1 day agoCool & Wet! Sand Bunker Education, Melting Out, Yellow Tuft, Fairway ResearchIt is now clipping along. Fall season that is. Cool nights are a regular thing. Days are both shorter and darker (long periods of light rain and cloud cover double-down with regularity). This ‘environmental information’ begins a shift toward winter dormancy of plants (insert cool season turfgrass here). The details…6 min read6 min read
Sep 15Fall! Education, ABW Again?!, 1st Grub Damage, Dollar Spot, Green ResearchThe most often said sentence of the week? “Fall is nice!” We are comfortably in a different season now. Here are some fall observations that golf course superintendents have taught over the years: 1) Day length is increasingly shorter, 2) A decreasing sun angle creates longer and longer shadows, 3)…8 min read8 min read
Sep 8September Cools! Significant Summer Weather, Cyanobacteria, Yellow Tuft, Tee ResearchIt felt like Labor Day Oven holiday weekend. And it was. And for many it was a good thing. A last minute time to enjoy a final summertime experience of swimming in the lake or pool. And if you were a golfer? Conditions were perfect (firm and fast as they…9 min read9 min read
Sep 1Dry! Hot Forecast, Brown Patch, Bentgrass Variety Trial, Broadleaf Weed ResearchA dry, period with cool nights. Sounds pretty good right? And we’ve just experienced. It was a needed reprieve from August’s third week —that late summer heatwave which gave us record heat index material. And it was a little scary if honest. Thankfully, it represented a rare combination for us…6 min read6 min read
Aug 25100 Degrees! Annual Bluegrass Weevil, Pythium Blight, and Fairway ResearchIt hit 100! Record heat would grip a majority of the country during August’s third week. Billed as “Summer’s Hottest Spell”, it tested many things including cool season turfgrass. It did not last long, but this late round of summer heat got our attention. Excessive heat watches and warnings were…7 min read7 min read
Aug 18Wet Again! Brown Patch, Dollar Spot, 1st Melting Out, TED Turf Education Day, Green ResearchThunderstorms would appear and then reappear. Large precipitation totals occurred on Monday and Thursday in northern Illinois. Comparatively, our situation this week is insignificant given conditions in other parts of the United States (storms in the Pacific Ocean played a major role in historic fires and loss of life). In…6 min read6 min read
Aug 11Nice Weather! Cooler, Brown Patch, Dollar Spot, 1st Rust, and Tee ResearchAs we near mid-August we continue to enjoy a period without severe thunderstorms. In northern Illinois, early August has provided near perfect outdoor conditions. We are past summer’s peak heat and for the first time it has begun to feel like fall. It also means longer periods of heavy dew…7 min read7 min read
Aug 4Summertime! Deep Roots, Brown Patch, Flatsedge?, Divot Study EndsSummertime! One word describes a glorious week just experienced. The game of golf saw a solid week of summer — warmth both day (90s) and night (70s). Importantly, it followed all the weather seen by the landscape — turf, ornamentals, trees — up to now. A few bumps in the…7 min read7 min read
Jul 28Hot! 90s for Highs, 1st Summer Patch, Cyst Nematode, and Fairway ResearchHot! A hot week was forecasted and arrived on schedule. For this part of the country it means highs reaching 90+. This second heat wave of July heat came at the same time of our first reports of a summer root rot known as summer patch of bluegrass. It’s the…6 min read6 min read
Jul 21(Near) Perfect Conditions! Turfgrass Quality Peaks, Pythium Root Rot, and Green ResearchPerfect! Saying that can get you in trouble, but in a week it really was true. We saw some of our best days of turfgrass growth. For cool season turf, it meant the weather had finally cooperated. What does that look like? The days were not too hot (80s for…5 min read5 min read
