Message Board - Bowls: puzzled

Can anybidy help me with attached pictures of patches that have appeared on green it has been sprayed for fusarium and had full end if seaon work done theses patches started appearing just before xmas and are starting to spread any help appreciated

Fireworks! See the little black balls within the patch? These are from fireworks and unless removed the patch will grow.

Those 'little black balls' look like soild or hollow tine holes to me.
The patch almost certainly looks like Fus. If you can confirm this, I would recommend a fungicide application.

AB

Are you blind AB?

Should have said 'grey' balls! There are two balls that I can see - one at the top of the patch and the other at 2 o clock of the right hand spike hole.

looks like Fusarium to me, not very active though some light orange dis-colouration @ at the base of the grass around the perimetre of the patch. I wouldn't be overly concerned but would recommend removing the dew, applying a liquid seaweed tonic and then a turf tonic granular mid/end Feb depending on weather conditions. 4:0:8 +4% Fe.
Also a brush reel on a Dennis would remove the conifer needles falling onto the green.

Regards

ste

Blind grassman?

Looks like fuz but isn't. See it every year on my outfield after bonfire night. All the reps say 'you've got fuz', I say 'no, I've got sulpherous balls'.

Plus Garry says they atarted appearing just before Christmas and are slowly spreading - too slow an action for Fuz but perfect description of damage from the balls that fall out of fireworks.

Good spot if correct Mackay, from a pic it had me fooled.
Have you ever thought of seeing a doc with your sulpherous balls !

I have though, often seen fus start and stop or develop slowly, especially in changing weather conditions.

Fireworks just before xmas? Early Nov or New Year maybe? The plot thickens..... Is Guy Fawkes involved?!

AB

My sulpherous balls really tick me off!

Damage to the grass seems to take a few weeks to appear after the event.

Anyone playing with gunpowder is guilty of treason and should be burned at the stake as far as I am concerned.

I wonder if you are not mistaking the supposed sulpherous balls for partial conifer seed or similar? The obvious conifer fronds indicate conifers are located nearby.... although with the recent winds, they could have blown in from the next county! The ball as you describe it at the top of the picture does look a little like a partial conifer seed cone.

As for the patch itself.... It does look a little like fuz but I am not convinced. If it was me I would be on my hands and knees with a magnifying hand-glass looking amongst and within the dead organic matter to check and see if there are any fruiting bodies.

I would also consider a light scarification with a springbok (wire) rake to get some air circulating around the infected area.

KB

Hopefully Gary will update us soon and put us out of our misery!

Thanks ti you all for your responses like a few of you i thought fuz but was thrown a bit by the black balls so taking your comments on board going to give areas a light scarifying and treat again with fungicide and hope it goes weather crap again here in blackburn. if anybody else got any other thoughts please add off to repair football pitches now

If it is fireworks than you need to pull the balls out of the soil by hand! Scarifying will just mash them up and leave the chemical behind. Have a poke about before you scarify.

Having fresh conifer bits on your grass is not good, the chemicals that leach out will surely have an adverse affect ,
Get them off the bowling green.

I would be happy to bet a years salary that the patch in question is not due to fireworks!

Trust me the patches are disease related andI would not be surpised if the patches have started to green up, since the patch is showing the first signs of recovery.

KB

Now you've upped the stakes! I can't match that bet or the wife would kill me!

You might be right (there, I said it!) but 'recovery' could be a different grass species which hasn't yet died.

Come on Garry, what are those grey balls? Conifer seeds or firework balls? I'm all a quiver!

I would say they are conifer seeds have cleared green and been on my hands and knees i am going to apply mascot rayzor as soon as weather conditions are right think there are too many patches for it to be fireworks here is another pucture after green been clerared if this helps you to decide

YES!

Garry,
Recovery is going to be slow this time of year. Yes, we have had some mild weather this past week, but it is going to turn cold in the next 24 hours and growth will stop again.

Both pictures are not showing fresh disease activity and grass is starting to recover. Why apply a fungicide unnecessarilly, that could potentally knock back your beneficial organisms that can combat against disease pathogens.

Why not spray a light application of Fe, which will assist in hardening the plant and lowering the pH in the surface area?

KB

I'm still upset!

I still think that it is Fusarium, hey ho!

ste

Pic of a typical frework/sulperous ball damaged area on the outfield. Can't show you one with the ball in situ as they've all been removed. You have to admit that at first glance it does look like disease damage.

Another one that managed to get on the square (despite the covering). Note the complete abscense of any live grass in the patch, though in a sandy rootzone with different grass composition it may be that the chemicals would have washed away quick enough to allow some recolonisation by rhizonomatic/stoloniferous species.

Andy, what do you use to cover your square?

Is it just plywood?

We have a big display in December and always end up with damage, was thinking about covering the square, depening on the cost of course!

Yes can see where your coming from but think it is fuzz now

Garry I think you're right - much to KB's pleasure! Second photo cleared it up pretty quick.

Neil - for the last four years we've used our old flat sheet covers and cover the whole thing plus outdoor nets (it's a lot of covers to store for 364 days of the year!). Previously we have used plastic visquine from a builders merchants but as it isn't that wide it takes ages to put down and needs pinning every few metres (for this we used roofing nails).

Around the firing zone (which is right in the middle of the north outfield) we just do what we can around the most damaging fireworks with ply-wood and old ad-boards, though there is always something that manages to burn the turf.

Mortars: One section of the fireworks being set-up (there were about five or six times this number).

Should have also said that we use a tractor trailed vac-sweeper to clear up with.

Where are you andy looks like a county ground

Sunny South Coast! Sussex CCC.

My new job is going to be very interesting preparing wkts with no covers to keep dry the club i am at is a open area i have 3 football pitches also cricket bowling green and 3 hard court tennis courts reason for no covers is that it is an open public area and covers would be wrecked square is roped off upto now noody been on it looks ok any hints on prep of wkts with no covers welcome andy

Get a bowdry, and take standing water off pitch/square. Will dry out quicker.

My number one suggestion is don't be in Lancashire without covers!

Number two would be to pray!

Bowdrys are ok for removing surface water but nothing is ever going to suck water out of a wet cricket soil.

Have a look at the Jetmarine covers. They are fibreglass and will withstand a fair bit of bother.

Or failing that, get a steel fabricators to rig you some up with 1" box section and a nice pitched roofing made out of corrugated iron sheets - that'll keep the vandals away - trouble is you'll need to put them on and off either with a tractor or half a cricket team.

If you're ever on the Fylde coast take a look at the covers at South Shore CC - I used to have a set just like them and they are literally bomb proof.

Other than that - I'd look to leave some grass on if the weather is expected to be wet, don't over-roll and perhaps consider having a wet weather deck on the edge of the square which can be your sacrificial lamb for those days when the rest of the square would get trashed. Unfortunately though you simply won't get good decks with any sort of consistency without covers in the rainy north west.

What loam are you on? I wouldn't advocate changing loams neccesarily, but if you lucky enough to be on a lighter loam like Kettering, Mendip, GOSTD 75 or Boughton club or some such, don't ever be tempted to use a heavier loam to increase pace.