Sports Turf Agronomy Advice - October 2024
It is a very wet end to September, which has seen some areas with significant flooding. Central and Southern England experienced a month’s worth of rainfall in one day, causing widespread disruption.
Many will have seen the photos of the damage at AFC Wimbledon, reports highlighting a sink hole caused by the excessive rainfall as the culprit. Hopefully, they can get repair work underway quickly. Unfortunately, these cases of extreme weather in very brief timeframes are becoming more and more the ‘norm’ and are an indication of our changing climate. This change brings real challenges both within and outside of the sportsturf industry, and if we are to be able to withstand these pressures going forward, actions need to be put in place now to protect against future events.
October can be a prolonged autumn or an early winter; fingers crossed it’s the former. Nevertheless, memories of summer have all but disappeared. Most renovations will have taken place whilst conditions were more favourable; those who have not yet been able to carry out such work will be holding out for temperatures not to drop too quickly to enable some recovery before winter when growth potential is low. Mornings and nights continue to become noticeably darker and, importantly for turf managers, leaf wetness (dew) on the grass plant becomes a key management priority.
Click here if you want to review weather data in your region for September. To keep up to date with the weather throughout October visit https://academy.agrovista.co.uk/category/weather
The forecast prediction for October is mixed. After the heavy rainfall on the last day of September, the rest of week 1 looks favourable. Week 2 is scattered with showers, but from the mid-point to the end of the month conditions look positive. Daytime temperature highs are mid to low teens and, importantly, the predicted night temperatures are high single figures. This will help maintain soil temperatures and provide some growth and important recovery for those that have been hit with disease outbreaks or increased wear from play.
Disease pressure has been extremely high in September, with ideal conditions for disease development over a prolonged period. Therefore, this extended window of growth will be well received by many and should give a good opportunity for turf managers to take surfaces into November in a strong position with good turf health.
Integrated Pest Management
Monitoring disease pressure really is the main priority for many turf managers in October. The cooler, damp conditions are typically experienced over longer periods over the course of the day due to there being less opportunity for surfaces to dry out. Being able to influence the amount of leaf wetness can be a major factor in the severity of an outbreak when conditions allow for disease development. This is where timing of applications of dew suppressants or products that encourage water to run off the leaf can be hugely beneficial. Wrapped around this approach to moisture management can be further applications which will improve plant health and, therefore, help reduce the incidence of disease. These can be nutritional in the form of N, P and K, biostimulants to boost plant health or immune system triggers which will activate the plant’s natural defence mechanisms.
Continuing with PGR applications in line with the predicted growth conditions for October can also improve turf quality going into the winter. Application rates should be adjusted in line with real-time growth (clipping volume) and reduced accordingly. Colour and improvements in turf quality are the greatest in the autumn period. These improvements can also have a benefit when starting to promote growth the following spring. A key benefit from PGR applications is shade tolerance and, as sun trajectory patterns start to fall below tree lines in autumn, daylengths becomes shorter, they give the turf an advantage compared to untreated.
Pests
There was a noticeable adult crane fly larvae hatch at the back end of September which should be recorded for timing of Acelepryn applications. Following Syngenta application advice, this is typically 4 weeks following peak flight. Report sightings of crane fly species on the Pest Tracker on the GreenCast website, this will influence future research and advice.
Where a complete approach to control is required due to high levels of infestation, alongside an acelepryn application, entomopahogenic nematodes can also be applied, with warm soil temperatures and available moisture being ideal conditions to get the best out of an application, with entomopahogenic nematodes swimming in the water film on soil particles in their bid to search out a larval host.
Tom Wood
B.Sc (Hons) | BASIS | FACTs