TURF COMMS V -I -OCT -S? 1 PURPOSE: To pass on what we learn willingly and happily to others in the profession so as to improve turf conditions around the country. GROWTH REGULATOR - FUNGICIDE INTERACTION: I had a long conversation today, 9/20, with a superintendent in the Washington, B.C. area. He said that Cutless use with the fungicide Banner was resulting in very rapid Poa annua death without damage to bentgrass in his area. Some early university research in that region has documented this superintendents observed phenomenon. Dr. Houston Couch, Pathologist at V.P.I. & S.U. , -found that Banner at high rates with TGR or with Cutless caused a loss of Poa annua in 30 days. So don't use Banner where you are using Cutless or TGR unless you are ready for the fast disappearance of Poa annua. Of course if your willing to gamble and you KNOW the percent Poa annua in your 
greens is less than 10 mL and evenly distributed then note that there appears to be little if any damage to the bentgrass from this combo. Let me be quick to say that Banner by itself is an excellent fungicide for use on Poa annua. Banner will help keep Poa annua alive when other fungicides may not. Just don't mix with growth regulators till further notice. THOSE NEW CREEPING BENTGRASS CULTIVARS AND THEN SOME: Visited Sandhill Turf Farm in Candor, NC and saw my first 
Southern Blight and a lot of nice looking Penncross mowed at 1/4 inch. It was growing on a sand that although it did not met USGA specifications it was a heck of a lot better than sods I've seen TURFCOMMS is published at unpredictable intervals by the editor and publishers Douglas T. Hattes, Ph D Certified Professional Agronomist Specializing in 6olf Course Maintenance Consulting 240B Roundrock Trail Piano, Texas 75075 (214) 867ŠO176 Subscription cost is *15. Send Checks to Doug Hawes at the above address. grown on muck, peat and/or soil. The sand had less than seven percent silt and clay. Its percolation rate was between three and seven inches per hour. Beside the Penncross was about 10,000 feet of SR 1020. It was definitely more upright and finer textured than the Penncross. I preferred the color of the SR 1020 also. It was on the SR 1020 that I saw Southern Blight. There are fungicides out now that will control Southern Blight, such as Prostar (presently only has a experimental use label) or four ounces of Bayleton. SR 1020 is from germplasm selected at the University of Arizona. It was released in 19S7 and I've heard is currently being recommended mixed with Putter in the Atlanta and North Carolina area by the USGA Green Section. I like what I read and hear about some of these new cultivars and have taken to recommending Pennlinks over Penncross for country club situations but I'm not sure it has enough wear tolerance or ability to recover from wear to be a definite improvement over Penncross in all categories. For those in the Greater D/FW area Terry Jungman has two acres which is Penncross except for 1000 sq. ft. SR 1020. He has planted a 1/2 acre of Pennlinks this Fall. He is growing the first planting on two inches of washed sand and is using four inches of washed sand on the acreage put in this Fall. He says the SR 1020 is slower establishing than the Penncross but does not get stressed out the way the Penncross does. No disease problems on his SR 1020 which is in a dry portion of the field but 13 inches of August rains gave him nonstop Brown Patch on the Penncross for a while this summer. Pat O'Brien, USGA Green Section - Southeast Region, has been recommending SR 1020, SR 1019 and Pennlinks. Says he's not opposed to blends of these new cultivars. He also went on to say that he felt Pennlinks, SR 1020 and SR 1019 were definitely superior to Penncross. He said he hadn't yet seen enough of the SR 1020 and 1019 to be as confident of their superiority as the Pennlinks. For those of you that thought they had too much rain this summer and too much traffic for soggy bentgrass greens, think of poor 
Augusta National. No play at all, therefore were able to put up shade cloth over the greens and yet still lost the 12th green. Yes, that's the one with the refrigeration unit underneath it. And this is the course with five, $5000 fans. Five thousand dollar fans should more correctly be called wind generators. Some good came out of that loss. Kevin Gunn, owner of Stormy 
