The Plant Diagnostic Laboratory is in recovery from SAD – not seasonal affective disorder – but sample affected disorder! Snow cover equals very few sample submissions, so with the exception of our talk show circuit, life in a plant diagnostic facility is pretty quiet in the winter. While it is certainly a pleasure to see everybody at the winter meetings, I would much rather sit in the lab looking at dead stuff than stand in front of everybody talking about it. Fortunately, as the weather improves from week to week, the samples are starting to roll in.
Landscape, Ornamentals, Nursery, and Turf Edition
Seasonal updates on ornamental, nursery, and turf pests.
Subscriptions are available via EMAIL and RSS.
Companion Website Links:
Rutgers Turf Blog - Articles on turfgrass diseases and cultural practices for the commercial turfgrass industry. Subscription available via RSS.
Rutgers Weather Forecasting - Meteorological Information important to commercial agriculture.
Looks Like Grass… But It Isn’t
Other than today and yesterday, soil temperatures in New Brunswick have been reaching into the lower 50s°F during the last week or so. And you see the effects, some plants are finally awakening from winter slumber. Cool-season turfgrasses are slowly greening up. Tree buds are swelling, some are flowering. Forsythia is just starting to bloom. And prostrate knotweed, one of the earliest germinating summer annual weeds, is emerging.
![Some confuse the slender plants emerging along sidewalk edges at this time of year with grass but it is actually prostrate knotweed.](https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/prostrate-knotweed-1024x576.jpg)
Some confuse the slender plants emerging along sidewalk edges at this time of year with grass but it is actually prostrate knotweed.
[Read more…]
Don’t Get Them ‘Angry’: Insecticide Resistance in AWB
The annual bluegrass weevil (ABW) is an insect that can get very ‘angry’: insecticide resistant that is. Surveys have indicated that resistance in this insect is wide spread. Dealing with insecticide resistant ABW can quickly become a nightmare. The best thing to do, if you still can, is to not get the weevils ‘angry’ in the first place. Once they are resistant, there may be no feasible way of getting them susceptible again. There are no silver bullets out there and none in development.
Resistance is Sneaky
I estimate that any golf course that has tried to intensively control ABW for at least 5 years will have some level of insecticide resistance. With intensively I mean multiple applications per year over large proportions of the golf course. Resistance tends to sneak up on people. First there are some small problems here and there that will be excused by ‘missing spots’, ‘timing off’, ‘poor weather conditions’, etc. Unfortunately, the typical reaction is to ratchet up the spraying activity. [Read more…]
Winterkill on Annual Bluegrass: Don’t Skip the K
We lost the ice cover on our Poa annua trials two weekends ago (March 7-8th) and initially the turf looked okay. But now… it doesn’t. And it will probably get worse, if we are reading the symptoms correctly.
Last Friday (March 13), my graduate student, Chas Schmid, informed me that I needed to look at his potassium trial on our Poa annua turf. There was a huge difference between no‑K and K fertilized plots. The no-K plots have steadily lost green color and become very blotchy. Plants taken from those plots are water-soaked and feel mushy when squeezed (How is that for a scientific description?). Dr. Lindsay Hoffman has a lot of experience with winterkill on Poa annua in Massachusetts and she is convinced that many of the plants are dead. And it smells like it – silage on a dairy farm!
![Poa annua trials](https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Poa-annua-trials-1024x576.jpg)
Blotchy, tan-colored plots and borders around this potassium trial are suffering from winterkill. Green, healthier looking turf received K fertilization; dying turf did not.
(15 March 2015)
Take home for me – don’t let your Poa annua turf become potassium deficient! Chas’ data for suppressing anthracnose severity indicates that a soil test (Mehlich 3) ≥50 ppm K and a tissue level of ≥2% K in the clippings are indicators that the K level is good. And winterkill in March 2015 hasn’t changed my mind about that data!
Looks like this might be the end of this Poa annua field. Dr. William Meyer said, “Good riddance.”
Traffic Alert: Damage Threat is High
Damage to landscapes from traffic can be severe during winter and especially now during the thaw. Soil conditions currently range from being frozen to partially thawed/frozen to thawed.
Partially frozen soil will be thawed and very wet at the surface while being frozen at some depth below. Under this condition, soil and turf will be extremely vulnerable to shearing and rutting damage. Traffic, even light foot traffic, must be withheld when this condition exists otherwise severe rutting (soil displacement) will occur.
Winter Thaw about to Begin
If the 10-day forecasts are correct, the winter thaw we’ve all been waiting for is about to begin this weekend.
![Turf-Winter-Thaw](https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Turf-Winter-Thaw-1024x576.jpg)
Winter thaw: the most common time “nonpoint” or “runoff” phosphorus pollution enters lakes and streams.
As managers of landscapes, we need to keep in mind that:
- Sediment is the primary source of phosphorus (large quantities of phosphorus are attached to sediment)
- Most phosphorus runoff from turfgrass comes during winter
- Improving soil quality is one of the most effective way to reduce nutrient losses from urban areas
- Dense ground cover is good for the urban environment