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GCSAA Student Chapter Fundraiser Golf Tournament – October 20th

Posted on by Brooke Garcia

 

UPCOMING EVENT! The Kansas State University GCSAA Student Chapter is hosting a Fundraiser Golf Tournament at Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, KS. The event is scheduled for October 20th, 2019 at 9:00am. This will be a 4-man scramble.

Cost: $200.00 ($50/player) per team OR $300 per team with a hole sponsorship.

Registration begins at 8:00am on the day of the event. There will be a 50/50 raffle at registration, along with mulligans and hole games.

Please access the registration form below for more information:

KSU GCSAA Golf Tournament ColbertHills 2019

Registration may be turned in via E-Mail to Jason Dutton (jasond4@ksu.edu). Should you have any questions, call/text/email Jason Duttton (719) 343-5188.

Fall Fertilization and Turf Tips

Posted on by Brooke Garcia

(By Jared Hoyle, KSU Turfgrass Research and Extension)

Dr. Bill Kreuser, Assistant Professor and Extension Turfgrass Specialist, at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln posted some great information on fall turfgrass fertility and some other fall turfgrass tips.

Dr. Kreuser quoted, “Fall is arguably the most import season for turfgrass managers. While we’re busy preparing for a new growing season in spring and trying to survive stressful conditions in the summer, fall is the time to recover from summer, renovate, and prepare for winter. It’s a season of seeding, cultivation, weed control, and fertilization. While fall is still widely considered the most important time to fertilize turfgrass, the fertilization recommendations have evolved over the past decade.”

I couldn’t agree with him more.  There has been lots of recommendations evolve over the years and just because “this” is way it has always been done doesn’t mean it is right.  See what Dr. Kreuser has to say and check out the links below.

 

  1. Rethinking Fall Fertilization
  2. Mid-Fall Turf Tips 

 

Temperature fluctuations and turf diseases

Posted on by kennelly

(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)

As I write this on Thursday we are looking into a weekend with forecast lows deep down into the 30’s. This comes after a September with multiple days in the 90’s and even more in the upper 80’s. Depending on how the weather shakes out after this weekend our warm-season turf may start showing signs of dormancy. Right now it is all still quite green.

In our cool season turf I’ve not seen much dollar spot lately, and it should be simmering down. I have heard a few reports of rust,

and my first suggestion in those cases is to review the fertility regime and make sure it’s not too low on N.

We are seeing and hearing reports of large patch across the region. Here is one example from today at our research facility in Manhattan:

Spring dead spot happens in … spring. But fall is a time to think about it. I’ll point you to an excellent summary of fall disease info from Dr. Miller next door in Missouri, with details about large patch, spring dead spot and other diseases:

https://turfpath.missouri.edu/reports/2019/10_09_19/

 

Green June beetle larvae crawling around

Posted on by kennelly

KSU Entomology has been getting reports of Green June beetle larvae being noticed crawling around right now.

You can read more about it here:

http://blogs.k-state.edu/kansasbugs/2019/10/10/green-june-beetle-larvae/

June beetles are described in more detail in this publication:

https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/mf2901.pdf

As stated in that publication, “Although Phyllophaga grubs can be recovered from most turf venues, populations rarely are sufficient to cause visible damage.”

New publication on oak leaf itch mite

Posted on by kennelly

(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)

In my neighborhood, and many communities across Kansas, we had an outbreak of oak leaf itch mites with a peak a couple of years ago. If you have itch mites in your area this year, you’ve had them before, or you simply have oak trees around, here is a new information sheet from KSU Entomology about this topic:

https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/MF2806.pdf

With raking season upon us, take extra care if you do have them active in your area this year.

Curled leaf symptoms:

Unhappy person with itch mite bites during windy raking season a few years ago:

Recent Release: Free Soil Moisture Mapping Protocol

Posted on by Brooke Garcia

Dr. Chase Straw, Turfgrass Scientist at the University of Minnesota, informed us of the recent release of a free soil moisture mapping protocol that can be utilized by golf course superintendents to assist them with fairway irrigation decisions. The protocol explains how to collect GPS soil moisture data with a commercially available device (FieldScout TDR 350), which are then used to generate fairway soil moisture maps with free software. The maps could be used as a tool to program an irrigation system to irrigate based on the soil moisture variability across a golf course, among possibly many other things.

More information about the protocol, in addition to details regarding how the Minnesota Golf Course Superintendents Association of America chapter is utilizing it as a service to their members, can be read from a recent blog post on the UMN turfgrass website.

The protocol can be downloaded here.

The protocol requires a $0 licensing agreement. FREE!!! Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Dr. Chase Straw (cstraw@umn.edu) and his team at the University of Minnesota.

 

Tips and tricks on planting trees before you trick-or-treat

Posted on by kennelly

(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)

My family did a campfire and cooked our first pot of chili in awhile – it’s really feeling like fall! We have a few weeks remaining in October, and between now and Halloween is still a great time to plant trees and shrubs. Here are some articles with tricks of the trade before you trick-or-treat:

Nice summary from Johnson County:

https://www.johnson.k-state.edu/lawn-garden/agent-articles/trees-shrubs/planting-trees-shrubs-in-fall.html

Excellent nuts and bolts of tree planting:

https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/MF3313.pdf

A few more details on methods:

https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/mf402.pdf

Watering new trees and shrubs:

https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/MF2800.pdf

Now, with all that, truly your most important FIRST step is deciding on what to plant. If you have not yet done your research on that question, here are some more resources on tree and shrub selection.

Trees and shrubs for difficult sites:

https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/MF2205.PDF

Trees for Northeast Kansas:

https://www.kansasforests.org/community_forestry/community_docs/NE%20Kansas%20Preferred%20Trees.pdf

Trees for Northwest Kansas:

https://www.kansasforests.org/community_forestry/community_docs/NW%20Preferred%20Trees122016.pdf

Trees for Southwest Kansas:

https://www.kansasforests.org/community_forestry/community_docs/Pref%20Trees%20SW.pdf

Water-wise plants for south central Kansas:

https://www.sedgwick.k-state.edu/gardening-lawn-care/documents/Water%20Wise%20Plants%202015.pdf

 

 

The (ob)noxious weed: Field Bindweed

Posted on by Brooke Garcia

By: Brooke Garcia

Perhaps you don’t recognize the name, but you may recognize the white flowers of this perennial weed called Field Bindweed. If you can’t recall the flower, you have probably still had an interaction with this weed in your garden or landscape. Don’t be fooled by the flower, as this is an (ob)noxious weed in the field and landscape.

Better Kansas Blog features a post that highlights this weed, as well as valuable links to additional information. For more information, click here.

Here is the link from Extension Agronomy: Fall Control of Bindweed

Here is a link from KSRE Johnson Country: Bindweed: a noxious weed

***Photo provided by Better Kansas Blog.

Zoysia breeding line evaluation work continues

Posted on by kennelly

(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)

KSU continues its work with the turf breeding team at Texas A&M and colleagues at Purdue. We recently inoculated some breeding lines with the large patch pathogen. We grow the fungus on sterilized oats then bury it just under the thatch layer. Sometimes we see symptoms in fall, but often we do not see them until spring. Scientific research takes a lot of patience :). In the meantime, we are keeping the plots moist to foster fungal growth.

In the meantime, large patch is active especially in wet areas:

Take note of these areas. It’s too late to fertilize zoysia now, but when spring comes around a bump of slow-release N may prompt recovery. In the meantime there may be actions you can take to improve drainage.