With LeatherJacket damage being reported and courses closed the question being asked is – should I aerate? Why do it? This is my first response to this question – what are you going to gain? Do you need to: Increase infiltration rates? Decrease OM content? Keep surface open? Or are you just doing it because… Read More Lockdown Aeration – Should I?
Are you doing any research work into worm control? The increased golf, wet weather and mild temperatures all added up to a perfect storm for muddy surfaces. Understandably people are after some form of control and they are hoping that we’ll come up with something. The reality is that it’s unlikely you’ll ever see a… Read More December FAQ’s
The last couple of years we’ve seen some real turf disease pressure over the Christmas period. I talked about the Moisture / Temperature relationship in one of my recent Blogs and thought it was a good chance to pull the data out for where I am down South compared to last Christmas. Each dot on… Read More Christmas 2020
All experienced turf managers know there are some weather conditions that lead to high Microdochium patch pressure. Prolonged periods of leaf wetness and optimum temperatures are exactly those. I wrote an article recently on this concept and how these factors influence the development of Fuz. Read it here….. By plotting these two factors on a… Read More Leaf wetness and temperature
I had the pleasure of visiting a customer last week right at the peak of the disease spike that we had before we went into this colder period and took great pleasure in looking at his Chipping green trial (I LOVE these). The last fungicide had been applied around 5 weeks earlier and we were… Read More Reducing turf disease, increasing fungicide longevity.
“I’ve got about 15% disease” is a regular statement I hear when talking to people and I never really know what that means. I’m always looking for quicker and more reliable ways of measuring turf disease and I think I’ve come up with a good’un. What always surprises me is how far out people are… Read More 10% disease?
Most of Novembers conversations have just been about checking in with people to make sure they’re OK. The implications of Novembers lockdowns have been different for all of us, many have used the opportunity to do much needed invasive work such as aeration or drainage, all courses have welcomed the break from golfers from a… Read More November FAQ
I’ve seen a lot of activity on social media celebrating Jims 100 birthday the last couple of weeks. Several people asking “Are his views still relevant now?” Certainly his disease management views were as relevant now as they were when he wrote Practical Greenkeeping. I’ve recently put a blog together on Biostimulants check it out… Read More Jim Arthur’s Practical Greenkeeping – still relevant?
Biostimulants have been used in turf for forever. Flicking through my heavily worn “Practical Greenkeeping” by Jim Arthur (who incidentally would have celebrated his 100th Birthday recently). I can see endless references to “biostimulants”. Sand and Seaweed stacked and turned, Soot, Cocoa waste, sewage sludge, spent mushrooms, etc the list goes on and on. What… Read More Biostimulants – Anything new?
I was sent the image below this week from South Wales and PestTracker continues to do its job – PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE if you’re seeing Cranefly hatch still – please continue to log them. We don’t fully understand the life cycle yet – the more pieces of the jigsaw we have the sooner we get… Read More Does it ever end?
