Seeing spots

It's the time of year when we are seeing spots--brown spots, that is.  What's the cause of these?  There is always a laundry list of potential problems, including fungus, insects, heat, too much water, not enough water, and traffic.  Often times, what you observe above the ground, on the foliage, is a reflection of what's happening beneath the surface.  So when we see a spot looking a bit "off", one of the first things we check for is soil moisture.

Remember that last week, from Sunday night into Monday morning, we received 4" of rain, so it might seem unnecessary to check for moisture.  However, in this case, it looks like all of that water didn't make it much past the surface, as the light colored soil is bone dry.

More spots can certainly be seen on the fairways we didn't treat for Take-all Patch last fall.  However, the picture below is really a twofer.  Yes, the mottled Bentgrass is being damaged by the disease, but the yellowing Poa in the center is the target of a troublesome (or in this rare case, helpful) insect, the Annual Bluegrass Weevil.

Here's one more spot, from #16 fairway, to consider.  What's different about this?  The cause of the discolored turf doesn't appear to be lack of water, a fungus, or insect.  No, this spot looks like it's suffering from a case of "too much of a good thing."  The darker green ring outside the brown area is indicative of some kind of fertilization--maybe from a heron, or maybe from a human.

While finding off-colored spots isn't our favorite thing in the summer, it is always better when we understand the cause of a problem, as we can then develop a plan to make the turf happy and healthy once again.