Category: Disease Control

Highlights: Wet start to spring = lawns – powdery mildew & fret over wet mower tires; focus on soilborne diseases on golf putting greens. Weather Forgoing May in the popular poem, April showers along with warm temperatures have spurred many...

Highlights: Spring 2024 is weeks ahead of schedule; lawn preparation; soil temperature status; fungicide timing for dollar spot and soilborne diseases; yellow patch observations; short survey request.                          ...

Highlights: Final few weeks until the respite of September; consider seeding instead of treating lawns; yellow spots in bentgrass; too many trinkets in the spray tank? Weather Mild, seasonal temperatures have dominated the landscape over the past month. Indianapolis has...

Highlights: Events - Purdue Turfgrass & Landscape Field Day next week; dollar spot arrives with a flurry; smattering of brown patch; 1st Pythium root rot diagnosis on putting greens.                        ...

Highlights: Turfgrass disease prediction tool launches; drought stress on the horizon; disease season on cool season turfgrass starts with dollar spot and red thread/pink patch outbreaks; large patch on zoysia and bermudagrass and fertilization; prevention due for Pythium root rot,...

Weather  Although the monthly average will be in line with history, April temperatures were a wild swing of early highs and late lows that met in in the middle. In Indianapolis, the historical average for April is 53.6℉ and the...

First disease report of the 2023 season from the Purdue Turfgrass Pathology program. Highlights include prevention of large patch and soilborne diseases on golf putting greens and mowing tips for spring lawncare. Hello everyone, and welcome to the first installment...

Pink snow mold is a disease caused by the fungal pathogen Microdochium nivale (syn. Monographella nivalis) that is being observed in middle and northern Indiana this late winter. The pathogen is termed psychrophilic, or cold loving, due to its propensity...

Recently, home lawns have been maligned in several media outlets as a waste of time and resources. Mismanagement by using too much water or misplacing fertilizer may compound the issue by straining environmental resources or serving as pollutants. While not...

The summer of 2016 has been quite favorable for the development of an assortment of infectious diseases on residential turf.  The primary driver of all of this disease activity is the weather.  In the lower Midwest, the combination of elevated...

Over the past two weeks I received many calls regarding the mild conditions and concerns about effectiveness of fungicide applications for snow mold control.  The major question is whether or not to make another application at this time.  Consider he...

This winter has resulted in significant winterkill on bermudagrass throughout the nation and Indiana was not an exception. Brutally cold temperatures, coined as the polar vortex, swept through the country in early January with many other subsequent cold days and...

  This winter has been cold and long. From December 2013 through February 2014, Indiana had it’s 9th coldest winter on record and its coldest since 1979, 1978 was coldest on record (Fig. 1). With such cold temperatures, many are...

With colder than normal temperatures in Indiana this winter, we are anticipating some minor winter damage. To help prepare for this we are publishing a three part series on this topic to help turfgrass managers prepare for what may await...

From a turf disease perspective, evidence of the severity of this winter is apparent in the extent of snow mold development.  Symptoms of Typhula snow molds (gray snow mold and speckled snow mold), and/or pink snow mold are obvious throughout...

The 2013 rust disease outbreak seems to have arrived a little earlier than usual.  My thoughts about the current rust epidemic are intended for lawn care professionals, who must address reasonable questions from their clients.  Most professionals are very familiar...

Spring has finally arrived and it is accompanied by the usual compliment of infectious turf diseases.  There should be no confusion between two “rhizoctonia” diseases.  Yellow patch (aka cool season brown patch) prevails during early spring, when rainy weather is...

From a temperature perspective, weather patterns in the Midwest have returned to normal this spring.  I recall the 80 F days in March 2012, and all of the concerns about scheduling fungicide sprays.  Hopefully most turf managers have resisted the...

Nobody needs to be reminded that March 2013 has been colder than the last several years.  The good thing is that wintry conditions prevent wasted fungicide applications.  Keep watching the summer patch soil temperature monitor.  Remember that there are several...

Early Season Dollar Spot Sprays The pathogen must be active in order for the mycelium to absorb a fungicide.  We know that Sclerotinia homoeocarpa grows when temperatures remain above 55F in the presence of ample moisture.  If such conditions prevail...