Category: Disease

In my last blog I spoke about the speed disease populations can increase at during conducive conditions and how you can use fungicides to help zero out that population. The more I look at disease management the more I separate out fungicide usage and Integrated Turf Management (ITM), not because they are unrelated (they both…

The last few weeks I’ve been on the road presenting my “Fungicide planning presentation”. The core message has been slightly simpler than “planning” though. In an attempt to try to understand the way to get the best out of fungicides I think it’s imperative weunderstand the way that the disease develops. This 2008 article by…

We are now entering this period and whether your seeing outbreaks of fusarium or not the disease population will be growing during weather conditions that are suitable.So what are the key drivers? Mild temperatures Long periods of moisture allowing the disease to spread Soft lush growth We don’t really need a prediction model to recognise…

As we are entering a key time for turf disease management I decided to try to accelerate the pressure a little to try and pick out the optimum timings for fungicide application.Knocking down Microdochium populations early will help to keep disease pressure lower through this high pressure time from early September through to November when…

As we move closer to the period of high disease pressure I’ve begun taking a look at the historical disease pressure in my area. 2017 shows disease pressure ramping up around the 10th September. Historically this is also the time when growth growth potential begins to slow and drop below the 60% mark and whilst…

I’ve had a couple of phone calls and messages at the end of this week asking any idea what this is? Well I’m pretty confident were looking at YellowTuft which is a disease traditionally associated with cooler months and wetter areas on greens. A quick look at the greencast website to pull off some data…

The tail-end of Hurricane Chris has sent shockwaves of thunderstorms and torrential rain across southern and central England today (Friday 13 July). And after it passes over, temperatures are predicted to surge into the mid-30’s for the weekend. That’s going to be some welcome relief for parched fairways and hard baked pitches. but the combination…

TV presenters always claim that the camera adds 10 pounds when they see themselves on screen – which I can now validate is absolutely true. If you didn’t make it to the stand at BTME you can catch up with the Turf Business TV video addressing some of the issues for the industry with fungicide…

Another fun first for me at BTME was hosting the first Fungicide Fundamentals all-day workshop on Sunday, as part of the great BIGGA education programme. Two real highlights for me were the brilliant presenters who were able to make some really complicated science so applicable to real-life decisions in disease control, and the way the…