February 25, 2010

The other day, as the snow from the previous few storms began to melt away, we discovered a small bit of grey snow mold on the newly sodded tees. The new sod is “succulent”, due that we were pushing it with extra nitrogen to grow it in when it really wanted to go dormant. Also, the turf covers, placed over these tees to protect them from the whims of winter weather, produced a layer of humidity between the turf and the snow. These conditions created the environment that grey snow mold needs for growth and infection. We had treated these tees preventively before the snow, but the protection had run out – most fungicides don’t last more than a few weeks even in the best of conditions.

As soon as we saw the snow mold, we shoveled off the remaining snow from the tees and pulled back the covers. We kept the covers off for a few days to facilitate air exchange, and then re treated the tees with a granular fungicide. With the snow still deep in many places, and the underlying ground soggy, we had to “walk in” the spreader and the bags of fungicide – it was no easy task. Soon after we applied the fungicide, we replaced the covers on the tees.

Today it has begun to snow again, and the moisture levels are still overwhelmingly high, re enforcing the conditions that produce winter diseases (moisture produces diseases in any season). We will keep on it, watching and treating as we can, hoping that soon the weather will dry out and give the turf a very needed break from all the wetness we’ve experienced recently - but really, we've been wet since the spring of 2009.