Ask the Expert: Top 5 must-follow tips for controlling dollar spot

Dollar spot is a cool-season disease that naturally goes dormant as temperatures rise. Through a combination of key management strategies and properly timed fungicide applications, dollar spot epidemics can be minimized early in the season until midsummer, when conditions are less favorable for an epidemic. This can be accomplished through a combination of cultural best practices and timely fungicide applications.

Here are the top 5 tips for a winning dollar spot program:

1) Optimize fertility. Monitor soil nutrition through regular soil tests and fertilize accordingly. As a guideline, creeping bentgrass or annual bluegrass should receive 0.5 lb N/tsf per month during the growing season. Do not forget the importance of micronutrients.

2) Dew removal.  Removing morning dew greatly lowers the incidence and severity of dollar spot by altering the microclimate and making it less conducive for disease development. It also helps keeps early morning golfers happy!

3) Reduce thatch. Performing activities that reduce thatch accumulation is another way to alter the microclimate and lessen the impact of dollar spot on turf. Thatch can bind fungicides, thereby reducing their effectiveness and reduce air movement around the grass foliage. Aeration and top-dressing are two examples that help reduce dollar spot.

4) Start treating. An early-season fungicide application reduces the primary inoculum level of the dollar spot pathogen. If timed correctly, development of an epidemic is delayed until midsummer, when dollar spot naturally goes dormant. Any subsequent flare-ups are usually on a smaller scale and easier to control. Target your first application at 170 accumulated growing degree days, base 50.

5) Change approach. Rotate fungicide applications to play to their strengths. For example, DMIs are best utilized in the spring and fall on cool-season turfgrass and most are excellent dollar spot control materials.

Tourney Fungicide is a great tool for outstanding dollar spot control, and a broad spectrum of other turf diseases. It’s also an ideal choice for an early-season dollar spot program.
 

To minimize fungicide resistance development, do not make more than two applications in a row of fungicides with the same mode of action.