TurfComms PURPOSE: To pass on what we learn willingly and happily to others in the profession so as to improve turf conditions around the country. Negative Comments on PRIMOŽ: Responses to the comment in the last issue have not been numerous. One from Australia noted that Primo was used in a trial, along with other herbicides and growth regulators, for control of Poa annua in creeping bentgrass. The "Primo resulted in the best dose of Fusarium nivale I have seen, the scars then filled in with poa. You could still pick out the Primo (Poa) plots 2 years after the trial had been completed." Notes superintendent David Nickson. Traffic Tolerant Ground Covers - other than turf grasses: the Avant Gardener May, '99 isssue gives a list of plants that according to a Oregon wholesale nursery will tolerate foot traffic. In fact they have sub-divided the list by giving three degrees of traffic, light, moderate, and heavy. They have done this for hardiness zones 4, 5, 6, and 7. The names are scientific only and they suggest for descriptions most are in "Perennial Ground Covers", by David S. MacKenzie, Timber Press, 1997, $49.95. Give a call or write and I'll send the list for your hardiness zone. I don't recognize all the latin names but do see a mint, sedums, and veronicas (speedwells) in the list. I don't see yarrow which is well suited for light to moderate traffic in acid sandy soils. TURFCOMMS is published at unpredictable intervals by the editor and publisher: Douglas T. Hawes, Ph.D. 2408 Roundrock Trail Certified Professional Agronomist Piano, Texas 75075 Specializing in Golf Course (972) 867-0176 Maintenance Consulting Fax (972) 519-9263 e-mail: dhawes@dallas.net Subscription cost is $15. Send checks to Doug Hawes at the above address. OKLAHOMA TURFGRASS FIELD DAY: I made it to this June 9th Field Day and I'm glad I did. 'Reveille' (TX A&M's KY blue x TX blue release) is improving in quality with each year in the plots there. 'Taos' orchardgrass at 2 & 1/2 inches did not look good. But, although not as good looking as Revielie it did make a reasonably solid stand for a pasture grass. Reveille still has 
not yet equaled the better tall fescues and fine fescues for that location. I also was shown a few deep shade plots planted in 1995 under some trees. Revielie was not overly shade tolerant. Persisting in the shade but, a very thin stand. Both trials were mowed at two and 1/2 inches and unirrigated. The shade was quite dense, natural tree shade, but tall fescues did well in this situation. Winter hardiness in seeded bermudagrass - This is normally a good test location for winter hardiness but the last winter was very mild. Jackpot and Mirage have typically done the best of the released seeded cultivars at this location, and they don't do very well. Oklahoma's 91-11 which is much better will be available as seed in small quantities in 2000. Princess survived the last winter there but was thinned severely. Even GN-1 survivied and was fully recovered on June 9th only because it is one of the most aggressive cultivars around. It ought to be good for driving range tees. OKS 91-11 is showing good SDS resistance also. Algae Control - 1998 data from Oklahoma trials rates four fungicide treatments as significantly different from no treatment at the 5% level, for average of two August observations. They were: 1. Lynx 45 WP 0.278 oz/M with Daconil WS 2.87 fl oz/M tank mixed and sprayed every 14 days. 2. Daconil WS 4 fl oz/M every 7 days. 3. Fore 8 oz/M every 7 days. 4. Maximum 10 oz/M every 14 days. Heritage controls anthracnose on bentgrass they claim. Drive - They note that the tomato (nightshade) family is very sensitive to drift from this new herbicide. Cost for Drive will be about $85/acre. Oklahoma State University is dropping all trials with African Bermudagrasses. They have only provided a short period of high quality turf and appear to be adapted to very limited areas. They had a lot of Large Patch in Zoysia this Spring because it was so wet there. Trees - The Chinese Pistache has become the first tree to be noted in the Oklahoma Proven program. Our guide through this part of the program noted that the California Incense Cedar is a good 30 to 40 foot evergreen tree for the Oklahoma area. I'm not sure whether he was talking about Cedruas deodara or not. He also felt the Kentucky Coffeetree should be planted more. This tree does not transplant well. If buying it be sure to purchase it in Grow BagsŽ or some 
similar device that makes for successful transplanting. Bare rooted trees don't transplant well at all. This tree does not graft well either so you may have to put up with the large seed pods on the females. The Dawn Redwood was recommended for the area east of 1-35. * t -end of notes on OK Field Day -Bt - SAFE?: The spores of the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis have been used as a pesticide for 30+ years and now it has been found that strain H34 easily kills healthy mice. How easy - well only 108 spores did the job in eight hours reports Neysa Call in the Agronmy News, July 1999, pg. 7. She is taking the information from the May 29, 1999 issue of New Scientist. Then in Science News, Vol. 156, p.6, July 3, '99 a report on some research that shows Bt-treated crops may induce allergies. The testing was done on field workers picking, washing and crating Bt-treated crops. IRRIGATION SYSTEMS: While consulting for the Air Force I was constantly pushing for them to create a position on their crews for an irrigation system technician. His duties would be