Aeration Tips: Effects of Tine Diameter & Topdressing Incorporation

Dr. John N. Rogers, III
Michigan State University

As summer comes to a close aeration season begins on golf courses.  Follow this link to an article originally published in Golf Course Management reviewing research conducted at the Hancock Turfgrass Research Center on the effects of hollow-tine diameter and topdressing incorporation implements on sand topdressing integration.

http://digitalgcm.gcsaa.org/Vizion5/viewer.aspx?issueID=38&pageID=92

Turfgrass Field Day

Dr. Kevin W. Frank
Assoc. Professor & Extension Turf Specialist

The Michigan Turfgrass Field Day will be held August 14 at the Hancock Turfgrass Research Center on the campus of MSU.  Preregistration is available until August 9th.

Registration is on-line at  http://www.michiganturfgrass.org/msu-turfgrass-field-day-registration.html

Schedule:

7:45-8:45                  Registration

8:45-9:00                  Opening Comments

9:00-11:00                Research Tour

11:00-12:30              Lunch (included with registration)

12:30-2:30                Afternoon Workshops & Tours

There will be two research tours for attendees to select from: Golf and Lawn/Athletic Fields. 

Golf Turf Research Tour

1.    Mower studies – impact of bed knife placement on green quality. 

2.    Bacterial etiolation on creeping bentgrass putting greens

3.    Effects of drought and traffic stresses on physiological responses and water use characteristics of creeping bentgrass and Poa annua.

4.    Managing summer stress on Poa annua and creeping bentgrass greens and fairways

5.    A combination of lightweight rolling and sand topdressing programs to decrease pesticide inputs and enhance fairway turfgrass quality

6.    Anthracnose control on greens and fairways

7.    Poa annua control on putting greens

8.    The new Schwartzkopf Field Laboratory and phytohormone responses to Primo application

Lawns and Athletic Fields Research Tour

1.    Spray nozzle dynamics and selection for optimal pesticide efficacy

2.    Nutrient runoff following fertilizer applications

3.    Necrotic Ring Spot cultural and fungicide management programs

4.    National Turfgrass Evaluation Program Kentucky bluegrass athletic field wear test

5.    Rolling athletic fields for improved performance and player safety

6.    New herbicide technology for goosegrass, crabgrass, and nimblewill control in cool-season turf

7.    Postemergence crabgrass control

8.    Insecticide and cultural recommendations for minimizing grub injury

Afternoon Workshops (12:30-2:30 pm)

1.  Disease Walk

The MSU Turf Pathology research team will lead this diagnostic tour for pathogens at the turf center.   If you have difficulty distinguishing between Laetisaria fuciformis and Limnomyces roseipellis on your golf course you definitely need to attend this workshop.  Participants will learn:

1)    How to identify the common turfgrass diseases using both in-field techniques and microscopes

2)    Management options for common diseases including: dollar spot, brown patch, crown-rotting anthracnose, red thread, and pythium blight and root-rot.

3)    How to recognize the symptoms of summer decline of both bentgrass and Poa annua

2. Weed Walk

As the weed walk enters it’s lucky 13^th year, the summer of 2012 left some tremendous voids in the turf where weeds were more than happy to fill in.  You’ll tour the turf center and learn identification characteristics of the common turf weeds and the best control practices.  Tour will include discussion of best management practices both with and without herbicides to ensure high turfgrass quality and most importantly customer satisfaction. 

3. MSU Athletic Field Tour (on Campus)

The athletic field tour will visit three sites on the MSU campus to learn about new field establishment and compare two synthetic turf fields.  The field at the DeMartin Soccer Complex was killed following the conclusion of the fall 2012 season and seeded to Kentucky bluegrass on May 13, 2013.  The previous field was contaminated with Poa supina and the desire to have a uniform turf stand capable of withstanding all season use was the primary goal.  Establishment practices for a summer seeding will be discussed including mowing, irrigation, and pest management. 

Following the visit to the DeMartin Soccer Complex the tour will stop by the football practice field which is in the process of installing a new infill synthetic practice field, scheduled to be completed about a week before field day. The construction and maintenance of the infill synthetic field will be discussed. 

Top 5 Reasons it’s an Epic Crabgrass Year

Dr. Kevin W. Frank & Aaron Hathaway
Michigan State University

I was recently asked by a lawn care operator to reply via email with 1000 words or less of why it’s an epic crabgrass year, well maybe he didn’t say epic but you get the idea.  I accepted this challenge heartily but decided in the spirit of today’s world of texting and twittering to do it in less than 100 words.

