Summer turf diseases

If you been out to Legacy Ridge or many of the other courses in the area the last few weeks, you have likely noticed some disturbing symptoms of the irradic weather we have experienced lately.  While I can't speak for other courses, what you are likely seeing are a variety of turf diseases due to our higher than normal humidity, torrential rain, and heat.  Though they don't affect the overall playability of the course currently, they are definitely a big eyesore and theses areas will have to be repaired when disease pressure decreases.

We have suffered from a laundry list of turf diseases generally uncommon in this climate, Pythium Blight, Fusarium, and Brown Patch.  We made a curative application of fungicide to the harder hit areas of the course this week and should see improvement in the coming days.  Throughout the midwest and even back east, theses diseases are a constant threat and many courses employ preventative fungicide applications to prevent or limit the damage incurred.  In their climates it really isn't a question of whether, but when they will have to deal with theses problems.  While I was perusing the couple of the blogs we follow, I came upon a post by Mike Edgerton at Meadowbrook CC in Northville, Michigan.  He covered some of the diseases we have been hit with and if you are interested in a little more explanation of them click here.