FOLLOW UP ON MOSS CONTROL

Nick Christians
April 27, 2012

Here is a follow up post from Mark Newton, Supt. of Ames golf and CC.  The last one was on August 3, 2011.  See that blog for more details.

Here is Mark's cultural and chemical protocol from last year.

In the fall of 2010, 1 week after our core aerification (1/2” tines on 2” spacing, 4 inch deep) we started the heavy moss treatments with Quicksilver. These started on September 14^th, and were sprayed every 14 days at the 6.7 oz / acre rate for three consecutive treatments, also included was a spreader sticker and tank buffer to get the PH to 6.5. Also we bumped the fertility way up on the greens, putting 3 sequential applications of 7-7-7 fertilizer at .4 lbs of N per 1000 every 2 weeks, also increased our mowing height to .140 with two rolls per week to help keep green speed. This gave us the most control and reduction in the moss, reducing the population by 40-50% and in some spots completely eliminating them.

In 2011, we are continuing the applications but on a more regular basis with lower rates. The label gives us .4lbs of AI per acre per season. That is 26.8 oz of product per acre in total. To date and future applications are shown below:

- April 6^th 2 oz/acre Complete

- May 10^th 2 oz/acre Complete

- May 24^th 2 oz/acre Complete

- June 17^th 4 oz/acre Complete

- June 27^th 2 oz/acre Complete

- July 11^th 1 oz/acre Complete

- July 25^th 1 oz/acre Complete

- August 7^th 2 oz/acre

- August 21^st 4 oz/acre

- September 6^th Greens Aerification

- September 13^th 6.7 oz / acre + Spreader Sticker

*Note – Greens height in spring start up was .140, lowered to .120 by May 15^th and remained at that height until 2 weeks ago with all this heat back to .130 so I don’t have moss free but dead greens. On a normal year would still be at .120 with 1 heavy roll every Thursday, light topdressing every 3 weeks and 1 verticut / month when weather permits

In this program we also have bumped up our fertility of the greens from prior years, and included more applications of Daconil Ultrex to further aid in the moss treatments. These treatments other than the last one on September 13^th will be put in with our regular spray program of Garys Green Ultra at 9oz/M, Tuff Turf at 4.5 oz/M, PK Plus at 4.5 oz/M, primo at .125 oz/M, and then a rotation of Fungicides. These include, Daconil Ultrex on every treatment (ranging from 5lbs/a to 10), Headway, Banner, Heritage TL, Instrata, and Emerald. Pending on weather a Banol or FORE application might be made.

Additionally for cultural practices we tend to keep greens a little dryer than in previous years with more hand-watering and deep watering. We also make sure that when we do a verticut we are always spraying the next day to not only aid in the recovery and have the best chemical controls, but to decrease the chance of spore transport and giving open areas where it can establish. 

 Here is a picture from June 10, 2010 showing how much moss was on the 18th green

 Here is a picture from yesterday April 26, 2012 on the same area.

One warning from me, it is not unusual for moss control programs to appear to be successful at some times of year, but moss tends to come back.  We'll keep monitoring this site over the next couple of years.  Hopefully Mark has come up with something that really works.