Acre Sod Farm, got to sell some of his 24 month old, Poa annua Łfree, soil free, bentgrass sod. Kevin an ex-superintendent is developing a reputation -for superior bentgrass sod. Pat O'Brien said that sod rooted beautiful without a layer problem. The sod is washed free of soil before delivery in a refrigerated truck. Pat also mentioned a new roller he saw at Augusta National. It was from Australia and was suppose to be able to increase stimpmeter speeds 24 inches with one pass. No, it's not an asphalt roller; but your turf might turn that color after such treatment. NEW DEVICE FOR WORKING IN TOPDRESSING: An Isolite salesman came by the other day and I learned another use for a Flymo. A Flymo with nylon string attachment has been found good for working in sand plus Isolite topdressinq into aerifier holes. Which means it should be good for working in straight sand topdressinq. ALGAE: A recent Mississippi study found the species of algae present on bermudagrass greens differed from that found on bentgrass greens in the same area. Also there was no correlation between the algae found in the water source used and the algae on the greens. All told they identified 90 different algae species on greens. Fore got used so much in the Dallas area this summer that the 
algae will be building up a resistance. Ran into a superintendent using something a little different for control. He applied five pounds per thousand of epsom salts (MgSO^). 
That's the stuff your mother (grandmother) soaked your tired feet in after the 25 mile Boy Scout hike. He had a dual purpose for putting it on. He needed to raise the magnesium levels in his greens mix without raising the pH levels. He accomplished this and some algae control - well sometimes he said it took two appiicati ons. I've been told and read that high rates of iron sulfate will do the same thing to algae on or in ponds. Seeing how black greens will get with six ounces of iron sulfate sprayed on I'm not about to recommend higher rates for algae control on greens. Has anybody else tried either FeSO* or MgSO* on algae? What about two pounds of hydrated lime per thousand? Two pounds of sulfur? NO MORE TRENCHES: Tired of digging a trench every time you need to put in an irrigation or drainage line? Want a machine that can replace your old four inch main with an eight inch main without digging trench all the way? A machine that doesn't leave you with a trench mark down the fairway -For the next six years (or is that 16 years)? Read Scientific American, September, 1991, pg. 173 to see what is out there in new equipment. They're called microtunneling machines and have been used in Japan and the U.S. -for putting in new water and sewer lines or replacing old lines with larger ones. They were developed in the mid-70s and presently sell -for $500,000 and up. DOG URINE KILLS Z0YSIA BUT NOT ST. AUGUSTINE - I had seen -female dog urine kill patches in Kentucky bluegrass with ease. Recently I saw a shaded Meyer zoysia lawn where it had done the ssme complete job of killing the zoysia. Spots six to eight inches in diameter deader than a door nail. An early symptom was a cur1ing/rol1ing of the leaves so that they looked like tall fescue leaves under drought stress. Their color was a water soaked dark green. The spots at this stage had a strong ammonia smell. They then quickly go to a golden brown and then a straw color. The owner of the dogs reported no problems when she had a St. Augustine lawn. SEED TO CIVILIZATION: The Story of Food by Charles B. Heiser, Jr. 1990. This is the third edition. If you haven't yet read this book you should, only 214 pages with lots of pictures. Covers Seeds, Sex, and Sacrifice (Chapter 2>, Meat: The Luxury Food (Chapter 4>, and Grasses: The Staff of Life (Chapter 5> to mention titles for a few of the thirteen chapters. POTASSIUM NITRATE - TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT! I've encouraged superintendents many times to use this relatively expensive, hard to obtain, soluble nitrogen and potassium source. My main reasoning has been the potassium it supplies in a nice clean easy to use material. A recent article out of the University of Georgia gives us another reason. They looked at ammonia vs. nitrate sources of nitrogen for greens and said "These results suggest that the desirable dark green of the shoots obtained with ammoniacal N may occur at the expense of root growth and/or development." They definitely obtained poorer color with the nitrate materials but if its color you want apply iron. If your concerned about having decent roots use potassium nitrate when you need a little growth. END