{"id":359,"date":"2019-06-12T09:24:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T13:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/?p=359"},"modified":"2019-06-12T09:24:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T13:24:14","slug":"turfgrass-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/2019\/06\/turfgrass-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Turfgrass Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turfgrass Blog: 2019 Edition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clint Waltz, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Georgia Turfgrass Specialist<\/strong><\/p>\n

June 10, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the recent dry weather encouraging the use, and possible overuse, of irrigation systems then the recent tropical conditions \u2013 rainfall and humidity \u2013 I have had several pictures and questions about a jelly-like substance growing in the turf.\u00a0 The jelly-like “stuff” is a Nostoc<\/em> algae,<\/em> a genus of cyanobacterium formerly classified as blue-green algae. \u00a0It has multiple common names like star jelly, witch\u2019s butter, and others. \u00a0Under warm temperatures Nostoc<\/em> may appear suddenly in lawns, and other turf areas, following a period of rain and can be an indication of overwatering. \u00a0In turf, it is generally on a site where the grass is growing poorly due to severe compaction, overwatering, or both. \u00a0It does not cause turf decline or death; it colonizes areas where it has favorable growing conditions and the grass was already thin. \u00a0Poor drainage and compacted soils create a favorable environment for Nostoc<\/em>.\u00a0 It will dry-out if the water or rainfall diminishes but it has only gone into dormancy.\u00a0 With enough moisture, it will come back to \u201clife\u201d.<\/p>\n

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In its hydrated, gelatinous, green state it can be a safety hazard.\u00a0 It is slippery.\u00a0 Be careful walking on it.\u00a0 However, when it dries-out it can become restrictive to turfgrass growth.\u00a0 Nostoc<\/em> dries into a black crust that can prevent stolons from rooting, or \u201ctacking\u201d, into the soil, delaying turfgrass growth and spread.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nostoc<\/em> can be difficult to control.\u00a0 To discourage its growth, encourage the growth of the grass.\u00a0 Algae is less of an issue with an actively growing turfgrass canopy.\u00a0 The first step is to check the irrigation system to make sure it is watering properly (i.e. not too regular or too much).\u00a0 The turfgrass species we grow in Georgia perform better when grown on the slightly dry side, so scaling back the irrigation and adjusting the irrigation schedule will benefit the grass and can discourage the algae.<\/p>\n

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Improve internal soil and surface drainage. \u00a0Core aeration opens the soil, allows oxygen into the root system, and reduces compaction.\u00a0 While allowing the soil surface to dry-out then breaking up the Nostoc \u201ccrust\u201d by scarifying the upper \u00bc- to \u00bd-inch can break the algae into pieces and encourage its spread, it also permits the turfgrass stolons to root into thin areas and outcompete the Nostoc<\/em>.\u00a0 With proper irrigation and core aerification the grass can cover and eventually predominate the area where the Nostoc<\/em> was present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turfgrass Blog: 2019 Edition Clint Waltz, Ph.D. University of Georgia Turfgrass Specialist June 10, 2019   With the recent dry weather encouraging the use, and possible overuse, of irrigation systems then the recent tropical conditions \u2013 rainfall and humidity \u2013 I have had several pictures and questions about a jelly-like substance growing in the turf.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/benhillcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}