maintenance, repair, and clock or head adjustment where needed during the summer season. A Thompson advertizement triggered this paragraph. It listed the components of a typical irrigation system. Stating that "there are enough elements in a million-dollar irrigation system which can go wrong." Implying that if you had their central controller at least that won't go down. 50,000 yards of pipe underground, 20,000 pipe joints underground, 2,500 sprinkler heads, 1,200 gpm pump station (and all its components), and 16 satellite controllers. I know, many of you Western superintendents have many more components than mentioned here. But, it doesn't take an Einstein to realize that something is going to go wrong with such a system and the superintendent had better not be the only one that can fix it. It is my experience that daily monitoring, repair, and adjustment during the dry summer months is a full time job with most systems this size or larger USGA VS. CALIFORNIA GREENS CONSTRUCTION: Been trying to catchup on my reading and found myself reading positive articles on each method within an hour or so. "Subsurface Drainage of Modern Putting Greens" by Prettyman and McCoy in USGA RECORD, July/Aug. 1999 and "Golf Green Construction-A Review of the University of California Method" by Harivandi in Calif. Turfgrass Culture, V. 48, #s 3&4 1998.1 shouldn't have to tell 
you which was positive for which method. I will go on record as saying the USGA recommendations for greens construction are the best way to go if money is plentiful. Either method carefully followed can provide you with successful greens. Both methods are easily screwed up if somebody decides to cut the wrong corner in picking and putting the ingredients together. Also, successful greens constructed by either method can be ruined by a few years of mismanagement, by one heavy soil topdressing, or one West Texas dust storm. COMMON TURFGRASS PROBLEMS: Images from the Historical Turfgrass Slide Library of Thomas Mascaro. I purchased this CD and have spent some time looking at a few of the hundreds of images from a small portion of Tom Mascara's enormous slide collection. When I first began to teach I sure wish I'd had that collection. I've heard Mr. Mascaro give one of his slide talks and in comparison as you might expect the slides with very brief titles fall flat. They will add to our history of golf course maintenance and I'm sure someone with the talents and know how like Dr. Milton Engelke, TX A & M, or James Moore of the USGA Green Section could work a few of these images from the CD into a talk that would help us all realize what it was like in the good old days. GCSAA News Release: Comparative Analysis of maintenance labor hours for standard course vs. 1999 U.S. Open preperation: This was completed by the Maintenance staff at Pinehurst and documents the very real cost of maintaining a golf course under U.S. Open standards. It should be a useful tool to use when membership wants U.S. Open conditions. The normal June week for Pinehurst includes 700 hours of labor. The U.S. Open Week was 3,354 hours. Needless to say you would also need a lot more equipment, and thus a larger maintenance facility. I filed my copy under BUDGET PLANNING. What did you do with yours? ZOYSIA WINTER HARDINESS: According to work published in HortScience, Feb. 1999 by Dr. Dunn, a Missouri turfgrass researcher, don't expect better winter hardiness out of the new zoysia cultivars than you already have with Meyer. "In this study, TGS-W10, 'Sunburst', 'Meyer', 'Korean Common', and 'Belair' were the hardiest entries according to controlled freezing tests and field survival whereas 'Emerald', El Toro', Cavalier', 'Crowne', and Palisades' were the least hardy entries." That is of the ten he studied. He used temperatures between -10 to -18°C (14 to 0°F) for his controlled tests. Ed. - In general I would not count on the last five cultivars where winter temperatures go below 0°F and stay there for very long. That would be north of horticultural hardiness zone 7. ORNAMENTAL GRASSES: If like myself you are a fan of ornamental grasses run out now and purchase a copy of The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-tails, and Selected Bamboos by Rick Darke. This is a Timber Press product. The majority of the book, 170 pages, is the encyclopedia. The first six chapters, 130 pages, are about grasses, including one chapter on landscape designing with ornamental grasses. CORN MEAL and PEACH ESSENCE FOR DISEASE CONTROL: Our local organic 
gardening guru is recommending corn meal at 10 to 20 pounds/1000 sq. ft. for various soil borne fungi. Also suggests it can be used for algae control in ponds. WHY? The ground corn stimulates bacteria in large numbers which suppresses the fungi in the soil or in the water thus using up the nutrients that the algae need. In my opinion not a good solution for disease control 
in fine turf. But, what is hard to believe from a world wide situation is that in the United States we have a surplus of corn meal and corn gluten that we can pour them on our soil at these rates to have a more pleasing landscape. The corn gluten, a high protein food, being used for preemerge weed control. Peach essence is an oil from the peach that is used for flavorings and perfumes according to the Avant Gardener, Aug. 1999 issue. They report that, " West Virginia researchers have found that granules of activated charcoal saturated with peach essence kill fusarium, pythium, rhizoctonia and sclerotinia pathogens in the soil..." - END -