Spray Time

Waitea circinata is a cool season turfgrass pathogen that has recently increased in occurrence in the western, mid western and northeastern U.S. On putting greens the disease appears in the form of yellow rings that range in size from several inches to a foot in diameter. As the disease progresses, the rings can turn from yellow to light brown and even reddish brown. After the turf has been infected the recovery tends to be slow, so it is important to closely monitor the disease activity and decide weather a fungicide application is necessary.

Controlling the disease is the hardest part at this point, due to the disease being relatively new and people are still trying to understand it. Both University and field testing are taking place to evaluate the efficacies of various fungicides against this new pathogen.

We applied a fungicide application several days ago, to get the disease under control before any significant damage occurs. Chemical applications are always my last choice of attack, but since the disease has been present for several weeks with little improvement something had to be done before any secondary infections occur.