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| Kerb Spraying Unit to tackle TT course |
| Two years ago, the Department of Transport’s Engineering Works Division on the Isle of Mann took the decision to move to Controlled Droplet Application (CDA) products to cut down on chemical usage and the need for disposal of excess, particularly mixed product left in spray tanks.
At that stage, the CDA herbicides were applied via handheld CDA lances.
However, whilst the estate areas were being treated for weed growth, the handheld operatives did not have sufficient time to spray the long stretches of road, including the famous TT course.
During last year, maintenance manager Alan Hardinge fitted an ‘Easy-Spray’ Kerb Spraying Unit, from Telford-based Amenity Land Services (ALS), onto a compact sweeper and applied Bayer Environmental Science’s non-irritant herbicide CDA Vanquish®, primarily for spot treatment, whilst sweeping was carried out.
In 2004, Hardinge plans to use the KSU earlier in the year and extend the application by spray with Bayer’s residual herbicide.
Paul Clifton of Bayer Environmental Science says the decision to use the KSU stemmed from a two-day presentation and training workshop, run with Danny Jones of ALS, for the IOM Council and its operators.
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Merit®
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Case Study - Avid gardener’s lawns restored
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Residential lawns can be hit as badly as commercial sportsturf by the dreaded chafer grub, as Robin Dack of Emerald Lawncare in Winsford, Cheshire can testify.
Robin took on two new clients early in 2004 that had experienced chafer damage to their lawns in previous years. One is an avid gardener who was devastated when, in May 2004, extensive chafer damage to the lawn reoccurred.
Robin was given the opportunity to trial Merit® Turf and treated both lawns, one around 600 sq mts., the other 400 sq mts. The treatment was 100% effective, with no visible signs of the grubs or any loose grass to indicate their reappearance.
The product’s ease of use impressed Robin who has used most control products over the years:
“I’ve been in the business over 10 years and this is the most effective treatment I’ve ever used. It is easy to measure out and the granule size is perfect for application via a hand applicator.”
By 16th July no beetles had been seen for three or four weeks and Ken had a healthy lawn with good colour and no sign of grub attack.
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| RAF Lakenheath Golf Club |
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Like many courses that are based on sandy soils, Breckland Pines Golf Club, on RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk has been increasingly beset with chafer grub problems since the main chemical treatment was taken off the market, some five years ago.
In the late Autumn of 2002, Director of Golf, Derek Turner, approached Bayer Environmental Science for advice. The company is currently running trials on a new control for chafer grubs, and agreed with the club to replicate a treatment programme on a block of badly infected fairway.
The results of the trial treatment have been dramatic with 100% control of the grubs on the treated area and with the grass recovering well. “It was as if someone had repainted the fairway green on the treated section”, Derek commented, “literally just one inch away the area still shows the devastation from the grubs.”
The club has issued special instructions for playing a ball which lands on an area with chafer grub damage, and has placed a notice on the members board informing them that the club is working with Bayer Environmental Science to provide a solution to the problem.
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| Residential lawn treated for chafer grub devastation |
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The area around Northwich in Cheshire has a lot of light sandy soil, ideal breading ground for the infamous chafer grub.
Some years ago Ken Knight had a problem with the grubs on a third of an acre lawn, which he successfully treated with Lindane. However, with the withdrawal of the product and the return of the grubs last year, his lawn became overgrown with moss and perennial weeds, as the turf roots were eaten away.
In March 2004 Ken’s local contractor, Ian Holden of Mid Cheshire Landscapes, applied Bayer Environmental Science product Super Mosstox® to control the moss and a glycophosphate to eliminate the weeds. He then had the lawn area ploughed, levelled and raked bringing the grubs to the surface. These were collected and destroyed.
Ken had known Bayer before his retirement in his occupation as a chemist, and got to learn of the trials that were going on with the new Imidacloprid based chafer grub treatment that the company had developed. Ian Holden then treated the area at the rate of 3 grams per square metre with the product.
On the same day, the lawn seed was then sown and a roller run over the area. The following week saw heavy rain and the first cut was made one month later, on 15th May. No grubs were evident and the local rook population easily dealt with the few beetles that were observed on the surface during sunny periods, without damage to the turf.
