Green World

AN INDUSTRYWIDE PUBLICATION OF THE NEW JERSEY TURFGRASS ASSOCIATION

Volume 9, No. 3

Fall 1979

A Look at Red Thread 
Disease of Turfgrasses

northern Europe, England, New 
Zealand, Austrialia, and the United 
States. In the United States the disease 
was first found in Rhode Island in 1932 
where it was reviewed, researched, and 
reported by Erwin (1941). Currently 
the red thread disease is known to be 
injurious to turfgrasses in the Pacific 
Coast States; the Pacific Northwest; 
the Atlantic Northeast; and, oc­
casionally, as far south as Louisiana 
(Filer, 1966).

P.M. Halisky and R.W. Duell

Corticium red thread, sometimes 
called “pink patch,” is a turfgrass 
disease caused by a fungus, Corticium 
fuciforme. Prior to 1976 only sporadic 
occurrences of this disease were 
recorded in New Jersey. In 1976 the 
disease was observed in the Rutgers 
turfgrass research area on slow- 
growing, low-fertility plots of Lolium 
perenne cv. Manhattan during May 
and June. The Corticium fungus was 
isolated and its identity confirmed at 
that time. In 1979 another outbreak of 
the red thread disease occurred in New 
Jersey; however, it appeared to be both 
more widespread and more severe. The 
disease also reccurred at the Rutgers 
turfgrass research plots.
HOSTS

In the United States Corticium red 
thread appears to be most severe on 
fine-leaved fescues; velvet bentgrass; 
and, more recently, on perennial 
ryegrass. Other grasses less severely 
infected are Kentucky bluegrass, 
annual bluegrass, bentgrass, and 
bermudagrass.* Red thread also at­
tacks these grasses under nursery 
management.

DISTRIBUTION

Red thread is known to occur in

Philip M. Halisky is Professor of Plant 
Pathology in the Department of Plant Pathology 
at Rutgers University and Robert W. Duell is 
Associate Research Professor in Grass 
Physiology in the Soils and Crops Department at 
Rutgers University.
Line drawing: courtesy of Mallinckrodt, Inc.
*In Rhode Island red thread was noted on 5 of 55 cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass, and only in the second year of a 
five-year test. The disease was extensive enough in Pennsylvania to warrant ranking 43 Kentucky bluegrass cultivars 
at 1 of 9 locations. There, Nugget, South Dakota Certified, and Windsor were most susceptible.

SYMPTOMS

Red thread appears as irregularly 
shaped patches of blighted turfgrass of 
varying size. Small patches of infected 
leaves and leaf sheaths appear water- 
soaked at first. They die rapidly and 
fade to a bleached-tan color when dry. 
Where infection is severe, the diseased 
turf is yellowed or scorched in circular 
to irregular patches, varying from an 
inch to more than a foot in diameter. 
The spots may be scattered or a 
number of patches may merge to form 
a large, irregular area of blighted 
turfgrass having a reddish-brown cast.
The Corticium fungus forms con­
spicuous, coral-pink masses called 
“stromata” on leaves and leaf sheaths. 
In moisture-saturated air these 
gelatinous stromata may completely 
cover the leaves, being bound by a pink 
web of mycelium that also mats the 
leaves together. It is from these rather 
conspicuous, pink-colored stromata 
formed by strands of fungus hyphae 
that the disease name “Red Thread” is 
derived. These strands of hyphae often

FUNGUS NAME:

CORTICIUM
fuciforme

Line Drawing of 

Red Thread Mycelium

protrude from the tips of leaves or leaf 
sheaths as pointed, bright coral-pink to 
blood-red stromata which dry, harden, 
and ultimately resemble red threads.

The Corticium fungus is a 
Basidiomycete that grows slowly in 
culture, forming pink-colored 
colonies. Spores are not produced 
readily but the fungus is easily 
diagnosed microscopically on the basis 
of “knobs” called clamp-connections 
that develop at the cross-walls of the 
fungal hyphae. Such knobs also are 
characteristic of other Basidiomycetes 
such as fairy-ring fungi and wood- 
rotting fungi.

