Too Much of Everything is Just Enough

Right along with stormy skies, the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory is firing up with golf turf samples. We’ve seen it all lately: anthracnose, summer patch, slime molds, take-all, Pythium root diseases, annual bluegrass weevils, black turfgrass ataenius, and lots of wear and tear. Here are a couple of random notes from the last week or two:

Slime mold-just because they are cool. Photo: Howard Szczurek

Slime mold–just because it’s cool. Does this look like dog yak? Photo: Howard Szczurek

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What is that on my shoe?

Some may call it endoplasmic reticulum, some may run screaming from the blob, and still others might simply say that the dog just yacked in the yard. Me, I just call them cool and with all the rain and humidity in the last couple weeks, the Plant Diagnostic Lab has had a run on slime molds.

Slime mold (Physarum) plasmodia on Kentucky bluegrass. Photo: Becky Sesnowich, Tinton Falls

Slime mold (Physarum sp.) plasmodium on Kentucky bluegrass. Photo: Becky Sesnowich, Tinton Falls

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