The full site can be found at http://weather.headlandamenity.com/category/mark-hunts-weatherblog/
The devil is in the detail though because August’s high total figure hides 3 distinct GDD peaks (see below) that impacted on a number of scenario’s ;
- High Disease Pressure
- High Nematode Activity
- High Grass Growth (One of these over The U.K Bank Holiday)
Disease Pressure
A lot of Fusarium lingering around and with the heat of last week and then rain, it’s quite aggressive. Looking ahead to this week, I expect it to become even more so on the west side of the U.K and across Ireland because you’re getting the warmer air from the Atlantic. The tricky bit now is do you spray early with a systemic fungicide (normally I go late September over here in the U.K with a preventative systemic) or knock it back with a contact and keep your systemic powder dry, so to speak, for later in the month / early October ? Personally I’d favour the latter because we know the highest disease pressure historically occurs during October and at least the first part of November, so if you sprayed a systemic now, I’d expect its effect to be running out in the first week of October, follow that with another and you’re be sitting in early November wondering what systemic you can rotate into that will work when the soil temperature can still be quite high (remembering that the last week of October and first week of November has been traditionally warm / very warm over the last 4-5 years)
So a tricky call, personally I’d knock it back with a contact if you have heavy disease pressure and keep your powder dry, but equally you could go early and then factor in an extra app for early November. I’d also slip in some cool-temperature available N into that tankmix along with some iron to speed uptake duirng these cooler conditions and strengthen the grass plant at the same time.
