Ryan Popp, Helena Chemical Co.

Most everyone finally received some needed rain yesterday with totals ranging from .25 to 1.25+ inches depending on where you are.  A quick scan of the 10-day forecast shows a chance of rain quite often, along with a lot of mild temps... most of the 10 days showing highs in the 70's and lows near 60.  Could we escape summer without ever enduring the "dog days" of it??

Localized Dry Spot continues to be a trouble for some, but it seems the main battles these days are equipment related.  Lots of guys battling equipment issues, and a few fighting pump/irrigation problems.  If you haven't had to deal with those, knock on wood and enjoy the weather.

It feels a little strange writing blog posts knowing that nobody will be reading them until well after the fact, but I'm getting much closer to going live with this site.  The cool dry weather that is so good for maintaining turf also means that the soft goods business is relatively slow... and I've been devoting that little bit of extra time to this website.
On the disease front, since there is so little going on locally here's a good place to keep tabs on the national scene.  http://turfdiseases.blogspot.com/   A group of 5 university pathologists have teamed up to keep the turf industry updated with current disease conditions.  Well worth the couple minutes it takes to read the updates.

Getting a functional website and blog up and running takes more time than one might think... but it's slowly coming along.  Here's what's going on lately...

Ants continue to be more than a nuisance, and many places have taken such hold that knockdown controls only seem to be effective for about a week.  The only solution is to keep on them, by any means possible.  Broadcast sprays, spot sprays with hand cans, shaker baits carried on the mowers... just keep at it.

Disease pressure continues to be light to moderate.  Dollar spot is around just about wherever you go, but to this point has been tolerable and easily managed.  Brown Patch made an appearance during our week of hot and muggy weather, and recently a few more reports of Take-All have been heard.

Clover... lots of clover again.  There's a couple theories on why there's so much clover out there right now.  First, the cool dry spring wasn't ideal for controlling broadleaf weeds.  Others have admitted the clover was bad enough at spray time that they got a good kill but it was so thick that there was clover underneath clover that didn't actually see herbicide.  A third reason, that I think may be often overlooked is that clover does well in low N conditions... and with the budget crunch and rising costs of fertilizer the last couple years lots of fairways and especially roughs are getting less N than in the past.  As we get closer to fall and start thinking about broadleaf applications, give a little consideration to possibly an extra shot of fertilizer as well.

Ants, Ants, and more ants... "what do you have for ants" is the #1 question right now.  The dry spring so far has seemed to give the ants the upper hand unless early treatments were made.  There are a number of control options from here on out depending on the desired length of control and the available budget.  For a quick inexpensive knockdown look to products like bifenthrin, Dursban, or Scimitar.  However, it should be noted that ant activity will likely resume in 3-4 weeks after these controls are applied.  For long term control (of course at a higher cost per acre) look to products like Meridian, Aloft, or Allectus.  Both Aloft and Allectus are combination products containing a long term control along with bifenthrin for knock down power. 

Hello all and welcome to my "news from the road."  Please bear with me and check back often as I get this site up and running.  Once fully functional this blog is intended to be a place to answer the question a sales rep hears daily... "What's going on out there?"
Please rest assured that the stories shared here will always be anonymous, no names or courses names, only general location, unless you specifically ask me to use your name or course.  The goal here is just to help distribute information that may help you and your peers.