DISEASE DEVELOPMENT

Corticium red thread is an important 
disease on slow-growing, nitrogen- 
deficient turf in the cooler, more 
humid regions of the United States. 
Infection and disease development are 
favored by temperatures of 60-75 °F. 
coupled with prolonged periods of 
light rain, fog, heavy dew, and 
moisture-laden air. The disease is, 
therefore, more prevalent during 
periods of damp weather in the spring 
and fall seasons of the year.
(cont. on pg. 3)

Comments and Opinions
The “Dog Days” of Summer

Periods of turf trouble in July and August are often referred to as “dog 
days.” Denny Lyon, editor of the Rocky Mountain Reporter, jokingly or not-so- 
jokingly reports employees can be a cause. He writes they often highlight dog 
days with such items as “—all the night watermen quitting the same week, all the 
intellectuals deciding they need to leave for school two weeks before it starts, and 
all the unintellectuals caring less whether they work or get fired, as welfare and 
unemployment pay about the same; and do not try to hire anybody during dog 
days - there isn’t anyone. Dog days are here the day the stunt driver you’ve been 
threatening to fire all summer wraps the “Cushman” around the tree (he lives, 
the Cushman and the tree are both killed).”

Mr. Lyons does not explain how all this kills the grass, but we know it does 
not take much to kill the grass when summer stress occurs. Various explanations 
have been given for summer failure such as: “It was a bad ‘Poa annua’ year. . .” 
“My water pump broke ...” “The grass dies every year (but it always comes 
back) . . .” or it was a “hellish period of the worst summer days ever.” This year 
we can add another for our area. The weather was very gentle during June and 
July. Then it turned moderately hot and very humid at the end of July. This did 
not alarm us too much because the worried summer feeling usually begins when a 
few days of 95-100 °F. occur. But the moderately hot and very humid weather 
continued with almost no let-up into early September. At various stages during 
this stress period, growers were losing more grass than might be expected as they 
watched the thermometer.

What did this tell us about summer injury? Certainly, it reminds us that the 
line between survival and failure of bentgrass and annual bluegrass is very thin. 
Also, it seems to tell us some of the causes of failure develop cumulatively, 
whether the reason is disease, drought, or root failure. Apparently these causes 
developed gradually while we were lulled by the lack of 90° weather. From now 
on, we will keep our guard up for sneaky summer stress with the same intense 
watchfulness on water and disease control that we give the short, more severe 
“block-buster” spells of bad weather.

R.E.E.

Some Comments on the Suspension 

of 2,4,5-T and Silvex

Most of you are aware (some of you are painfully aware) that 2, 4, 5-T and 
silvex have been suspended from all use by EPA. The two chemicals are quite 
similar. Several items about silvex may be of interest to you.

1.  The chemical silvex is used in producing such commodities as timber, 

forage of grazing lands, rights of way, rice fruits, sugar cane, and turf.

2. Silvex has been in use for approximately 25 years.
3. Authorities agree that two to three million pounds are used annually in the 

United States.

4.  Approximately 700,000 lbs. or as much as one-third of the production is 

used on turf.

5. The franchised lawn trade is one of the big users of silvex.
6. Golf courses appear to use little silvex.
7.  Silvex is most commonly used with other herbicides. For example, it is 
used to compliment 2, 4-D. It adds to the punch of 2, 4-D on such weeds as

ANNOUNCING

Spotrete-F

THE FLOWABLE THIRAM
•NO IRRITATING DUST 
•NO MORE WEIGHING 
•EXCELLENT 
COMPATIBILITY 
•NON-PHYTOTOXIC

See your local distributor or contact

P.O.Box 10 Somerset, NJ 08873 (201)247-8000

dandelion but, more importantly, it 
improves control on a number of hard- 
to-kill weeds such as oxalis and wild 
violet.

