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As the story is told, “In 1985, four friends traveled to Scotland on a golf trip. The caddies were making wagers as these golfers stood on the tee.
Here is a post from John Temme, Superintendent of Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines. It was originally sent to his membership.
The Iowa State Turf Club members apply fertilizer and pesticides to the Reiman Garden Lawns each year. Reiman Gardens is a beautiful facility managed by the ISU foundation. It is located just south of the football stadium on campus.
Here is my first report of grubs in lawns this year. The surprising thing is that it is so late. We generally start seeing grub damage in early August. Here in central Iowa it has been so dry that I have not observed any grub damage yet. We are now over 60 days without rai
Here are some interesting pictures from the bentgrass greens at the turfgrass research area at the horticulture station. They show the effect of the application of 4 oz of TriCure, a wetting agent/1000 sq. ft. on early morning dew formation.
With the Iowa temperatures expected to continue in the upper 90’s with high humidity for the foreseeable future, it presents conditions conducive to Pythium blight activity.
Here are some pictures of Quackgrass (Elymus repens). This is one of most prevalent perennial grassy weeds in the Midwest. It the hardest one to control in my experience.
Dan Strey, ISU graduate student and research associate received 3rd place in the national Golf Course Superintendent Association of America (GCSAA) essay contest. The prize was a $1000 scholarship. Congratulations Dan!
The story from GCSAA is below:
Zac Simons, massters student in turfgrass management, was chosen to attend the Jacobsen Future Turf Managers program in Charlotte, NC this past may. He had a great time. Here is his description of the experience.
By Zac Simons:
Hort 351 XW Turfgrass Establishment and Management is available on line this fall. It begins next week. This is a totally web based course and can be taken from anywhere in the world that there is internet connec
Here is an interesting weed problem that I have not run into before. The pictures come from Larry Ginger of American Lawn Care. Larry found it growing in a lawn in Ankeny, IA.
It's that time of year again when the black cutworm (Agrotis ipsilon) larvae begin to show up on bentgrass greens and fairways. For us at the research station, it is normally about field day time that they become a problem. They were right on time this year.
In the last few weeks, I have published several blogs on the recent invasion of bermudagrass into the Iowa and Nebraska region. See July 29 for information on identification and June 24 for information on control.
I received the first picture from Rob Elder of Omaha Organics. It is a stolon of bermudagrass Cynodon dactylon. As is the case in central Iowa, this is unusual for the Omaha area. Not long ago, you would not have found this species in that area because it would die each wi
This spring, as you all know, brought large amounts of rainfall to central Iowa. This was a blessing for most including us the Horticulture Research Station.
Dan Strey and myself spent last week in Beijing China for the 12th International Turfgrass Research conference. It was an excellent meeting, with more than 300 people in attendance. As you can see, we had a beautiful, clear day at the Great Wall.
These are pictures of Summer Patch on Kentucky bluegrass at the Horticulture Research Station. It is caused by the fungi Magnaporthe poae. It typically shows up in early summer, particularly in years like this that are very wet early followed by a quick drying period and hot temperatures. This
On June 26, I posted the two pictures below about what appeared to be a strange organism growing on urea pellets. Several experts at Iowa State looked at the pictures and could not determine what the problem was. Last week, we received a sample of the material. To everyone's sur
I received information on the first sightings of Japanese beetles for the 2013 season over the weekend. Larry Ginger of American Lawn Care reported a sighting in Ames from June 27. Dr.
This post is from Marc Davison, superintendent of Green Bay (WI) Country Club, and major Chicago Blackhawk fan. He has been trying to control Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). Neither of these weeds can survive mowing for long in maintained turf and there
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of coral fungus from a lawn in Iowa. That prompted the following pictures from a reader of the blog. This is a strange organism growing on urea pellets. I had not anything like this before, so I sent it on to Melissa Irizarry at the Plan
Here is some information from former graduate student, Nick Dunlap, on some work he is doing with bermudagrass control in ryegrass in Virginia.