GREENS

TIS THE SEASON.....................FOR DOLLAR SPOT!

Golf courses in North America spend more money controlling Dollar Spot than any other turf grass disease. This disease is prevalent in all parts of the world and loves to feast on Bent grass and Poa, which are the main two types of turf growing on our fairways and tees.
Our policy with regard to controlling Dollar Spot is to not spray preventively, as it is a very expensive application. This disease only grows during warm humid weather. During this time we monitor the weather and temperatures closely on a daily basis, and wait until we have active disease growing before considering an application for control. This also supports our Audubon program, which states that we will not treat for this disease until the threshold level of infection has been reached. Once the product is applied to the active Dollar Spot it is immediately controlled. If conditions are such that we need to treat all fairways, it will take us three days (under ideal application conditions) to cover all 18 fairways. The disease itself infects the leaf blade, but not the crown of the plant. This means that the small areas which were infected over night may look dead come the morning, but the plant is still very much alive and actively growing.







So we will see areas in fairways and on tees which have some infection as in the photo above. But with the awesome growing conditions we have it won"t take long for the plant to fill these areas in with new leaf blades.


For those of us sick of the heat and humidity, take some refuge knowing that December............... and the first anticipated snow fall is less than 4 months away!



Enjoy the warmth while we have it!!!