PACE Turf - Turfgrass Information Center

Diseases

Evaluation of nematode thresholds and turf damage

Summary:

A study conducted in 2007 at La Jolla Country, with cooperator and golf course superintendent John Pollok, investigated the relationship between nematode counts and turf damage. After surveying samples from all 18 bentgrass greens for nematodes, we found that there were three different species present —ring nematode Criconemella, root knot nematode Meloidogyne and spiral nematode Helicotylenchus. However, none of these nematodes, even when occurring in high numbers, was associated with turf damage.

The full print version of the report, "Evaluation of nematode populations and nematode damage" is now available.

The bottom line? Don't treat for nematodes unless you are really sure that they are the source of your turf damage. Consult this PACE Update on nematodes and turf for information on how to identify nematode damage at your location.

Principal investigators: John Pollok, La Jolla Country Club, and Larry Stowell, Ph.D. and Wendy Gelernter, Ph.D., PACE Turf

Posted 9/15/08

Using virtual irrigation to forecast disease

Poster presentation at the 2008 American Phytopathological Society meetings, July 26 - 30, Minneapolis, MN.

Authors: Larry Stowell and Wendy Gelernter (PACE Turfgrass Research Institute) and Frank Wong and Chi-Men Chen, University of California Riverside

Click here to view the poster (130 KB)

Summary: Recent research suggests that soil moisture impacts the severity of turf diseases such as anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum cereale, Pythium root dysfunction caused by Pythium volutum, gray leaf spot (GLS) caused by Magnaporthe grisea and brown ring patch (BRP) caused by Waitea circinata var. circinata. The virtual irrigation audit, a simple computer model that predicts the size and location of both wet and dry areas on golf course turf, was designed to provide diagnosticians and turf managers with a precision turfgrass management tool for disease and soil moisture management. In this study, the virtual audit was successfully used to describe the occurrence of GLS and BRP on golf course turf.

Brown ring patch project receives GCSAA funding

The project, "Management and Biology of Brown Ring Patch on Annual Bluegrass Greens", led by researchers Frank Wong, Ph.D., University of California, and Larry Stowell, Ph.D., PACE Turf, has received two years of funding from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. A total of $62,000 will be provided to the project over a 2-year period. Contributing to this funding were the national GCSAA office, as well as:

  • the GCSA of Central California
  • the GCSA of Northern California
  • the GCSA of Southern California
  • Hi-Lo Desert GCSA
  • San Diego GCSA
  • Sierra Nevada GCSA
  • California State Chapter GCSA

Brown ring patch, caused by the fungus Waitea circinata var. circinata is causing increasing damage on Poa annua greens. The full text of the proposal can be reviewed in this document.

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