APPLIED RESEARCH
Brown Patch Control Options for
Sod Farms By Brandon Horvath, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, The University of Tennessee
Sod
farm operators are always focused on trying to provide the best possible turf, with as few inputs as possible. As a result of the decline in the economy, this challenge has been exacerbated by the fact that fields of sod are remaining in the field longer, thus necessitating a need for fungicide control options. Because of the delay in selling fields of sod, operators are stuck between managing a thin, diseased turf that is not as saleable, and spending money on a field that is not generating revenue. In short, sod operators are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Integrated turfgrass disease management seeks to employ a balance of genetic,
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TENNESSEE TURFGRASS
cultural, chemical and, if available, biological remedies to reduce the severity of turfgrass diseases. The major limitation to the successful culture of tall fescue in the transition zone region is its susceptibility to brown patch. Brown patch (caused by the pathogen Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn) and leaf and sheath blight (caused by the pathogen Rhizoctonia zeae Voorhees) can both cause significant disease in tall fescue turfs in Tennessee. These diseases are similar in symptomatology, and distinguishing these diseases in the field is extremely difficult and time consuming. Although many efforts have been made to understand the biology of these pathogens, brown patch and its close relatives (herein,
Rhizoctonia diseases) remain serious pathogens of many cultivated turfgrasses, including tall fescue (F. arundinacea) and creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera). Currently, fungicide applications remain the best option for effectively controlling Rhizoctonia diseases, especially on creeping bentgrass. When most folks think of brown patch control on tall fescue, they think of which strobilurin fungicide they will spray, and whether they will get 30 days of control from an application. However, many new products are emerging on the scene that stand poised to alter how we manage brown patch and possibly several other important turfgrass diseases. The turfgrass
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011 Email TTA at: tnturfgrassassn@aol.com