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