1. Record heat and stress in 2012 resulted in bumper crabgrass crop, plenty of seed, and thinned turf for more opportunities for crabgrass to invade this year.

2. Cold, long spring delayed crabgrass germination, may have escaped early spring preemergence applications.

3. Soil moisture increases soil biological activity, in turn, increasing herbicide degradation. 

4.  Plentiful precipitation in June when young crabgrass was geminating helped with root development.

5. High temperatures in July were perfectly timed for crabgrass to really start competing.  

Crabgrass infested boulevard.

The Secret to Good Lawns, Good Soil

Dr. Kevin W. Frank
Assoc. Professor & Extension Turf Specialist

I recently rode along with a landscape services provider to visit what he called some difficult properties.  On these visits I usually only bring a couple items, camera and soil probe.  The first home lawn we visited was indeed difficult.  Upon arriving at the site first impressions were a lawn that was thinned, stressed, and not surviving the recent heat spell very well.  Walking the lawn it quickly became evident that soil moisture was not the problem, well actually it was the problem, too much water.  To this point it’s been a very wet summer and any irrigation a homeowner might be adding when it’s not needed can easily push a lawn from adequately watered to soaking wet.  As I started to probe the soil in various parts of the lawn it became obvious the underlying soil was not helping the lawn.  In most areas no matter how hard I leaned on the probe I could only force it into the soil 2-3 inches.  This was the typical example of turf trying to grow on compacted clay.  Sometimes on visits there’s a moment of truth, on this visit it was looking at the neighbors picture perfect patch of green next to this struggling lawn. 

When I pushed the soil probe into the neighbors lawn the probe went down about 10 inches easily.  Bottom line, growing turf on compacted, high clay content soils is a challenge.  As the story was slowly revealed, the area of the lawn that was really struggling was heavily trafficked and compacted following a recent pool and deck installation.  Following construction, it was not clear if any efforts were made to break up the compacted soil before sodding, my soil probe would say no.  Best solution of course would be to start over, bring in 4-6 inches topsoil and sod or reseed the lawn.  For most homeowners this is an unrealistic solution based on cost and pain.  The less disruptive solution is to put the lawn on a regular core aerification and fertilization program and to monitor watering closely to avoid a saturated, waterlogged soil. 

The second visit I wouldn’t have found on my own.  My inclination when traveling to a neighborhood to visit a lawn is to look for the bad lawn and stop there.  On this visit we drove right by the bad lawn and stopped at a lawn that from curbside appeared to have few problems.  As we walked the lawn in silence I found some small areas with dollar spot and a couple areas with necrotic ring spot that appeared to have been successfully managed to avoid turf loss or the sunken ring.  Both of these I considered minor blemishes considering the hot stretch of weather we just went through.  Finally I basically raised my hands and said, what’s the deal here?  My host for the day replied with, they just don’t think it’s as good as the neighbors, not as uniformly green.  There were some patches of fine fescue in the lawn that some could find objectionable if they want a perfect Kentucky bluegrass lawn but it seems unnecessary to me to start this lawn over or kill off those patches.  We’ll write this one off to unrealistically high expectations.   

High quality home lawn with equally high homeowner expectations.

Turfgrass Disease and Stress Update

Dr. J.M. Vargas, Jr.

Michigan State University

Well summer has finally arrived with a vengeance! Up until now other than some dollar spot and Waitea patch it has been a dull summer for diseases. Now with the arrival of the warm weather brown patch, Pythium blight, crown rot anthracnose, foliar anthracnose and summer patch are all becoming a problem. The real key to the development of these diseases has been the warm night time temperatures. These diseases become problems when the night time temperatures stay above 68 F. Of course the humidity has also helped these diseases to become a problem.  It is important to remember where these diseases are occurring the fungus is already inside the plant and it is necessary to use a systemic fungicide to stop the advance of the fungus inside the plant.  Contacts fungicide may prevent any new infection but they will do nothing to prevent the fungus in the plant from causing further damage.  Many areas in the state have received a lot of rain this spring and summer and consequently the turf has poorly developed root systems from oxygen continually being pushed out of the root zone.  The reason for mentioning this is soon the cooler weather will return and with it will be cool days in the 70’s with low humidity.  On these days, and especially if the wind is blowing the turf will begin to wilt rapidly and die if irrigation is not applied quickly. So in other words, don’t relax and let your guard down just because cooler weather has returned.

Brown patch on a putting green.