Rutgers Cooperative Extension
Seasonal updates on ornamental, nursery, and turf pests.
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Surprise, surprise! Our old friend anthracnose basal crown rot just came home to roost! An unexpected influx of putting green samples diagnosed with anthracnose were submitted to Rutgers Plant Diagnostic Lab this week.
Sample of a mixed bent grass and annual bluegrass putting green with anthracnose basal crown rot. Photo: Sabrina Tirpak, Rutgers PDL
Exactly like Dr. Bruce Clarke teaches, Memorial Day arrives and so does dollar spot disease.
Creeping bentgrass entries in one of Dr. Stacy Bonos’ evaluation trials that are
highly susceptible to dollar spot disease. Dollar Spot Disease seen in foreground.
Symptoms appear as round, brown to straw-colored spots approximately the size of a silver dollar. On short cut turf, the spots with advanced damage can become somewhat sunken. At taller cutting heights (greater than 1 inch), the damaged spots are larger and more diffuse.
Highly susceptible grasses will be the first to exhibit symptoms including annual bluegrass, creeping bentgrass (depending on cultivar), and perennial ryegrass. Tall fescue and most Kentucky bluegrasses will be more tolerant of this disease.
Cultural techniques that can suppress dollar spot disease include disruption of dew and guttation water in the morning and increasing N fertility (if it is low). Mowing early in the morning (disruption of dew) should also be helpful.
New Jersey Department of Agriculture today confirmed that the emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive beetle that attacks and kills ash trees, has been found in Somerset County by a landscaper investigating unhealthy trees in a Bridgewater retail area last week. Inspectors sent insect larvae samples to the USDA where the specimens were confirmed. [Read more…]
Moderate spring temperatures and regular rainfall over the last week or two have brought a bunch of brown ring patch (aka: Waitea Patch), which is caused by the fungus Waitea circinata, into Rutgers Plant Diagnostic Laboratory.
Brown ring patch on Poa annua. Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL
Buds of many confiers, including Douglas-fir, are in the process of breaking around the state. Every spring around this time, the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory starts to get samples with suspect needlecast, and as usual, we have indeed seen our share of needlecast so far this spring.
Needlecast. Photo: Marty McMekin, Mt. Bethel Tree Farm
If you haven’t noticed, spring has sprung in earnest. Spring flowering trees and shrubs have popped and are already fading. The buds of many other plants are breaking everywhere. Right along with the plants come the critters.
Freshly emerged Boxwood leafminer adult and pupal exuviae. Photo: Sabrina Tirpak, Rutges PDL