8.  While MCPP is an adequate 
substitute for silvex on some hard-to- 
kill weeds, it is somewhat less effective 
and more expensive.

9.  Use of dicamba as a substitute 
with 2, 4-D is a very effective com­
bination on some hard-to-kill weeds, 
but it is avoided on many sites where 
trees and shrubs are present, because 
dicamba is more dangerous to these 
plants.

10.  The most effective com­
bination of wide-spectrum herbicides 
for control of the assortment of hard- 
to-kill broadleaf weeds appears to be 2, 
4-D, silvex, and dicamba.

11.  Silvex is clearly a useful 
herbicide tool that cannot be com­
pletely replaced at the present. Its 
suspension narrows the assortment of 
useable chemicals and will increase the 
use of other herbicides on those weeds 
where silvex is more effective.

12.  The abrupt suspension of 
silvex has trapped large quantities of 
silvex in warehouses that will require 
costly disposal in concentrated burial 
sites. This will be very costly to tax­
payers and the consumer public. Burial 
of large quantities of chemical such as 
silvex is a very questionable practice 
when its use for 25 years has not shown

clear risk to man. There are many 
other unquestioned serious dangers 
that the U.S. government should 
concentrate on rather than be so deeply 
enmeshed in expenditure of millions on 
silvex. It is unimaginable that anyone 
would object to a government ban on 
silvex or 2, 4, 5-T that had high levels 
of dioxin.

13. Dioxin comes from various 
sources in addition to 2, 4, 5-T and 
silvex. No one questions the danger of 
dioxin at high levels. What is a 
dangerous level in a herbicide? Long­
term effects were not found from much 
larger quantities of dioxin spilled from 
an industrial accident in Italy.

The more dioxin-prone 2, 4, 5-T 
routinely has a dioxin content less than 
.01 ppm. The 2, 4, 5-T and silvex 
produced annually in the United States 
is estimated to contain a total of 29 
gms. of dioxin. It is hard to visualize 
how this quantity of chemical, which is 
light-sensitive, spread over large 
acreages of plant foliage can be a 
hazard. It has been estimated that an 
animal the size of a deer and the 
sensitivity of a guinea pig must con­
sume all the vegetation on nine acres, 
without excretion, to get a lethal dose.
R.E.E.

OFFICERS OF THE 

N.J.T.A.

Jack Wittpenn

President 
Fred Eden 

Vice President 
Ralph Engel 
Secretary and 

Consulting Editor 
William Ritchie 

Treasurer

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Dave Buchholz
Edgar Krause 
Samuel Leon 
Paul Sartoretto 
Joseph DeSantis 
Paul DesChamps 
Past President 
Paul Boizelle

RED THREAD

(cont. from pg. 1)

The fungus, Corticium fuciforme, is 
capable of growing over a wide range 
of temperatures. Growth occurs from 
slightly above 32°F. to about 86°F. 
with optimum growth at 60-70°F. 
Disease development occurs at soil 
temperatures between 40-54°F. The 
extremes of summer heat and winter 
cold decrease or check fungal growth 
and disease development but they fail 
to kill the parasitic fungus.

NUTRITION

Deficient calcium nutrition has been 
reported to increase the susceptibility 
of creeping red fescue to the red thread 
disease. In contrast, increased nitrogen 
fertility has been reported to decrease 
the severity of red thread under turf- 
management conditions. Goss and 
Gould (1971) found that nitrogen 
interacts with phosphorus and 
potassium to reduce the severity of red 
thread in bentgrass and fescue lawns.

