Superintendents believe plant growth regulators work with other

yan Baldwin will never for-
R
get the summer of 2 0 1 0 . His
c o u r s e , H i g h l a n d G o l f and
Country Club in Indianapolis,
Ind., e x p e r i e n c e d a stretch of e x t r e m e
heat and precipitation in June. More than
16 inches of rainfall accompanied tem-
peratures in the upper 90s. T h e course was
saturated beyond the point where most
fungicides could be absorbed and utilized
properly by the plant. Contact fungicides
had difficulty adhering to tissue, and lasted
a few days at best. But plant growth regula-
PGR
tors (PGRs) c a m e to the rescue.
"On the areas of the course w e kept a
relatively regular regime of PGR in the
mix, the plant survival improvement was
noticeable and dramatic," says Baldwin,
CGCS/facilities m a i n t e n a n c e d i r e c t o r .
" O n c e the rainfall stopped, we still had a
long summer ahead with much-weakened
plants; and the PGR-treated areas handled
the remaining seasonal stresses."
Baldwin says his use of PGRs is multifaceted, with the primary role being to
suppress top growth. This need is a seasonlong top priority to his selection and implementation of PGRs. Primo is his primary
choice, and rates are adjusted along with
windows of application, d e t e r m i n e d by
factors such as weather, growth, fertility
timing and m e m b e r event schedules.
During specific times of the year, or under specific weather conditions, PGRs can
take on secondary roles within Baldwin's
program. For instance, Proxy is added to
the mix on greens/tecs during Pua seeding
windows, and Primo is replaced briefly
by Cutlcss on fairways during this same
set of conditions. However, Primo is the
primary PGR in play the vast majority of
seasonal time.
Due to a severe DM1 resistance to dollar
spot, Baldwin relies heavily on contact fungicides such as chlorothalonil. T o him, it's
a logical assertion that by suppressing top
growth and clipping production, the contact fungicide will remain at higher con-
Superintendents
believe plant growth
regulators work with
other applications to
fend off disease; others
see a more direct
disease suppression
benefit.
centrations during the effective window.
" T h e c o m b i n e d plant health benefits
and fungicide longevity have definitely
improved my disease c o n t r o l , " Baldwin
says. "I can't say that my intervals have
changed much since introduction of PGRs,
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but there is no doubt the efficacy of the
fungicide and the plant health provides
much less breakthrough towards the
end of each interval. I'm fully convinced
their use is synergistic for the plants
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plant health and f u n g i c i d e e f f i c a c y
lead to a better, healthier surface for
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Bob S c n s c m a n , CGCS, from Oswego
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in the spring for seedhead suppression.
By doing so, he says, he's making the
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plant stronger and hopes to suppress
disease development.
In an interesting twist, S e n s e m a n
says he and an increasing number of
s u p e r i n t e n d e n t s w h o use P r i m o on
Note that the signature color and odor have changed slightly. Growers will
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versity's Department of Plant Biology &
Pathology confirms that.
"A lot of superintendents were worried that Primo would be making the
disease worse because that's the most
c o m m o n s u m m e r t i m e plant growth
regulator used, but we just didn't see
that to b e the case," says Murphy. "Our
research led us to believe that superintendents are better off staying with
their plant growth regulation program
in s u m m e r . "
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M u r p h y and his t e a m looked specifically at scenarios where superintendents had a lot of Pua annua on their
greens and were trying to keep it alive
and healthy. They did not look at Cutlass or Trimmit because those PGRs are
generally used to get rid of Poa annua.
"Rarely did w e see a negative effect
or enhancing the disease," Murphy says.
" W e usually saw not much of an effect
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if at all, and when there was an effect,
more often than it being negative, it was
actually positive. But the positive aspect
was not so strong that I'm confident
superintendents should use it for that
purpose and expect something out of it.
When you looked at how many times we
had a positive versus h o w many
and o r n a m e n t a l product m a n -
t i m e s w e had a negative, t h e
ager with S e P R O C o r p o r a t i o n ,
P e r c e n t a g e of superintendents w h o
positive effects outweighed t h e
says s u p e r i n t e n d e n t s have told
indicated they found value in using
negative effects b y q u i t e a l o t . "
him o f t h e side b e n e f i t o f sup-
Murphy's standard advicc to
pression of this disease w h e n
PGRS: Just the facts
29%
PGRs for disease suppression.
