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WCTA Project

This fall at the Whistler Golf Club we partnered up with the Western Canadian Turfgrass Association, Syngenta and TerraLink in a research project on the effect of snow mold on putting greens. It is not often that a golf course does not apply any fungicides on their greens going into the winter season. Due to our very exciting project of re sodding our greens this spring, it allowed us to try a verity of different ideas to control snow mold over the winter months. See photo below
 

 

However it did not take long before we saw Fusarium moving in; these pictures were taken on Oct 6th.

Over the next seven days we received just under  2” of rain with a average low of 6 degrees Celsius and an average high of 13 degrees Celsius.  In the pictures below taken on Oct. 13th you can see how much more disease showed up under these conditions with no fungicide application.

By Oct 24th we were ready to put down the first application of the project.  By this time we had received an additional 2” of rain with the average nightly temperature of 4 degrees Celsius and the average day time temperature of  13 degrees.  From the picture below you can see even more disease had shown up.

   We picked three greens all with 6 plots on them.  Plot 1 is the control with no product at all.  Plot 2 received two applications of Instrata at the label rate of 9.5oz/1000sq ft Oct 24 and Nov 1,  Plot 3 received two applications of phosphite at  4oz/1000sqft on Oct 24 and Nov 1. Plot 4 received 2 applications of Civitas plus harmonizer at 8oz/1000sqft with a half rate of Instrata at 5oz/1000sqft. On Oct 24 and Nov 1.  Plot 5 received two applications of phosphite at 8oz/1000sqft on Oct 24 and Nov 1.  Plot 6 we split into three sections.  This plot only received  only one application on Oct 24.  In the first section we put down Instrata at the label rate of 9.5oz/1000sqft, the second section received 8 oz of phosphite/1000sqft and the third section received the Civitas plus harmonizer at 8oz/1000sqft with a half rate of Instrata at 5oz/1000sqft.  The picture below shows the sixth plot split into three sections after the application on Oct 24.

On Nov 10 we received enough snow on the golf course that we could not spray any more. From this date on the greens were covered in anaywhere from 1 to 4 feet of snow for the duration of the winter. 

By March 7th our first round of snow blowing the greens was complete.  This is the first time we had seen any of the plots all winter.

 

These photos below show turf conditions on the individual plots described above prior to plugs being taken.

Plot 2 9.5oz/1000sqft Instrata

 

Plot 3 4oz/1000sqft Phosphite

Plot 4 8oz/1000sqft Civitas plus Harminizer with 5oz/1000sqft Instrata

 

Plot 5 8oz/1000sqft Phosphite

 

Due to the greens re sodding project we did not have enough time to watch the plots green up on there own.   On March 18th we brought in plugs from #8 green to a warm sunny location inside. By April 1st the plugs had already started to show signs of life.

 

The plugs on the far right are from the plot that was divided into three sections that only received one application . The plug at the top we put down Instrata at the label rate of 9.5oz/1000sqft, the middle plug received 8 oz of phosphite/1000sqft and the bottom plug received the Civitas plus harmonizer at 8oz/1000sqft with a half rate of Instrata at 5oz/1000sqft.
 
 
 
 
This last pictures speak for themselves.  Plug 2 showed us the best results for winter control with the quickest green up and the most dense turf.  Plug 4 was a close second, a notable difference here was the growth spurt related to this plug as the turf started to green up there was more shoot growth than on plug 2.  There really was not much difference between plug 1 the control and plug 3 the single rate of Phosphite.  Plug 5 the double rate of phosphite did show a little more control over the control plug.  There was also not much difference between the plugs that received the two applications of product compared to the plugs that only received one. We only had short window of weather to get the applications down in the fall and by Nov 10th the rain had turned to snow and we were covered with snow the whole winter.
 
For more information on this project please contact Stu Carmichael at stu@whistlergolf.com
For more information on our resodding project visit the Whistler Golf Club You Tube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/theWhistlerGolfClub 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 10:48 am and is filed under All Things Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “WCTA Project”

  1. Peter Sorokovsky says:
    May 3, 2012 at 7:01 am

    Great Job Guys, awesome photos. It shows that you know what you are doing up there and looks good on all of “us turf managers”. Two question, how long did it take for the plugs to get “green” in the last photo and were the other two greens the same as the photoed green.
    Thanks for all the work, Peter

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