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October 5, 2012 Scouting Report
Fall
Color Says Pow, Pow, Pow: Coldest Night in 7 Months, Chicago's Turf
Very Healthy, Dollar Spot Fires Up (briefly) and Tim talks Poa Control?
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle
Wait
a minute, how did THAT happen so fast? It's October. Well it happened
and just to show you...on Thursday of this week we lost something like
27 degrees in 6 hours - from 80° at 2 pm to near 50° by 8 pm. Friday
morning it hit me when I found myself in Naperville at a couple of
courses unprepared - two light jackets didn't cut it. This growing
season suddenly seems striking in it's contrast of 'degrees' in just a
few months. As far as pest 'issues' and things of plant health, very few
now exist given nighttime lows are rhythmically falling to the 40s. The
bigger issue at hand is a realization that we continue to be way behind
on annual rainfall and current lake level information is the perfect
illustrator. Versus the same time a year ago, the Great Lakes tell the
2012 story of drought (Superior -2", Ontario -11", Huron -13", Michigan
-13" and Erie -17"). Besides Lake Michigan being down 13 inches from a
year ago, drought is serious because it also effects needed soil
moisture reserves for crops and the landscape and this can last into the
next growing season (e.g., the severe drought of 1988 meant 1989's
growing season was also negatively affected).
Currently we are
holding our heads up more and more. Not just because we did a good job
in season 2012. Ha! Mainly it is because the canopy of the landscape has
begun to change rapidly. Talk about nice fall color. White ashes are a
reddish burgundy purple and green ashes are golden. A group of
honeylocusts today... I found myself forming the word "electric".
Click here to view the October 5, 2012 Scouting Report.
Have a good weekend and don't forget to put on your 'good' jacket!
Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program |
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