Confront Anthracnose Head-On with these Best Practices

Don’t let anthracnose damage your putting greens during peak playing season. Anthracnose typically infects turf long before the symptoms appear, so a season-long preventive approach is essential for successful control.
 
Cultural Practices
Anthracnose is commonly found on highly-stressed annual bluegrass and creeping bentgrass in the transition zone. Activities that reduce turfgrass stress, such as using walk-behind mowers, will help prevent an onset of the disease.
 
A solid fertility program and good soil conditions also impact the effect of anthracnose. Proper management of nitrogen fertility is essential to maintaining healthy turf. Other best practices include:
  • Increasing the height of cut
  • Applying a soil topdressing in the spring every 7-14 days
  • Avoiding irrigation more than necessary to prevent wilting or excessive wet conditions
  • Skipping core aerification while disease symptoms are present
Preventive Measures
Start a preventive program approximately one month before the typical onset of symptoms occurs. Depending on your region, anthracnose can appear in April through October. Look for areas experiencing more than 10 hours a day of leaf wetness for several consecutive days and temperatures over 78°F.
 
Product Recommendations for Control
Preventive treatments are especially important on areas of your course where the disease has previously occurred. Rotations and tank-mixtures of multiple fungicide classes are strongly recommended. Additionally, combinations of contact and systemic fungicides are particularly effective and will also help delay fungicide resistance.
 
Years of research have demonstrated that a programmatic approach to anthracnose control is best. Syngenta has ten fungicides that can be incorporated into an effective anthracnose control program. Velista® fungicide is an excellent xylem systemic fungicide, and the only SDHI fungicide, that prevents the disease. Daconil Action™ fungicide, Medallion® SC fungicide and Secure® fungicide are all exceptional contact fungicides that control anthracnose. In addition, Banner Maxx® II fungicide or Briskway® fungicide are excellent xylem systemic fungicides to use as rotational partners with Velista. Appear® fungicide, when mixed with Daconil Action, will provide a great base for the control of anthracnose.  The key is to create a plan and follow it through the season. A suggested agronomic plan can be viewed on GreenCastonline.com
 
Syngenta offers a complete portfolio of contact and systemic fungicides for anthracnose management. Below are recommendations for preventive applications.

Fungicide  Rates per 1000 ft2
Banner Maxx II
 1 to 2 fl oz
Briskway 0.3 to 0.725 fl oz
Daconil Action 3 to 5.4 fl oz
Headway®  1.5 to 3.0 fl oz
Heritage® 0.2 to 0.4 oz
Heritage™ TL 1 to 2 fl oz
Medallion SC 1 to 2 fl oz
Secure  0.5 fl oz
Velista 0.3 to 0.5 oz
Appear  4.0 to 8 fl oz

For more information on implementing these products in your state, take advantage of agronomic programs provided by Syngenta.
 
©2016 Syngenta. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties and/or may have state-specific use requirements. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration and proper use. Appear®, Banner Maxx®, Briskway®, Daconil Action™, GreenCast®, Headway®, Heritage®, Medallion®, Velista® and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Secure® is a trademark of Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, Ltd.

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