Managing stressed turf
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EmailEditor’s note: This article is from the archives of the MSU Crop Advisory Team Alerts. Check the label of any pesticide referenced to ensure your use is included.
Recent
rainfall across some areas of the state have provided some much needed
relief to drought-stressed turf, but unless temperatures cool and
rainfall becomes more reliable don’t expect non-irrigated turfgrass
areas to spring back to life very quickly. We recorded 0.5 inch of
precipitation at our research center on campus this week, but on
non-irrigated plots this is hardly enough to make up for the deficit in
soil moisture conditions that has accumulated over the last month.
Keep in mind that not only the turfgrass has been stressed during the
summer heat and drought, but weeds have not really been flourishing
either. I’ve noticed that in non-irrigated rough areas on golf courses
there is zero crabgrass pressure, but when you look at the rough areas
on the edges of irrigation coverage the crabgrass is doing quite nicely.
Just like the turf, the weeds need some water to really flourish. If
you’ve been providing some irrigation or have been lucky to be under one
of the rain showers, crabgrass or broadleaf weeds could be causing you
to consider treatment options. Hard to believe, but we’re probably only a
little more than a month from our first frost and with the first frost
event, all of the warm season annual weeds such as crabgrass will check
out for the season. Makes you wonder that if you spray for crabgrass now
and then have to come back in a couple weeks for a second application
to make sure you burned it all down, you’d be getting close to the date
when Mother Nature will take care of the problem for you.
For broadleaf weeds, remember that these weeds are definitely more
challenging to kill during the summer heat than they will be in the
autumn. Bottom line on the weeds is that if you can have a little
patience, either Mother Nature will take care of them for you or an
autumn herbicide application will clean up the broadleaf weeds for next
season.
