Thanks everyone for logging your sightings, over 100 Pest views logged so far. So just one week into our data collection project PestTracker and what have we learnt? Tap here to log your sightings. The above heat maps shows the reported sightings on the 17th May 2019 At first glance there is a fairly obvious… Read More Syngenta Pest Tracker – the sightings keep coming in
All last year I was telling people how the Tipula Oleracae was a fairly rare species and the only Cranefly species we had to really worry about was the Paludosa. Well once again, I was wrong and true to form the more I learn the less I really I know. So what’s the difference? The… Read More Early Cranefly – Syngenta Pest Tracker
Last years emergency approval for Acelepryn gave me the opportunity to spend time with many turf managers who’ve successfully used the product and gave me a chance to understand how to get the best out of it. The challenges involved with applying a preventative insecticide are obvious. If applied and the target pest comes late… Read More Acelepryn: 7 Steps to Success – Timing
Getting the best out of Acelepryn is really important. The application rates in modern approved products are very low and whilst the Active Ingredients are incredibly effective there is very little margin of error built in as there has been in the past. To ensure you get the most from your acelepryn application it’s important… Read More Acelepryn: 7 Steps to Success – Water Volume and Application
I get a number of questions when I visit clubs about applying Acelepryn with wetting agents. The Active Ingredient in Acelepryn is VERY slow to move through the profile. In fact, all modern pesticides need to be either very quick at degrading or very slow at moving through the soil profile so they reduce the… Read More Acelepryn: 7 Steps to Success – Wetting Agent
The deadline for the annual Amenity Spray operator of the year awards is begining to creep up on us. The winner last year was Keith Gallacher, pictured above at BTME January 2019. With increasing pressure on Plant Protection Products being mounted it is more important than ever that as an industry we ensure we do… Read More Amenity Spray Operator of the Year awards (ASOY) – Enter Here
I talk to a lot of Turf managers and I’ve regularly heard this month just how dry it’s been. The below chart shows how it’s been an interesting month as rainfall hasn’t been average but significantly wetter or dryer than the “average year” dependent on your location. But of course, rainfall is only part of… Read More Dry April?
Soil moisture levels across the UK. Investigated. I’ve been watching the soil moisture probes we have in the ground at Corhampton Golf club closely hoping they’d give me a real indication of what’s going on in the soil and how they could help to get optimum irrigation timings. They certainly helped identify that each green… Read More Bank Holiday Dry Down – Soil Moisture Levels
My weekend in Gower in South Wales with the family was interrupted a little by some pretty frightening gorse fires. Now South Wales isn’t renowned for its dry weather and whilst the commons are regularly burnt in a controlled manner out of bird nesting season to see something on this scale first hand was pretty… Read More Gower Blaze – Pretty Frightening
I had the great pleasure of visiting Duncan and Iestyn at Corhampton this week so we could put together an article on the award wining Operation Pollinator work they’re doing. We were discussing the amazing chalk scrapes that they’ve done and talking about the best method of getting wildflower seed to germinate in these this… Read More Seed to Soil contact