Interesting interactions among 
chemical growth retardants and tur- 
fgrass cultivars with regard to Cor­
ticium red thread also were noted at 
Rutgers in June 1979. Maleic 
hydrazide, a leading growth retardant, 
applied at the recommended rate in 
early May, markedly increased the 
severity of infection and the intensity 
of symptom expression in perennial 
ryegrass. This treatment with MH-30 
could be detected from a distance of 50 
feet in each of the four replicates. 
Other growth retardants (at various 
rates) and nontreated check strips were 
relatively free from symptoms of red 
thread. The only other grass so treated, 
Delta Kentucky bluegrass, showed no 
symptoms of the red disease.
DISEASE SPREAD

The Corticium fungus survives from 
season to season as fragments of dried 
stromata (red threads) and as dormant 
mycelium in the leaves of infected 
plants. The dry, thread-like stromata 
are very brittle and break easily. The 
fungus is disseminated to healthy turf 
as bits of stromata and infected leaf 
parts. Spreading occurs mechanically 
by mowers, shoes, wind, and flowing 
water. Basidiospores do not appear to

be of major importance in the spread 
of the fungus. Radial movement from 
infection centers is accomplished by 
mycelial growth which, under 
favorable weather conditions, can be 
very rapid.

DISEASE CONTROL

With turfgrasses grown under low- 
nitrogen fertility, the application of 
readily available nitrogenous fertilizers 
during periods of high-disease in­
cidence will aid in reducing disease 
injury as well as promote faster plant 
recovery. Gould and co-workers (1967) 
reported that “six pounds of nitrogen 
per 1,000 square feet per season is 
essential for the production of good 
quality turf and also helps to reduce 
the incidence of red thread when grass 
is growing rapidly.” Results of 
research relating to turfgrass nutrition 
also indicate that the application of 
lime as a calcium supplement is 
beneficial in reducing the incidence of 
red thread in turfgrasses.

To be effective, fungicides should be 
applied on a preventative basis as 
closely spaced applications made at 
ten-day intervals when daytime air 
temperatures stabilize at 68-75 °F. 
(Curative applications generally are 
not effective.) According to Gould et 
al (1967) cadmium-containing 
fungicides provide the longest residual 
control. One application gave 
significant reduction of the disease but 
two or more applications were 
necessary for prolonged control. 
Where usage of cadmium compounds 
on turf is restricted by the EPA, 
protectant (contact) fungicides should 
be used on a preventative schedule. 
The most effective fungicides are 
reported to be Dyrene (anilazine), 
Tersan 75 (thiram), and Chipco — 
26019 (also called Rovral or 
iprodione).

(cont. on pg. 4)

Always do right. This will always 
gratify some people and astonish 
the rest.

Mark Twain

REFERENCES

ANNON, 1977. Northeast Regional Turfgrass 
evaluation of Kentucky bluegrasses (Poa 
pratensis L.) 1968-1973.

COUCH, H.B. 1973. Disease of turfgrasses. 
(Second Edition). 348 pages. Robert Krieger 
Publishing Co., Inc. Huntington, New York.
ERWIN, L.E. 1941. Pathogenicity and control 
of Corticium funciforme. Rhode Island 
Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 
278, 34 pages. Kingston, R.I.

FILER, T.H. 1966. Red thread found on Ber­
muda grass. Plant Disease Reporter 50 : 525- 
526.

GOSS, R.L. and C.J. GOULD. 1971. Inter­
relationships between fertility levels and 
Corticium red thread disease of turfgrasses. 
Journal Sports Turf Research Institute. 47: 
48-53.

GOULD, C.J., V.L. Miller, and R.L. GOSS. 
1967. Fungicidal control of red thread disease 
of turfgrass in Western Washington. Plant 
Disease Reporter 51 : 215-219.

MUSE, R.R. and H.B. COUCH. 1965. Effect of 
nutrition and soil moisture on Corticium red 
thread of creeping red fescue. 
Phytopathology 55 : 507 - 510.

SKOGLEY, C.R. 1979 (Summer). Kentucky 
bluegrass turfgrass performance. URI 
Cooperative Extension.

