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YOUR TURF
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Pests of Poa annua
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Graduate student John Inguagiato presents the latest anthracnose management results at Rutgers field days. Photo by T.J. Lawson |
Pests of Poa annua? You’re thinking Poa annua is the pest, right? For many superintendents, Poa is the grass, and it must be handled with care.
This month’s research section of GCM has only two articles, and each of them focuses on a pest of annual bluegrass
(Poa annua): one pest is
an insect, and the other is a pathogen. These articles were written for GCM by university researchers involved in project NE 1025: Biology, Ecology and Management of Emerging Pests of Annual Bluegrass on Golf Courses.
Project NE 1025 is the outgrowth of a focus group meeting that took place in January 2001 at Rutgers University. The participants in that meeting, which was funded by the National Science Foundation Center for Integrated Pest Management, included superintendents, university personnel, environmental and public health advocates and representatives from the USGA and the U.S. EPA who were interested in the development and implementation of integrated pest management on golf courses in the northeastern U.S.
The focus group identified three priorities in the areas of research and Extension: alternatives to current chemical pesticides, forecast and sampling protocols for important pests of golf turf, and a comprehensive Web-based treatment of golf turf IPM. Project NE 1025 was undertaken to address these priorities by confronting two major pests of annual bluegrass on golf courses in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states: annual bluegrass weevil (Listronotus maculicollis) and anthracnose disease caused by the fungus Colletotrichum cereale.
Researchers in the NE 1025 project are cooperating to find IPM answers for managing both pests. The participating scientists represent several states — including North Carolina and California — and Canada. Besides encouraging cooperation among faculty from a number of universities, the project has brought together a large group with a broad range of areas of expertise.
Frank Wong, who considers himself “a lucky outside member” of the primarily northeastern group because he’s based at the University of California–Riverside, says, “It’s cool to be part of a large, multistate effort to work on pests of annual bluegrass. It’s kind of like the Justice League of America or X-Men for saving Poa.”
In the academic turf world, Wong’s comparisons could be considered legitimate, as the group is engaged in a long-term battle to save golf course turf from the twin scourges of an invasive weevil and an insidious fungal disease. Most of the group’s members are also quite accomplished and well-known in their fields, although it’s likely that no one involved dons a superhero costume to carry out research.
Project NE 1025 is a five-year effort (2005-2010). Although the articles published in this issue of GCM do not represent the final outcomes, they do reveal the significant results that have been achieved so far. For more information on the group, its mission and history go to: http://nimss.umd.edu/homepages/home.cfm?trackID=7316.
Preparing to seed cool-season turfgrass? Mid- to late-August is the optimal time to seed cool-season grasses throughout much of the northern half of the U.S. because soil and air temperatures tend to moderate, falling into the zone where maximum germination can occur. The optimal air temperature is 60 F to 85 F, depending on the species. Irrigation demands also decline with the cooler temperatures of autumn. Seeding in August can also maximize the amount of time that seedlings can mature before facing the next summer’s stresses. Other key points to remember when seeding include: • Spring and summer seedings of cool-season grasses require ample irrigation before and after germination, as well as robust weed- and disease-control strategies. • Dormant winter seedings may give better results with slow-germinating cool-season species than spring seedings. |