Around mid June Ken checked and found that very few beetles remained, with the rooks still picking them off effectively. The birds made no attempt to dig for grubs.
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| Thetford Golf Club |
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For Paul Gould, Course Manager at Thetford Golf Club in Norfolk, official registration of the treatment cannot come soon enough.
“We have a major problem with secondary predation damage, particularly from badgers foraging for the grubs. The problem has got worse over the last five years, to the extent that this year we have had to have players teeing off the fairways on four of the holes.”
Thetford have tried mechanical treatment but with limited success, and trying to keep up with repair of the damage is not only disruptive to play but is also costing a great deal of time and money. “We have had to white-line whole areas, and there are other aspects of the course maintenance that are suffering through the constant need to attend to the chafer problem,” comments Paul.
Since June 2003 varying rates of the new treatment have been applied to trial plots on the practice area, with dramatic results as Paul is keen to point out:-
“You can easily see the physical difference between the treated and untreated plots, purely from the colour of the turf. The treated areas are so much healthier, with strong regrowth and no sign of grub reoccurrence.”
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| Pistol® |
| Pistol trials for military crests weed control armoury |
Bayer Environmental Science’s new total residual herbicide, Pistol®, is to be trialled at the Fovant Badges site on the chalk hills near Salisbury. The Badges are military crests cut into the chalk hills as memorials to soldiers from WWI.
The 2,000 sq mts of chalk crests have to be maintained each year in order to preserve their clear outline on the hills and, with the natural encroachment of weeds, hand weeding is a daunting task.
Tony Pinder, Project Officer for the Society, hopes that Pistol will help to reduce both the annual maintenance costs and overcome one specific problem that they have incurred with herbicides, namely, chemical run-off.
As Bayer Environmental Science Marketing Manager John Hall explains, Pistol® provides solutions to both of the Society’s problems.
"The first of the two actives in Pistol’s formulation works via a unique ‘barrier activity’, inhibiting the germination of weeds coming up to the surface thereby giving longer lasting control. The second active controls weeds already at the surface."
"The problem of run-off", he continues, "is removed with Pistol, as the active diflufenican locks up in the soil, eliminating seepage and leeching into non-treated areas such as the grassland on the 30Εγ slope surrounding the crests. Pistol’s low dose rate also makes it more environmentally friendly where a total herbicide is required."
Trials on selected badges were run in May with the full approval of both the landowner and DEFRA.
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| Scorpio® |
| 56 day fusarium control at Windermere course |
Revolutionary strobilurin fungicide Scorpio® from Bayer Environmental Science is giving a full 56 days of fusarium control in reports coming back from contractors and clubs.
In August 2005 Windermere Golf Club, a Parkland course and Site of Special Scientific Interest, had all 18 playing greens and the practice green treated with Scorpio®.
National contractors Amenity Contract Services, from St Helens Merseyside, applied the fungicide at a rate of just 700grams per hectare, using their own, purpose-built sprayer to treat the greens.
Course Manager, Tony Clark, said that the product lived up to its claims, giving at least 56 days control of the fusarium, with subsequent outbreaks being so small as to only require spot treatment. The club plans to use Scorpio® again this year as part of a disease control management programme utilising Chipco Green® and Mildothane Turf Liquid®. This combined approach utilises different actives, with different modes of action to reduce fungicide resistance build-up.
Danny Jones, from the Bayer Distributor, Amenity Land Services Ltd which supplied and advised on the use of Scorpio®, believes that the products efficacy, together with its novel new packaging designed to provide accurate measuring and eliminate operator handling of the fungicide, makes the product very attractive to contractors, green keepers and other end users.
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| Castlehume Golf Club |
Castlehume Golf Club, at Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh has approximately 10,000 sq metres Golf Greens, base on a sand/peat base soil. The fourteen-year-old sward is a Fescue/Bent mix.
The club was suffering from persistent attacks of Fusarium and Take-all patch. In mid April 2005, a month after the official launch of the product in Northern Ireland, Scorpio® was applied at the rate of 0.7 kg per HA in 500 litres of water by volume.
Within 48 hours the disease was under control and, to date (end May 2005) there is no sign of any reoccurrence of the disease.
Castlehume’s Head Greenkeeper, Kevin Nolan originally trialled the product, in July 2004, just on the fifth green. The green had a 15% level of disease at the time of treatment and the rapid clear up persuaded him to apply Scorpio® across all the greens this year.