How do you use PGRs?
Where are PGRs used?
®
®
Regular application schedule
developed in advance
1
Greens and fairwawys
superintendents w h e n i t c o m c s
using Cutlass or T r i m m i t
to P r i m o and a n t h r a c n o s c is
m o s t likely b e c a u s e both prod-
-
that they might s e e a positive
ucts w e r e originally s c r e e n e d
impact on reducing t h e disease
as D M I f u n g i c i d e s . S t i l l , h e
admits it's hit o r miss.
Greens only
- but don't c o u n t on it. Also,
Apply on an as-needed basis
#
Greens, fairways and roughs
don't b e afraid to use it because
"1 would not b e using a P G R
Spot usage
9
Fairways only
t h e r e isn't m u c h o f a negative
as a substitute for a fungi-
effect at all.
cide, not even to t h e point o f
3%
12%
25%
88%
21%
6%
i )
60%
SOURCE: GCI research
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"I would rather have the
complementing a fungicide,"
growth regulating effects you're
says B r o t h e r t o n . " W h i l e it may
using that p r o d u c t for and
suppress dollar spot, it w o n ' t
not w o r r y a b o u t a n y d i s e a s e
s t o p it from a p p e a r i n g o r af-
increase b e c a u s e it's probably
fecting turf. But it will reduce
not going to h a p p e n , " h e says.
t h e a m o u n t o r severity o f it. I
W h e n it c o m e s to dollar spot
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cally, 2 0 percent less in the plot where he
They're not curative by any means or even
treated/untreated areas with fungicides.
preventative - they're suppressive. It's not
Basically, you have to something to com-
applied Musketeer. He applied a mid-rate
going to be whether you see it or don't see
pare it to."
of Cutless, Legacy, Trimmit and Musketeer
on his nursery green (75 percent bentgrass,
it, it's the magnitude at which you do see
Gabe M e n n a of Centre Hills Golf Club in
these outbreaks. You cither have to have
State College, Pa., is one superintendents
2 5 percent Poa annua)
t r e a t e d / u n t r e a t e d areas with P G R s o r
who saw a reduction in dollar spot - specifi-
during a high-pressure dollar spot season.
every three weeks
M e n n a wasn't even looking to suppress
dollar spot, but found it was a side benefit.
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"The main thing we were searching for
was growth regulation since we have such
little Poa in our fairways," says Menna. " W c
looked often and didn't sec much differe n c e in any category we were searching for.
We had a rep in town and was showing him
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our testing plots on our fairway nursery,
and he didn't notice much either but he
pointed out that the dollar spot was less in
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the Musketeer. It still had dollar spot, but
it had less than the other areas. W e didn't
take any pictures and didn't d o c u m e n t
anything or take any percentages of dollar
spot at the time because it wasn't really
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what w e w e r e c o n c e r n e d with from our
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was any reason to switch from Trimmit,
which is working well for us for color and
growth regulation."
Kyle Erdige of Timber Banks Golf Club
NutriSmart Eco-Fertiiizer
Nutrol fungicide, tank buffer & water-soluble fertilizer
in Baldwinsvillc, N.Y., also believes he gets
an ancillary benefit of dollar spot suppression when using PGRs - again, Trimmit, as
Pennamin' patented amino acid products
it was originally formulated to be a D M I .
But h e admits his situation is a little differ-
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ent than other superintendents in that his
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bentgrass is somewhat resistant to dollar
spot. " T h e varieties of bentgrass I have in
my fairways are not 100 percent dollar spot
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other bentgrasses on the market," he says.
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higher than what most superintendents use
far as not getting dollar spot compared to
T h e rate Erdige uses his PGRs is a little
but still within the label recommendation.
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Still, he says he asked a couple researchers if he should be worried about D M I
resistance, and they said no. " T h e rate I'm
using isn't quite as high as a true regular
fungicide D M I , so they said I shouldn't
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see any resistance from it, and I was glad
to hear that," he says.
Erdige has been using PGRs to keep
Poa from encroaching on the turf since
[email protected]
2 0 1 0 , and he plans on keeping with the
program. GCI

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