Many golf course superintendents around the country have determined that there is nothing ‘superficial’ about fairy ring. Once the pathogen takes hold, death of turf can occur due to hydrophobic conditions that develop in the thatch and soil. Fungal mycelium alters the physical and chemical properties of soil, making it hydrophobic.
Superintendents are finding that a preventative solution is the most reliable option to fight fairy ring. Remember, once the symptoms of fairy ring appear, (i.e. a stimulated ring of grass growth with or without mushroom development, or a ring of mushrooms alone), the soil and thatch have already been infected and it becomes quite difficult to eliminate. Superintendents are finding that preventative applications are the way to go.
WOLF CREEK GOLF COURSE, Atlanta, Ga.
Mark Abrams, golf course superintendent at Wolf Creek in Atlanta since its construction in 2001, was one of the first in the area to give Tourney a try. “I tried other products,” Abrams says, “but they only seemed to suppress the fairy ring and not really cure it.Tourney wiped it out for good.”
Marks’ spray regimen is 3 times in the spring, 21 days apart on his California-style greens. “I used to use a different product for my take-all patch as well,” he says. “Now Tourney is my go-to fungicide for that as well.”
SMETHPORT GOLF COURSE
Jim Askey, Superintendent of the Smethport Golf Course has been dealing with fairy ring for 30 years. Fortunately for him, Smethport was chosen to be a part of the Tourney Demo Program in 2009. “I didn’t have any fairy ring last season,” he says. “Tourney really worked. I’ll be using it as part of a preventative program every spring.”
LEDGEROCK GOLF COURSE
Fairy ring is an ongoing problem for Alan Fitzgerald, superintendent of LedgeRock Golf Course in Mohnton, Penn., where the disease keeps the crew guessing from season to season. “It really depends on weather. Fairy ring comes and goes for us. It’s been a bit of an uphill climb. We’ve had so much that we’ve had a ring 40 feet in diameter on a bank facing play,” he says.
Fairy ring showed up mostly on the rough and fairways for Fitzgerald, which was enough to start a tough treatment schedule. “We’ve tried fungicides and a three-tier program to try to knock it into regression. Our biggest cure right now is Bayleton fungicide. That seems to just take it out; we’ve had pretty good success with that. And there’s dowsing it with water and a high concentration of Prostar, which helps. We’ve only had one or two in greens, so we’re kinda just working around them and living with them. Our members know we’re dealing with it.”
BUCKNELL GOLF CLUB
James Laubach, assistant superintendent at Bucknell Golf Club in Lewisburg, Penn. says fairy ring has been giving him trouble on his fairways for the last four years. But it was when the dark green circles started showing up on greens he realized he needed to step up treatment. “It started out just superficial and didn’t really affect play. Over time we started to lose some turf right in the middle of them, and it was easier to see them, the darker green areas and inconsistencies. The No. 5 green was the worst one. That’s our diagnosing green now. That’s the one we use to determine when and what we’re going to do,” he says.
Early on, he used wetting agents in localized applications to support the hydrophobic soil. “That seemed to help and moderate the effects a bit. We tried to keep good moisture levels in them and did everything you can to keep them wet. We used Bayleton as a preventative which seemed to keep the fairy ring away. We’d treat in April and then again in May and early August, when we aerify. It did lessen the severity.”
Bucknell enrolled in the Tourney Demo Program in ’09, and was hooked after a single application covered the disease for the summer season. “We’ve used it in ’09, ’10, and we’ll be using it in ’11,” he says. “We wait until we see some symptoms and then we’d put it down, and we usually don’t retreat. It’s expensive but it’s worked in one time. That’s kind of why we went that route. We’ve been very pleased and we’ll be using it again. The one application keeps it clean as the season progresses, and we’ll see a little bit right before we aerify. That usually makes all the difference.”
Despite regular treatment and keeping a long memory of where fairy ring shows up, taking care of the disease means a lot of attention and a little luck, he says. “One thing that helps a lot is if you can map the areas that are historically targeted. I always do the areas where I know fairy ring shows up. I’ll hit them with wetting agents and then put Tourney down. But fairy ring is one of those things that differs from course to course. What works here doesn’t work on a course a few hills over. You have to do what works for your course and just pray for everyone else.”
COUNTRY CLUB OF HARRISBURG
Fairy ring hasn’t been as tough at the Country Club of Harrisburg in Harrisburg, Penn., but David Frey has been dealing with it for the entire 10 years he’s been superintendent. “It’s a mystical thing, almost,” he says. “We’ve definitely got some issues, though some years it’s more prevalent than others. Mostly in the drought years, we see it on the fairway edges and sometimes on the greens. Lucky No. 13 has it regularly.”
Frey has used some fungicides in the past, but prefers to try a mix of cultural and chemical treatments to break it up. “We’ve culturally tried to control them with increased aerification, we’ve hydrojected them, spiked them. We’ve done some trials with fungicides, and we’ve had some control. On the greens, we’ll do more with foliar feedings to mask it, mainly with nitrogen and potassium for the greening effects.”
When the disease gets too aggressive to mask, Frey turns to culture practices over fungicides. “When we see a decline and thinning effect, we’ll poke some holes and try to seed to grow some grass while the other declines,” he says. “It’s just needle tine, getting some air and moisture in there. We’ll hand water the area and use wetting agents, too. It does work – we don’t lose any grass.”
