THE EFFECT OF COMBINATION DEW REMOVAL AND CURATIVE FUNGICIDE TREATMENTS ON DOLLAR SPOT DISEASE OF CREEPING BENTGRASS

摘要

Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) is commonly used on golf course greens,tees,and fairways in cool-humid regions.It is plagued by numerous fungal diseases,one of which is dollar spot disease caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa.Dollar spot occurs frequently throughout the growing season requiring biweekly fungicide applications for complete control.The objective of this study was to investigate if dew removal would aid in reducing the number of fungicide applications needed to maintain dollar spot below a threshold level.In this study,a combination of mowing three times a week and dragging by hose the remaining four days to remove dew was used in an attempt to reduce disease severity.The main effect of this combination treatment was not significant (p>0.05) and did not reduce the number of fungicide applications compared to mowing three days per week.However,dollar spot was managed curatively with significantly fewer fungicide applications compared to a preventative fungicide program when a disease threshold was used.The use of a disease threshold and curative fungicide applications may therefore reduce the number of fungicide applications needed in a year to maintain low levels of dollar spot severity on creeping bentgrass.