorfon, Dimethyl (Dylox) would be your best choice.
The agronomy team also completed a triple aeration and overseed to the short game tee. The weather has provided a few setbacks, but the tee is growing in nicely. We will most likely do one more less aggressive seeding before the end of September to the tee.
Some other pictures from the week:
The agronomy team would like to thank the membership for all the kind words and everything that they did for my staff and I on Thank a Superintendent day! It was truly appreciated.
Below is a paragraph that was sent to me on Thank a Superintendent day that really hit home with me.
Not many people understand that to be a superintendent you have to be a leader, weatherman, scientist, chemist, botanist, psychologist, entomologist, accountant, irrigation specialist, plant pathologist, negotiator, delegator, purchasing agent and agronomist all before noon on any given day, but I do and I appreciate each and everyone of you.
Also included in this email was a fictitious job posting. I have seen this one many times, but still makes me crack a smile.
