Benefits of Golf Courses and water use

Here is a great article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on the benefits of golf courses and water use. Finally!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-boynton-golf-course-aquifer-20130713,0,4142715.story?track=rss

What the heck are all these puffballs on the greens?!

We face many challenges here at golf course maintenance and the summer season brings with it a multitude of issues we face each and every year. From the endless rains and Tropical Storm threats, constatnt pressure from invasive weeds, to keeping up with mowing due to the fact the warm temps and rains keep the grass growing non-stop couple this with the fact our equipment is in constant need of attention to keep it preforming at high levels and you have the makings for an interesting summer! The summer also brings with it conditions that are perfect for diseases to infect our wonderful turf, especially our greens which are the most intensely manicured, if you will, areas on the course. One disease in particular is hitting us hard this year and that disease is Fairy Ring (FR).

I know we’ve all seen the little puffball mushrooms that popped up on the greens in the last two weeks these puffballs are a result of a group of fungi classified as FR. This is a fungus that lives in the soil and is found almost everywhere in the world! There are three types of FR we deal with, types I and II, which we normally deal with here in the spring before the rains start  and the temperatures start to rise, like drier conditions. These types show their symptoms as dry rings or arcs of weak, brown or yellow turf. Now I want to take a minute to let you know that FR doesn’t attack the turf itself but affects the soil in a matter that makes it hard for the turfgrass roots to function properly by making the soil repellant to water or hydrophobic. If the roots can’t take up water then they can’t take up nutrients either thereby weakening the plants. What we have seen pop up on the greens over the last couple weeks is type III FR which likes the wet, cloudy conditions we have been dealing with most of the summer. While type III is the most benign as far as the health of the turf is concerned the little puffball mushrooms, which are the fungi’s fruiting bodies, are a little more than annoying when they pop up on the close mowed turf of the putting greens.

Rest assured we have been trying to get these pesky little buggers controlled since they first started popping up a couple weeks ago. There are only a few control methods that can be implicated to get rid of the fungus. One method we were using to rid the greens of this menace to a smooth putting surface is actual physical removal of the mushrooms using a small knife or ball mark tool. This is quite labor intensive and very inefficient. The only other way to rid the greens from the mushrooms is by chemical controls. Our agronomic program on the greens calls for preventative fungicide applications every 14-21 days throughout the year to control a myriad of pathogens that affect our greens year round. FR has specific products that have to be applied at the right time in order to suppress the disease. The products also have to be applied in a manner that will see the product moved through the turf canopy and into the soil where the fungus is active and thriving. We applied two applications of products specifically aimed at FR earlier this spring and were successful at beating the type I and II FR we had, but when the weather changed in favor of the type III those preventative applications were already gone from our soils. Needless to say we applied a FR specific fungicide two weeks ago and will be making another application this week and we will be going to a seven day application schedule with a rotation of products, until the problem has been taken care of.

I know that these puffballs are a real nuisance but we are doing what we can to rid the greens of this issue. The fungicides used to treat FR take some time to kick in and the application we made a week and a half ago should now be kicking in full gear and we should see the mushrooms subside soon. I appreciate everyone’s patience with this problem and like I said before, we deal with FR every year during the spring and early summer, we just have more type III this year than in years past. I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend and as always if you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to flag me down and ask!

Here is a link about FR with some great info on this disease:

http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/diseases/Fairy_Ring.aspx

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Skip Connolly

Golf Course Superintendent

TPC Eagle Trace