Pink Snow mold

You wouldn't normally think of winter months being a high-stress time period for the turfgrass by way of diseases, and for the most part, you'd be right. While most pathogens use heat and humidity to infect the turf, snow molds play by a different set of rules. Pink snow mold or (Fusarium patch) pictured, favors cold and wet conditions to wreak its havoc and does not require snow cover to be active. On the other hand, Gray Snow Mold, or (Typhula Blight), does require snow cover to cause symptoms and is most severe when snow cover lasts 90 days or more. Because of the weather fluctuations we have here in Colorado during winter months, the golf course is rarely closed due to snow cover for more than a month. Due to these temperate inconsistencies, it's not cost effective to treat the entire golf course with a fungicide application to ward off these pests. To get us through our 'Pink Snow Mold season', an application of Banner MAXX was made to all 30 greens at a rate of 2 ounces per thousand square feet, or 2oz/m, the second week of October. This application will protect the plant from Pink Snow Mold until a second application can be made around Thanksgiving. This second fungicide application will be a more compound chemistry to protect the plant from both molds for a much longer time period in case the winter weather continues to throw us curve balls.