Golfdom, April 2010

Culturally speaking While Athy doesnt take fungicides for granted he doesnt hang his hat on them to control disease and other pests He realizes the importance of sound cultural practices especially when it comes to irrigation to also control disease He watches closely the correct time to water and how much to water depending on the time of year Hes always monitoring leaf wetness Athy says fairway topdressing has helped control disease He admits he thought fairway topdressing was excessive when he began the program a few years ago But I saw the benefit of it after one year he says And since we have the money to do it I think its a great tool to help keep the fairways dry which cuts down on disease pressure Of course cultural practices such as irrigation aerification and fertility have their own set of methods for mastering Just ask Gurke To offset injury on greens Gurke has cut back on mowing But knowing he still has to keep greens fast Gurke is rolling them more often which has also enabled him to raise the height of cut He spoon feeds the greens with one tenth a pound of nitrogen every few weeks to help keep them growing Gurke believes most disease outbreaks happen not as a result of not being protected by fungicide but because turf is in poor physiological condition Gurke says superintendents are often their own worst enemies when it comes to plant health We put sand on onetenth of an inch of grass and then brush it around in 85 degree weather he says Thats not the smartest thing to do to keep turf healthy Walter has introduced several cultural practices including topdressing and verticutting for thatch removal He and his crew core aerify twice a year and deep tine aerify three times a year during the summer months Walter has also increased nitrogen fertility steadily for the past five years and applies nitrogen every seven days on greens at a half pound an acre I did get lean there for awhile when the trend was to go with less nitrogen he ways But that came back to bite me because dollar spot became worse Lasting advice Athy who has been a superintendent for 30 years knows a lot of things about a lot of things especially fungicide programs A lot of the knowledge I have came from the school of hard knocks Athy says You learn from experience what works and what doesnt work For instance Athy advises younger superintendents to take it slow with new fungicides while theyre breaking them into their programs Its important to get a feel for how they perform he says Gurke is big on keeping spraying records and using them He keeps notes about good things and bad For a superintendent whos starting a job at a new course theres no better starting point than history Gurke says Of course it all depends on why the new superintendent is there and whom he or she is replacing If the new person is replacing someone who retired after 30 years and was adored by members because he or she had the best greens in town then the new superintendent should probably stay with the old persons program Gurke says If the new person is replacing someone who was fired because of poor conditions then the new superintendent may want to start at square one with a new fungicide program But even then it wouldnt hurt to glance at the previous persons records to figure out what went wrong and if products were overused and resistance became a problem Its just another part of getting with the fungicide program PHOTO BY ISTOCK INTERNATIONAL INC Plant Health Report PART TWO Source Identification Management of Turfgrass Diseases University of Missouri Extension 38 Golfdom A p r i l 2 0 1 0 GETTING IT RIGHT Heres a checklist to apply fungicides correctly to obtain optimum fungicide performance Know the targeted disease s Know the location of the pathogen leaves crown roots Know the product s and its mode of action Choose a flat fan nozzle to produce either a fine to medium droplet for foliar disease or a medium to a coarse droplet for root and crown rotting disease Know the tolerance for drift Know the weight of the spray solution Know the pressure range of the sprayer Know the boom height and nozzle spacing Know that the sprayer is properly calibrated Continued from page 36