Thursday, January 31, 2019

Trichoderma for Disease Control in Zoysia Turf



Disease control in turf can be a tricky process and is often commenced well before the disease appears or is expected to arrive – on a seasonal basis, as is often the situation.

That might be okay for major sport areas – from golf and bowling greens to major sport stadia and similar larger venues.  But what about the backyard lawn?   Or the neighbourhood oval?

Cost and lack of information often mean these types of programs never are used.  It also often means no disease management occurs at all with resulting significant loss of amenity, and significant remedial cost – after the disease event.

There are other options that might be worth considering.

A recent paper on disease issues in high quality new turf ovals using zoysia has highlighted a role for root colonizing fungi that can elicit a plant immune response in the roots and may have significant potential for bio-control of a few different turf diseases.

The concept is not a “flash in the pan” radical new idea at all and has been investigated and researched for some years.  There are commercial materials now sold that even use the materials and so they can be bought commercially in some countries, including Australia. Details available on request.

One advantage they have is that the “good” fungal material can be applied once disease is noticed [also used before if required] and that it can develop and spread and be active in the soil in effect becoming a possible long term solution to the suppression of turf diseases by effectively moving the balance back towards a positive fungal colony in the soil, not a disease causing collection of fungal species – these are suppressed.

I thought the recent scientific paper based on work on Zoysia japonica turf in Guangzhou [ southern China] to be most interesting even if conducted in a greenhouse.

The pathogenic fungi [ which included a range of known disease vectors] were all significantly inhibited by an isolate of Trichoderma viride and this organism had positive effects on zoysia turf growth.

The reference is: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening Volume 37, January 2019, Pages 168-172
Root zone mixture affects the population of root-invading fungi in zoysia grass - by Tianzeng Liu, Jialing Li and Juming Zhang from -

College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510642, China Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Grassland Science, China

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Is Turf Still Relevant ?

A brief article in the December edition of Scientific American by a scientist from the University of WA here in Australia makes the case for abandoning the use of turf / lawn in urban areas, arguing it is too intensive in its use of almost everything in resources, although there are some benefits.

Is this really the case for many modern varieties of warm season turf lines?


We like to think that zoysia does not fit many of the criteria used to knock the use of turf in modern gardens in urban areas.


It does not require a lot of mowing nor does it require much in the way of nitrogen fertiliser, and as well, it is also relatively light on irrigation demand in dry periods.  Yes, it does semi shut down when moisture stressed, but zoysia turf can thrive on much less resources than many other warm season turf species.


Should it be included in the hit list proposed in the article?


I would submit NO.

Read the article and come to your own conclusions.  Scientific American December 2018.



Monday, January 21, 2019

A hottie and will there be more?

Last week was the hottest night ever in Australia.

Maybe not in Darwin........but see the site and ponder.

Would you like a 35.6C night?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-18/hottest-night-on-record-noona/10725886

One relevant item is that zoysia turf does handle hot weather very well.  And it requires less water to grow.

Please consider!