Take-All Trials

We have talked about Take-All Patch way too much over the past couple of years.  We often see the symptoms on tees and fairways in the late spring, and as with many patch diseases, by the time you see symptoms on the foliage, the damage is already done.


So, while it may be getting cold outside, and potential Take-All problems are over six months away, now is the time to try to prevent it.  This fall, we are making two preventative applications of a combination of fungicides.

As the old turf adage goes, Mother Nature doesn't work in straight lines.  By leaving clearly defined treated and untreated areas side by side, we should easily be able to see if the preventative fungicides got the job done.  Take-All can be hit or miss from year to year, so had we made wall to wall applications without check plots, we might not know if any reduction in disease severity was due to the spray or other factors such as the weather. 

So, now we wait for half a year to see if the spray worked.  While nobody will shed a tear if we find zero Take-All on the entire golf course next year, it will be helpful to know if this is a solid weapon in preventing the disease in the future.