Darin Bevard, director of the Mid-Atlantic Green Section for the USGA, talks about current weed pressures facing superintendents, as well as preparing for broadleaf weeds.
What’s causing the heaviest weed pressure in your region this time of year?
Anymore, traditional weeds are not as much of a problem. The exception may be goosegrass, but I am seeing more efforts to eliminate creeping bentgrass, bermudagrass and Poa annua in cool season rough. Various types of kyllinga are also a significant problem. As a whole, weed pressure is being managed pretty well. It is more of these nuisance problems that are more difficult to control.
How has weather made it better or worse for fighting weeds as the season wraps up?
We have been fortunate to have cool weather conditions overall. Unfortunately, in much of the region it has been dry leading up to this week. There has been a little more discoloration of desirable grasses because of drought stress. Uptake of herbicides by weeds that aren’t actively growing because of dry conditions may also be affected, but time will tell on that one. As a whole weather conditions throughout the year have been pretty good to treat weeds because stress on the grass has been minimal. Superintendents are more willing to apply herbicides when the grass is actively growing and healthy, so most have kept up pretty well throughout the season.
How intense is broadleaf weed pressure right now?
Broadleaf pressure is not that bad overall, again, because I think superintendents have been better able to keep up with treatments. We have a good array of products for broadleaf weed control that are effective for controlling weeds and safe as a whole on desirable grasses.
What can superintendents do to keep broadleaf weeds to a minimum right now?
Fall is a great time to treat for broadleaf weeds. Remember, many of our broadleaf weeds are biennial. They have a vegetative year followed by a year of seed production. If you treat them now, there will be less chance of seed production by the weeds in the spring which means less weed pressure overall. If you have a weed problem, treat it now. You will be better for it next year!
