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Copy link ITM can reduce Dollar spot on turf
Lyon Salvagny Golf Club, France 2020
Key Conclusions
Integrated Turf Management (ITM) significantly reduced Dollar Spot (Clarireedia spp) on turf during a high-pressure year.
Combining Vitalnova Silk (20L/ha), Vitalnova Stressbuster (30L/ha), Qualibra (10L/ha) monthly, alongside nutrition, rolling and a single fungicide application significantly reduced Dollar spot incidence to a manageable level.
A completely fungicide-free approach, however, was not effective.
Objective
To evaluate whether an Integrated Turf Management (ITM) programme can reduce Dollar spot on a golf course green.
Trial Details
Trial station
Lyon Salvagny Golf Club, France
Product
Vitalnova
Assessments
Incidence of Dollar spot
Treatments
An independent summer disease trial was conducted at Lyon Salvagny Golf Club by Ecoumene Golf and Environment, with 20 combination treatment programmes, on Agrostis stolonifera / Poa annua, sand-based golf green.
Five product treatment combinations were trialled focussed on biostimulant and biological solutions alongside an untreated control and a fungicide programme (six applications).
All treatments had a rolled (3x per week) and unrolled application, plus a high N (delivering 145-0-165, NPK) and a low N version (delivering 87-0-99, NPK) – all nutrients applied via 3x granular applications.
Standard assessments were made with the key assessment for this trial of number of Dollar spots per plot (2m2) on a weekly basis.
Treatments
An independent summer disease trial was conducted at Lyon Salvagny Golf Club by Ecoumene Golf and Environment, with 20 combination treatment programmes, on Agrostis stolonifera / Poa annua, sand-based golf green.
Five product treatment combinations were trialled focussed on biostimulant and biological solutions alongside an untreated control and a fungicide programme (six applications).
All treatments had a rolled (3x per week) and unrolled application, plus a high N (delivering 145-0-165, NPK) and a low N version (delivering 87-0-99, NPK) – all nutrients applied via 3x granular applications.
Standard assessments were made with the key assessment for this trial of number of Dollar spots per plot (2m2) on a weekly basis.
Results
2020 was a high Dollar spot pressure year, with many treatment plots reaching over 50 spots of disease per 2m2 during August (Image 1).
A programme of fungicide applications (Instrata Elite x2, Ascernity x2, Heritage x2), managed the disease very effectively reducing the incidence of dollar spots to less than 5 per plot over the whole season (figure 1).
No completely fungicide-free programme was able to manage the disease outbreak effectively and an emergency fungicide application was made to all plots when disease pressure was at its peak to save turf cover. Rolling 3x per week or increasing N from 87 to 145 kg-N/ha did not significantly lower the disease incidence.
However a programme of Vitalnova Silk (20L/ha), Vitalnova Stressbuster (30L/ha) and Qualibra (10L/ha) all applied monthly alongside the higher nutrition (145-0-166, NPK) and rolling 3x per week and one fungicide application (Ascernity 3L/ha) significantly reduced Dollar spot incidence to a level where its effect on surface quality was minimised, and might be acceptable for some golf courses.
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