Up until about two weeks ago, autumn 2004 was for the most part a fairly dry season. This means that if you fertilized your cool-season lawn in early September and were unable to regularly irrigate, the nitrogen that was applied probably was not used very effectively by the turfgrass plant. If you missed that fertilizer […]
Wild onion and wild garlic emerging in the southern two-thirds of Indiana and these are difficult-to-control weeds. These weeds look very similar to the garden variety onion except the stems of the wild type are much thinner and do not grow as tall as the garden variety. The most effective method for controlling onion and […]
The trees are dropping their leaves and it is important to prevent a heavy layer of leaves from building-up on your turf before winter. Heavy layers of tree leaves that shade the grass can smother and kill grass yet this fall. Plus tree leaf cover favors a damaging winter turf disease called snow mold. The […]
Most of the state has received 0.5 inch of rain or more either this week or last and thus turf areas are starting to green-up again. It is important to take advantage of the few weeks of growing conditions and apply fertilizer immediately to help improve green-up, fill-in from drought damage, and winter survival. Apply […]
As promised earlier, grub damage is now becoming apparent on lawns that are greening up with the recent rains. Grub damaged turf will not green-up with the rest of the lawn and is likely brown for good (dead) (see accompanying photo). Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do now and insecticides are certainly not effective […]
It is now too late to seed a turf area to expect a good stand going into winter. Seeding turfgrasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, or tall fescue during early November may still allow time for germination, but the seedlings are likely to die from winterkill. You currently have 2 viable options: 1. On […]
Now that the lawn and weeds have greened-up from the recent rains, broadleaf herbicides should be effective yet this fall. Though these herbicides work faster when the plants are actively growing, these herbicides will still work as long as the plants are green and photosynthesizing. Therefore, applications into November will work, albeit slower. You may […]
There will be a number of openings on the MRTF Board of Directors in the upcoming December elections. MRTF’s mission is to support research and education and thus help advance our industry. We are looking for potential board members dedicated to our industry and desiring to help steer the direction of turfgrass research and education. […]
Though areas of Indiana received some rain this week and more is forecasted, most of the state has received precipitation far below normal. Many lawns look as brown now as they normally do in August. This does not bode well for winter survivability of grass and the appearance of the lawn next year. September and […]
(Adapted from the Midwest Regional Turf Foundation Factsheet, Oct 1, 2004) After an extremely wet summer, turf drought stress has come out of nowhere almost throughout the state after a dry August and September. Though September and October are prime growing months, turf will not recover unless the turf receives ample rain or irrigation soon. […]
Mark your calendars for Nov 15-18 for MRTF’s Turf and Ornamental Seminar. Like last year, the course is advanced for lawn care, golf course, sports turf, and sales staff. The lawn care session will be on Monday and Tuesday, Nov 15-16, while the golf, sports, and sales session will be on Nov 17-18. Topics include […]
Openings are still available for the MRTF Golf Day on Oct 14 at the Hale Irwin-designed Coyote Crossing Golf Club in West Lafayette. This is the seventh annual event held to promote turfgrass research, raise awareness of the Purdue Turfgrass Science Program, and provide an enjoyable day of golf. It’s an early morning event starting […]
We’ve received several reports of gray leaf spot outbreaks throughout the state during the past couple of weeks. It may surprise many, because the summer of 2004 has been one of the mildest (zero days where temperatures reached 90 F in West Lafayette) in recent memory. It did not surprise us, however, because our research […]
Now that we are entering the fertilization season for lawns, questions sometimes arise about where products go after application to lawns. Research at Purdue and many other universities has shown that fertilizers (including both nitrogen and phosphorus) and pesticides applied to turf will not move horizontally (runoff) or vertically (leaching). This is because the relatively […]
White grub damage on turfgrass may be more widespread than many expected this year. With ample rain and favorable growing conditions for most host plants during the early and mid growing season, high concentrations of adult Japanese beetles were not as common as in previous years. This may have lulled turfgrass managers into forgetting about […]
Well it must be September and it must finally be dry because I have seen some serious outbreaks of rust on many perennial ryegrass lawns throughout the area over the past week. Leaf rust has been most noticeable on lawns that are newly planted and malnourished, both excellent conditions favoring the development of this turf […]
I’ve received a number of calls recently on ground ivy control. Here’s a rerun on an August Turf Tip on controlling ground ivy. Background Ground ivy is difficult to control and it is a problem in 31% of lawns maintained professionally in Indiana. Earlier research by Eric Kohler has expanded our understanding of ground ivy […]
Although this past growing season across most of Indiana has been cool and moist this is no reason to consider skipping fall core cultivation or aerification. In fact, this abnormal weather pattern is actually more conducive to thatch accumulation since many of the microbes responsible for organic matter break-down are less active in these conditions. […]
Though members of the Midwest Regional turf Foundations received compact discs of our 2003 Research Summary a number of weeks ago, the same research summary is now available online at http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/report/report.htm. The overall goal of our research program is to minimize inputs while maintaining turf quality, minimizing costs, and further protecting our environment. Our research summary […]
Normal growth patterns of cool season grass produce most leaf growth in the spring. Therefore fertilization in spring tends to stimulate even more leaf growth which may in turn decrease long-term stress tolerance in the summer months. On the other hand, cool season grasses tend to slow down leaf growth in the fall producing relatively […]
