NUMBER 1185 |
January 27,2009 |
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ANNOUNCEMENTS |
SOYBEAN |
GREENHOUSE CROPS |
LAWN & TURF |
Creator of Kentucky Pest News Honored by KNLA |
Dr. John Hartman, the founder of Kentucky Pest News (originally called Pest News Alert) and UK Extension Plant Pathologist for 37 years, was honored this month for his many contributions to the nursery and landscape industry. He was chosen as a Member of the Honorary Hall of Fame of the Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association at this organization’s annual meeting in Louisville on January 13th. |
2009 IPM Training - March 4 |
The 2009 IPM Training will be held on Wednesday, March 4, at the UKREC in Princeton. We will start at 9 and end at 3:30. Topics on the program include – Fungicide Use in Corn & Soybeans, Improving Nutrient Use Efficiency in Corn & Soybean Production, What’s New in Weed Control for 2009, plus Corn and Soybean Insect Issues. We will be applying to offer CEU’s for Certified Crop Advisors and pesticide safety education hours. Lunch will be provided. To reserve a lunch, call 270-365-7541 extension 216 or e-mail plucas@uky.edu. Be sure and check your next issue of Kentucky Pest News for more details. |
SOYBEAN |
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Soybean Rust Monitoring Network a "Go" for 2009 |
Since 2006, the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) funded most SBR monitoring activities in the South, and also provided limited funding for the Northern monitoring network. The balance of the program in the North was funded by soybean Check-off Sources (mostly, United Soybean Board and North Central Soybean Research Program). RMA also provided funds to support an information technology framework that has been an integral part of the ipmPIPE, including SBR efforts. This is how the SBR website, which includes the well-known SBR observation map and disease prediction information (www.sbrusa.net), are funded. As of January 26, 2009, SBR can still be found in Florida and in protected areas in Louisiana. |
LAWN & TURF |
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Spring Dead Spot Infection Activity in Bermudagrass |
In Kentucky, three (and possibly four) soil-swelling fungi in the genus Ophiosphaerella have been found to cause the disease. These fungi attack roots, stolons, and rhizomes of bermudagrass primarily during the fall and spring. The most damaging infection activity is thought to occur when soil temperatures drop below 70°F in the autumn. These infections lead to rot of these plant parts. The interesting and unusual aspect of the disease is this: the infection of bermudagrass is necessary for dead spots to occur, but the infections alone do not cause the symptoms. The bermudagrass also needs exposure to freezing temperatures. What researchers have found is that bermudagrass with below-ground infections of bermudagrass make it more sensitive to death from cold temperatures. So the patches of dead grass in the spring died because of winter temperatures. Of course, on a frigid day, freezing temperatures occur throughout a bermudagrass sward, not just in little patches that subsequently appear dead in the spring. However, the soilborne infections by Ophiosphaerella occur in patches, and these infected patches then die in winter during exposure to freezing temperatures. This is interesting biology, at least to plant pathologists, but the practical significance of all this is that by the time the dead spots show up in the spring, there is really nothing that can be done except to promote recovery that growing season. The infection activity led to those symptoms is long past. But it also means that managers of bermudagrass must treat spring dead spot preventively, before or during the autumn when infections are active. In fact, a cultural management program is really the best approach, rather than a chemical approach. (Chemical treatments for spring dead spot have been erratic, at best, under Kentucky conditions.) Recommendations for managing spring dead spot are available online at: http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id130/id130.pdf.
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NOTE: Trade names are used to simplify the information presented in this newsletter. No endorsement by the Cooperative Extension Service is intended, nor is criticism implied of similar products that are not named.