Where I’m living in Cambridge the pressure has generally been much lower than last year, with a few spikes but much less Dollar Spot action than the 2024 season.
At an event over in Cork, Ireland last week the coastal links sites are seeing some serious pressure.
I was being shown 30-40% on the Smith-Kern model and being told of wide sections of turf under attack.
For the Irish Superintendents I spoke to, fairways were the major concern as budgets and man power don’t stretch to offering additional protection to these wide areas of the course.
Trips like these are great, as I’m reminded it’s not about me or where I live but what’s being seen more broadly.
As you can see in the image at the top, the numbers of greenkeepers in the UK & Ireland looking at dollar spot has risen sharply suggesting there is pressure kicking about. (250 people looking at the dollar spot Smith-Kern’s model each week currently)
For most in the UK it’s Green’s, tee’s and approaches/collars which are of concern.
Dollar Spot is a fungal disease on the up and up in the world of managed turf in Europe.
My top tips for dollar spot control:
- Monitor – track pressure for your site – no one has the capacity to fight dollar spot all year long so target your efforts to high disease pressure periods.
- Rolling – The research keeps showing more rolling = less dollar spot so see what it can do for you.
- Sensible nutrition – Extremes at either end of the spectrum here can cause problems.
- Consult widely – who else has seen it? What are they doing? Ask questions!
- Right fungicide choices – Not all active ingredients offer control of dollar spot – choose wisely and rotate active ingredients.
See this blog for more details and pointers for monitoring and identifying dollar spot. Along with tips on setting up your Turf Advisor dash board if you are new to it.
The choice is yours:
The ranking I would offer against Dollar Spot from the Syngenta fungicides would be:
The two in the green, tried and tested and labelled for use on Dollar Spot.
The two in the red are not labelled for dollar spot, the recommendation would be to save them for other target diseases where they shine!
Everyone has a favourite product, one that got them out of a jam in a high pressure diseases situation, or a favourite hair gel (sorry for those without hair).
But unlike hair gel, you shouldn’t just use the same fungicide product again and again, mode of actions should be interchanged (rotate between different products) to reduce the likelihood of developing resistant strains of turf diseases.
I’ve secured a spot on the Seminar Stage at BTME in January to talk about Dollar Spot, last years talk on microdochium must have gone well, so hoping for another interactive session.
Watch out for the date and time when it’s released, it’s one of the ones you can just rock up to, hope to see you there!
The more of you attend the more we can focus on dollar spot in future research work.
