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RUST DISEASE SHOWING UP IN NORTH CENTRAL IOWA

September 24, 2012

Here are some pictures of rust disease on Kentucky bluegrass submitted by Damian Richardson, Landscape and Conservation Specialist from Alden, IA.  Rust is caused by fungi in the genus Puccinea.  It is common on Kentucky bluegrass and other grass species in Iowa, but there has not been a lot of it so far this year.  It usually begins to show up about the first of August.  This is the first report of it that I have received this year.  This one was on September 20.  These are some good closeups of the rust pustules on the individual blades of grass.  Thanks for submitting them Damian.

While there are several fungicides that will control rust, I usually do not recommend chemical treatment unless it is on a critical area.  It is usually a sign of relatively low nitrogen.  Just add a little nitrogen and mow regularly and the problem should run its course and disappear.  Some cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass are more susceptible that others.  If it is a continuous problem each year, you may want to kill the existing cultivars with Roundup and replace them with more tolerant varieties.  For information on which varieties show tolerance of rust, see the National Turfgrass Evaluation (NTEP) web site at  (http://www.ntep.org/).  They have data over several years on rust infestation of many cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass.

If anyone else is seeing a lot of rust, let me know.

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WHAT IS HAPPENING AT TURFGRASS RESEARCH

October 11, 2010

It has been a busy time at turfgrass research this fall. Here are a couple of new things for next year.

The first is a new seeding of 007 Creeping Bentgrass. I often get calls at this time of years asking how late can bentgrass be seeded. We have a 10,000 sq. ft. area that we will be seeding over the next few weeks. The first one quarter of the site was seeded on Oct. 8. We will continue to seed each additional quarter on Oct. 15, Oct. 22, and Oct. 29. We will have this on next years field day and you will be able to see the results in August.
 

007 Creeping Bentgrass area

The second major trial is a new National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) Perennial Ryegrass trial. There are 88 Perennial Rye cultivars in this trial, replicated 3 times. It was seeded on Oct. 1, which is a little late for rye. The wet weather prevented an earlier seeding. The picture below is from Oct. 11. It is amazing how fast perennial rye can establish if conditions are right.

It has been a great fall for Rust (Puccina grminis) on Kentucky bluegrass. The close up shot below was taken on Oct. 11.

Notice how the two clumps of perennial rye in the picture below are not affected and the bluegrass is severely infested with the Rust.

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