Dollar Spot Applications

July 7, 2015
Ok, so we didn’t have much of a winter to speak of. Temperatures are in the middle 70’s to low 80’s the middle of March. Shouldn’t this be good news for my golf course? The answer, not necessarily! We are seeing courses that have been mowing since February, looking at turf that really never went dormant, and most of us would agree our turf didn’t go into winter in the best of shape. Now consider the pathogen, if the turf didn’t really go to “sleep” neither did dollars spot pathogen.   So let’s look at the picture we have drawn to start this season. We have turf and pathogens that didn’t go dormant and most of you have been mowing as much as possible since the beginning of March. This translates to our normal early dollar spot application being moved up to about…..NOW!   With the environment I just described combined with abnormally high temps that seem to not be going away turf managers need to take action now if they want to stay ahead of the dollar spot fight. 
Key items to remember:
-    Make first treat when fairways have been mowed 2-3 times
-    Or make first treat when Forsythia are in bloom
-    Use a fungicide that is known to be effective at your location

-    If a contact fungicide is used mix with a systemic