TurfComms V-14,1.8 Sept. 1, 2003 PURPOSE: To pass on what we learn willingly and happily to others in the profession so as to improve turf conditions around the country. NTGCSA Educational Meeting: Aug. 11,2003 (continued) Dr. Colbaugh finished the day's lectures with a talk of pathogens. He emphasized the Importance of having a digital camera so that you can rapidly communicate over the phone and the internet to your pathologist, entomologist, or botanist your disease, insect or weed problem. A picture being worth a thousand words, this will allow you to very rapidly tell him what your problem is. Fairy ring - there are 60 species of fungi causing these rings around the world. He said that aerifying is the worse thing you can do when you have this problem because it speeds up moisture loss. (Ed. But I will still recommend it if you follow immediately with wetting agent and water with a hand held hose.) Fairy ring he has observed are more active on the outer 1/3 of the green. He is having very good luck controlling with high pressure injection of Prostar and Heritage combined with a good wetting agent. He 
has been using Cushman's Enviroject 160HPI at 18.9 gal/lOOOsq. ft. Fungicides do not 
move through dry thatch. TURFCOMMS is published at unpredictable intervals by the editor and publisher Douglas T. Hawes, PhJD. 3517 Deep Valley Trail Assistant Editor, Cynthia Maddox Piano, Texas 75023 e-mail: dhawes@dallas.net (972) 867-0176 web site http://www.geocities.com/turfcomms/index.html Little yellow spots - Look closely at these; they may be bluegreen algae (Cynobacteria). The algae are down at the top of the mat/soil just under the spots. The Cynobacteria produce a toxin that weakens the plant. He has found that 7 to 8 oz./M of Daconil W.S. applied for 3 weeks gives control. Also control has been obtained with Fore. Areas that receive morning shade are the most sensitive to this problem. Curvularia Blight - You will notice the outer (adult) leaves dying. Need a high volume application of Medallion at 0.4 oz./M to get control. MERCURY: The GCSAA should go after the EPA on a restraint-of-trade or some such thing for the EPA's making illegal in the golf course business, the use of mercury fungicides to control snow mold when they haven't even begun to shut down or regulate the biggest releasers of mercury in the US. Soft coal burning power plants put 48 tons of mercury per year into the atmosphere(The Dallas Morning News, August 31, 2003 pg 1 A). I doubt all of the golf courses together released a ton/year from the treatment of snow mold on greens. This is another case of the government with its big stick picking on the little guy but letting the big guy get away with murder. Perhaps if we went out and "bought" all the congressmen like the power industry does with campaign contributions we would still have mercury based compounds to control snow mold. One of my State's Senators, after receiving $27,060 of campaign funds has become a champion of lignite coal, (see the above Dallas Morning News article). No, I don't think that the buying of congressmen is the approach we should take but, we should complain bitterly when another industry gets away with it. It smells of corruption in high places to me. GRUBS: The following reports are from the IPM Practitioer, XXV(5/6) May/June 2003 issue. Investigators in Florida have been better able to find grub infestations using very sensitive sound detection equipment and a trained listener than by using the old core sampling method. Aw, a new profession is born - The Listening Entomologist. Grubs aren't the only insects a trained listener with good equipment can moniter. Others are carpenter ants and termites. This same issue has a report on the nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora giving better results controlling grubs than the insecticides Dylox and Merit. Another report was of a new nematode discovered to control Japanese beetle and oriental beetle. Another study reported on (the author of the article in the IPM Practitioner was covering the Nov. 2002 Entomological Society of America meeting) was the reduction of effectiveness of Tiphia vernalis parasitism of J. Beetle grub when Merit was applied. ANTS: From the same journal above comes several suggestions for control of ants. Baking soda shows promise for use in electrical and other utility boxes for control of fire ants. A bait using a combination of spinosad and an insect growth regulator was reported as more successful than either alone. Also that baits spread over 1.2 acres or more were more successful that those used on smaller areas. If this issue of this journal is a good example, then there has been a management change in this journal for more and better reporting of pest management in turf. George Thompson, an old friend who lives in the Pinehurst area, and was the 2002 USGA Green Section Award Recipient, on August 28, 2003 sent this email: " We have some strange fungi on putting greens in NC now set up by record excessive rainfall, a complete flip from 2002. This looks like Take All Patch but moves in water like Pythium. Dr. Lane Treadway@ NC State is calling it "Summer Crown Rot" It forms indistinct patches 2 inches to two feet in diameter. They wilt then turn a yellow / orange color similar to Gaeumannomyces but follows water patterns like Pythium and Anthracnose. It's a killer, but the good news is that it responds to higher fertility and 14 day chemical controls using four products. 1) Chipco Signature (4 oz) + Fore ( 8 oz ) 2) Subdue (1oz) 3) Cleary 3336 ( 8 oz) = Heritage ( 0.4 oz) Treadway did say at one time to apply these products at two days spacing to bring it under control but I'm not sure if he is still recommending that. If you suspect this with any of your clients get it cultured but if you can't wait, I would start out with the Cleary/ Heritage with a lot of water / m to get the products down to the crown. It seems to prefer 1-4 year old Crenshaw, A-1, A-4, and G-2 here in NC." When I asked George if I could use this in TurfComms he replied on Aug. 30th, "Sure,... I got it from Dr. Treadway via Pat O'Brien and Chris Hartwigger, USGA S.E. Agronomists. Dr. Bruce Martin the Clemson Extension Pathologist was looking at something like Take All Patch last year but it didn't rain so it didn't blow up like it did this year. When our drought started breaking in October we have had nothing but rain up to last week. Almost everyone has drainage problems. It's not unusual to have afternoon thunder showers in the Carolinas in the summer, but this year some of them started at 9 AM. One weekend in August we had 3" on Friday morning, 3.5 inches Sat. night and another frog strangler Sun. night. I think we hit our yearly rainfall average totals in July." FOURTH OF JULY L.A. STYLE: I have often been away from home on the Fourth and have also called four metropolitan areas home, so I thought I was well aware of the variations in celebration of this special day. Well, this Fourth I was residing temporarily in the Mid City suburb of L.A., Calif; we were in a small manufactured homes and R.V. park by 8 P.M. when the fireworks started in earnest. They tapered off around 10 P.M. We had the feeling for awhile that we were in a war zone. It appears that many local suburbs had their own fireworks show and many of the local residents also had small to medium fireworks. Early that next morning there were a few more heard, and it was 
common to hear fireworks most nights. L.A. DRY-COASTAL CLIMATE: I had been in this area twice before for 4 or 5 days each time but we were here for 28 days this time. Previous times were fall and winter. This was summer, and a tad closer to the coast than the other two times. The days varied a little as when we got here they were still having some cloudy mornings. The mornings start off in the 60s to low 70s and climb to low to mid-80s. Most days have hot bright 
sun and low humidity with a breeze starting around noon. The latter continues into the early evening. The early mornings are very humid; and there is usually a dew. Being at least a summer desert area, everything not watered is either desert vegetation or dead. Turf consists of everything imaginable. The apartment complex my wife's sister(the reason for our stay) was at, had both tall and fine fescue lawn areas. Zoysia and bermudagrass were also very commonly seen. I did not see any St. Augustine. Horticultural plantings often contained plants us northerners would think of only as house 
plants. Trees were not all eucalyptus and palms but those two genera predominated. Ground covers were numerous but ice plant and a low daisy were the most common. It was a sad but interesting trip. -END-