SMITH, J.D. and N. JACKSON. 1965. Fungal 
diseases of turfgrasses. 90 pages. Sports Turf 
Research Institute. Bingley, Yorkshire, 
England.

SUSTAINING MEMBERS

October 1979

A-L Services 
Andrew Wilson, Inc.
Lewis W. Barton Co.
Chevron Chemical Co.
W. A. Cleary Corp.
The Country Greenery, Inc. 
Kelly DeFreitas & Assoc. 
Double Eagle Golf Products 
Lofts Pedigreed Seed, Inc. 
Garfield-Williamson, Inc. 
Green Hill Turf Supply 
Hummer Turfgrass Systems 
Jennings Equipment Co. 
Leon’s Sod Farm 
Limestone Products Corp. 
Mercer Sod, Inc.
Metro Milorganite, Inc.
Pine Island Turf Nursery 
Playboy Resort & CC 
Rockland Chemical Co.
Royal Lawns of N.J., Inc. 
Seacoast Laboratories 
Storr Tractor Co.
Techniturf, Inc.
The Terre Co.
Twin River Community Trust 
Vaughan Jacklin Corp.

ABSTRACT

Factors Influencing 
the Volatilization 

of Mercury (Hg) From Soil

R.D. Rogers and J.C. McFarlane 

J. Environ. Qual. 8:255-260.

Mercury volatilization from soils 
amended to 1 ppm mercury with 
mercuric nitrate decreased sub­
stantially within 1 week after ap­
plication. During the first week, 20 
percent of the applied mercury was lost 
from a silty clay-loam soil and 45 
percent was lost from a loamy sand 
soil. Volatilization of Hg from the 
loamy sand soil resulted in a con­
current decrease in ammonium nitrate- 
extractable mercury. How the mercury 
is bound in the soil is not known but it 
has been shown that Hg is tightly 
complexed on organic matter. The 
volatility increase of Hg in response to 
an increase in Hg concentration in­
dicates the organisms responsible for 
volatilization are capable of processing 
large quantities of Hg.

Comment: We have wondered 
what has happend to the Hg 
that no longer seems to be 
present in some of our old 
mercury-treated greens. This 
research tells us something 
about the escape of Hg. Also, 
it tells that mining these old 
greens for Hg would be folly.

Green World is published three times a 
year by the New Jersey Turfgrass 
Association, P.O. Box 231, New 
Brunswick, N.J. 08903. Ralph Engel, 
consulting editor; Judy Chi, managing 
editor. Please address inquiries con­
cerning advertising to Paul Sartoretto, 
advertising director, 1049 Somerset 
St., Somerset, N.J. 08873, 201-247- 
8000.

Garfield Williamson
WHOLESALERS & DISTRIBUTORS

Products for 
the Professional

BULK SIZES/SPECIAL MIXES 
NEWEST VARIETIES

■  Grass Seed
■  Fertilizers
■  Chemicals
■ Omega FINE LEAF 

Featuring-

PERENNIAL 
RYE GRASS

Garfield Williamson. Inc,

1072 West Side Avenue, Jersey City. N.J 07306

201-435-3500

Features

KENTUCKY BLUEGRASSES:

TURF TYPE PERENNIAL RYEGRASSES:

( 3 bluegrasses perfectly blended) 

Pedigreed Seed, Inc.
• Baron*
• Touchdown
• Majestic
• Tri-PlexBlue
 
• Yorktown**
• Yorktown II
• Diplomat
• Tri-Plex Rye
• Jamestown
• and Custom Blends

( 3 ryegrasses perfectly blended )

Chewings Fescue

Write or call for further information and current prices

Lofts Pedigreed Seed, Inc.

Bound Brook. N.J. 08805 / (201) 3S6-S700

LOFTS

*U.S. Plant Patent #3186. Dwarf Variety
**Protection applied for under the U S. Plant Variety Protection Act