Major Charles A. Mackenzie designed Rungsted Golf Course back in 1936. It is one of Denmark’s oldest and most important courses and is, possibly, the country’s finest. Course Manager IAN TOMLINSON talks about a new problem that has hit areas of the course over the past eighteen months ...
SPIRAL NEMATOD I
n August 2006, following 10 weeks of drought, the Rungsted area of Denmark experienced 250mm of rain. Soon after I noticed grey patches forming on the 17th green. At first I thought somebody had spilled something, I had never seen grey disease like this. The spots did not move for a few weeks and then, one morning, I saw white mycelium on the scars. Was it a disease?
I quickly sent a sample to Dr Kate Entwistle. Her diagnosis was that it was not a disease but spiral nematodes - and she had never seen a sample with such a huge population of this pest! Somewhat ironically, I had previously been invited to talk at the BIGGA Scottish Education Conference in 2005. Sharing the platform was Nematologist Dr Colin Fleming, who gave a fascinating insight into the problems of trying to control nematodes in turfgrass. Colin has been researching this problem for around 10 years in conjunction with Mark Hunt of Headland Amenity and Dr Kate. After the conference I said to Colin “thank god I don’t have nematode problems in Denmark.” Little did I know
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that, less than twelve months later, I would be glad of his expert advice and help.
At the time of my attack the only real
product which had any kind of effect was Mustard Bran which was imported in from Canada. There is only around 40 tonnes produced a year and, as you require 100gms per square metre, supplies are very limited and, when I called Colin, he told me that there was no product available but, because it was nearly September, the nematode activity would slow down going into autumn which, fortunately, it did.
During the winter of 2006/2007, with lots of rain and mild temperatures, I was a little concerned that the nematodes were still reproducing. In early June 2007 the grey scars started appearing again, in the same place, on the same green. Once again Kate confirmed that it was spiral nematodes.
During the previous six months a new
product had been trialed by Colin with excellent results. Biomass-Sugar had been used in Spanish agriculture for many years as a soil amendment, but was also discovered to control nematodes. By
coincidence, the day I contacted Kate regarding my nematodes, she was in contact with Ronald A Van Stein from Biomass- Sugar in Spain, so we arranged to do some trials on my greens. The active ingredient of Biomass-Sugar is a hydrolysate of sugarcane - Furan-2- carboxaldehyde. The effect on the nematodes is both fast-acting and terminal. In
addition, it also has a biostimulant action and is very safe to apply with no risk of scorch. The product has very little nutrient content and, unlike the mustard bran, will not contribute to high levels of nitrogen when it is applied.
The initial application, in July 2007, was 80L/Ha of
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