Take All Patch

Following up on the last update...

Despite the name, Take All Patch will not "take all" our turf so do not be alarmed.  The disease has done it's thing and we are now left with the symptoms from which to recover.  Recovery efforts involve spot treatments with hand tools like a spiker and a seed/fertilizer cocktail.  We will be taking care of these spots with frequent light watering (just where needed) to encourage seed germination.  We will also be increasing our manganese inputs and tweaking our nitrogen sources to help reduce the pH level.  As we feel necessary, we may plug some areas out with turf from our chipping green (we don't have a nursery green).  In the case of hole number 8 we will use a temporary green periodically in order to give our efforts a chance to succeed.  Hole 8 is by far the weakest link in terms of this disease and we are limited in ways to keep traffic out of the areas where turf is thin.  Some greens are completely unaffected and some have just a patch or two of infected turf.

The disease cranks up in cooler weather in areas that are poorly drained, higher in pH, and compacted.  The symptoms appear when the turf is under stress from things like high heat, drought, traffic, etc.  Treatments to avoid this issue next season will begin this fall and repeat in the spring.  However, fungicides have been erratic at best so far.  We made preventive treatments for this year, but obviously didn't see the results we expected.  We'll revisit the plan and switch products and/or timing this go round.  The good news is that typically this disease runs its course.

Here is a quick read on Take All Patch

Max is using the spiker to put tiny holes in the surface. 
He'll spread a light rate of seed and fertilizer and then brush it in the holes.

This is one of the patches from last summer

On top of our issues, we continue to see a ton of untouched ball marks.
This one was left on the middle of 8 green between 9 and 10AM on Friday.