"I always like to try something new, especially a fungicide” Kevin commented. “I found this product very easy and safe to use but, most of all, it gives a very effective control of the two diseases I was having problems with even in cold temperatures"
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| Little Hay Golf Club |
In September last year Little Hay Golf Club in Hemel Hempstead ran trials of Scorpio®, as a treatment for fusarium.
The course, ex-agricultural land, is a heavily played local authority course with no temporary greens. The sward is 25 year old meadow grass with heavy shade over certain greens.
Two, the seventh and eighth, were particularly prone to fungal attack so Course Manager George Reid decided to spray Scorpio® as a precaution to one half of each green. A week after spraying George checked the greens and noted no discolouration.
Returning from holiday at the beginning of October, he discovered that all greens had a bad attack of fusarium. Greens were badly scarred but there was not sign of the disease on the right hand sides of greens seven and eight, those treated with Scorpio®. The left hand sides of these greens had been attacked.
On the 5th October George noted there was still no sign of fusarium on the Scorpio® treated areas and proceeded to spray all greens with Daconil. A month later there were still signs of the disease and the greens were sprayed with Bayer’s Chipco® Green. Chipco® Green was used at this time as a contact fungicide works better over late autumn and winter months.
In mid March 2005, although there had been a re-occurrence of fusarium on all greens, the two areas where Scorpio® had been applied were relatively free and a further application of Chipco® Green was made.
George has been very impressed with Scorpio® and plans to treat all greens this year:
“We can predict to within a week when fusarium will attack. This year we will be using Scorpio as a preventative treatment on all greens, which should greatly reduce the scar damage we usually experience over winter and spring.”
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| Preventative treatment gives fusarium free summer |
A preventative application of strobilurin fungicide ‘Scorpio’® in September 2005 has already given a West Yorkshire golf club nearly nine months protection against fusarium, with still no signs of the disease appearing.
Woodhall Hill Golf Club applied the Bayer Environmental Science product to all greens at the 100-year-old parkland course at the rate of just 700 grams per hectare, delivered via boom spraying.
Head Greenkeeper at Woodhall Hill, David Bedford says he is amazed at the length of control Scorpio® is giving. “By now we usually have had to treat some occurrence of fusarium, usually using Chipco Green®, but we have seen absolutely nothing, not even when top-dressing.”
Bedford now plans to re-apply Scorpio® this autumn, in anticipation of a further fusarium-free summer.
Steve Hardwick of distributors, Aitken Sportsturf Ltd, the company that supplied Scorpio®,believes that the products efficacy and low dosage rate, together with its novel new packaging designed to provide accurate measuring and eliminate operator handling of the fungicide, makes the product very attractive to contractors, green keepers and other end users.
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| Scorpio keeps greens fusarium free at Popes Mead Bowling Club |
In late December last year Popes Mead Bowling Club, in West Sussex, ran trials of Scorpio®, the new fungicide from Bayer Environmental Science, as a treatment for fusarium.
The green was suffering from around 40 patches, averaging 2 inches in diameter, on the eight-year-old fescue, bent, poa mix sward on a sand/peat soil.
Norman Kennard, greenkeeper and one of the trustees at Popes Mead, decided to spray Scorpio® to a 1000m2 of the green. A month after spraying Norman checked the green and noted that the target had been killed and that the patches remained inactive.
Subsequent monthly checks indicated that there was no sign of fusarium on the Scorpio® treated areas.
To date, June 2005, Norman reports that fusarium has not reappeared since the treatment and that the greens have fully recovered to a dense green sward.
Having been very impressed with Scorpio’s speed and extent of control, Norman plans to use Scorpio® as a preventative treatment on the green this year.
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| Spa Golf Club - Northern Ireland |
Spa Golf Club in Northern Ireland first used Scorpio® at the end of March 2005 on the 18 course greens and two practice greens.
All greens, now fifteen years old, had been suffering from fusarium but it was on the soil based, POA annua sward greens that Spa’s Alistair McEwan found the worst cases, with around 20% patching of the disease.
“Scorpio had very quick effect and the areas greened up rapidly,” Alistair commented. “It was not until the end of June that there was any signs of reoccurrence and need for re-spraying”.
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