• News
• General
• September weather - Rescue & Recovery

Most turf managers will hope that September heralds an Indian summer, to extend the playing season and enable much needed turf maintenance. In fact, the chances have increased significantly over recent years.

In the past two decades, the UK as a whole has experienced below long-term average rainfall for September in over 70% of years, and above average sunshine in more than 60% of seasons. You need to go back over 15 years to find the first season with below average temperatures in September, highlighting the potential for turf to keep growing longer in the autumn.

That's good news for the recovery of sports pitches with the start of the new season's play,  and for golf courses to successfully over seed as part of their end of season renovation. Good growing conditions are also important for the selective removal of Ryegrass from fine turf playing surfaces with autumn Rescue applications - assuring rapid herbicide uptake and high levels of control, and for successful establishment of newly sown seed drilled to fill any gaps left by weed removal.

 

Soil temperatures, which are included in turf management forecasts on the free Syngenta GreenCast website, are a useful guide help to time Rescue applications and over seeding. It can also assist the optimum timing for applying Primo Maxx growth regulator to suppress turf growth and aide successful seedling establishment (below). Regulating growth at this time of year also gives greater flexibility in autumn mowing regimes as conditions become more difficult.  STRI trials have shown the best results for establishing new seedlings have been achieved with Primo Maxx application five days prior to planned over seeding.

Turf managers must, however, be aware that September sunlight levels start to fall quickly and evenings start to get cooler. Typically night time temperatures are an average 2°C cooler in September, compared to August, with 40 hours less sunshine - a reduction of 25%. Whilst turf growth may still continue, the effects of pest or disease attacks that may be outgrown during summer months, become far more evident and have a longer term effect if they strike in September.

Wet weather Fusarium risk

High rainfall for parts of the UK during July, particularly northern England and Scotland, will have enabled the Fusarium pathogen to better survive the summer, and is more likely to break out into a full-blown attack as conditions cool through September.

GreenCast weather and disease records for golf courses in the west of Scotland, for example, highlight that, over recent seasons, weather conditions have created protracted medium risk periods for Fusarium throughout September, rising significantly to high risk at the beginning of October - pinpointing the ideal timing for proactive preventative treatments with or cool-weather systemic, Banner Maxx or Headway.

If poor weather conditions prevent treatment and an attack does occur, however, being able to quickly resort to the multi-active contact and protectant properties of Instrata can help prevent Fusarium disease spread, as well as protecting clean growth from infection and maintaining strong turf surfaces going into the winter.