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Turfgrass nematode damage? … Sample to be sure!
Random patches of wilted turfgrass that are unresponsive to irrigation, assume a gray/green appearance and then turn tan/brown just before dying MAY be suffering from nematodes. These symptoms are somewhat characteristic of several diseases, insect infestations and even environmental stresses, so when making a determination, all possible causes must be considered. The symptoms of nematode […]
Banner Year for Crabgrass and Nutsedge
With the heat and humidity of this summer, our cool-season grasses continue to thin making it one of the better years in recent memory for crabgrass and nutsedge. In Lafayette, we’ve had 50 days of temperatures higher than 85F, 18 of which were over 90F. Maximum photosynthesis and shoot growth of cool-season grasses occur between […]
White Grub Damage
Reports of turfgrass damage due to white grub feeding are beginning to trickle in. Damage potential seems to be widely variable this year. Some areas that were dry during the beetle egg laying season last year reported very few Japanese beetles during the entire summer. Other areas, especially in the central and southern portion of […]
Gray Leaf Spot Update
There have been numerous reports of gray leaf spot outbreaks throughout Indiana and the lower Midwest during the past three weeks. We generally expect that hot humid conditions will favor gray leaf spot development. However, you may recall that outbreaks also occurred during the summer of 2004, a year in which temperatures reached 90 F […]
Turf 101: Optimum temperatures for seed germination
We’ve just entered the optimum seeding window for cool-season grasses throughout the state of Indiana. Though seed will germinate at a wide variety of temperatures, the optimum temperatures for germination are in the table below. The temperatures listed are air temperatures which would be almost identical to that in on the surface of the soil […]