Turf Maintenance

Pylex is an innovative herbicide that offers control of warm-season grass and broadleaf weeds in cool-season turf with exceptional efficacy. Accuracy during the application process for Pylex is critical and will have an impact on the efficacy of the chemistry, and the results you achieve.

New fertiliser technologies are emerging for Australian turf managers as we spring into the upcoming growing season. Among them, one of the fertilisers changing the game in turf nutrition is peat-based nutrition.

The use of wetting agents has become common practice across the turf management industry as we are driven by a combination of environmental factors and player expectations. As scarcity of water, demands to reduce water usage, changing climatic conditions, and incidences of dry patch affecting surface playability become rising concerns, Australian turf managers are seeking further solutions.

In summer, downpours from storms help dams catch on-site water but often are ‘shandied’ with alternate sources to maintain supply and site viability. For this reason monitoring and management of water quality over time is vitally important.

The autumn renovations often involve a whole suite of actions, amendments and applications, but for this note we will look at two complementary (albeit quite independent) tools in particular – the use of strobilurin fungicides as a key protection measure and the use of potassium both at renovation and beyond renovation.

The triazoles in combination with the strobilurins have formed the backbone of many fungicide programs on golf courses for many years but there has always been an element of caution around triazole use mid summer.

Foliar fertilization is the application of products to foliar or above ground plant parts as a pathway for the uptake of nutrition. It has certainly been more widely adopted (or maybe we should say fine tuned) in the last decade or so but is by no means new.

Applying a biostimulant, regardless of its nature or source, seeks to confer a favourable plant response – either in growth, some sort of stress tolerance or quality attribute.

A strong chemistry combination to deal with health protection prior to and during the Christmas period is an Azoxystrobin / Lexicon two step approach.

At the end of each calendar year we have our Christmas / New Year holiday period. In particular that period is a time where we try to take a breath, enjoy some festivities and relax the mind if we can.

In late winter our spring renovation plans start coming together. We are watching forecasts, monitoring air and soil temperatures and determining the order of tasks. We are assessing winter wear, considering how resilient and responsive we think our turf will be to determine the extent of renovation that is appropriate for the turf we have, or no longer have, whichever the case may be.

When planning a pre emergent herbicide strategy for warm season turf is it important there is a clear understanding of what level of cover the turf currently has, therefore what level of recovery is required during spring, and finally based on the first two what products and application approach are most appropriate given the weed species you have identified as needing management.