SportsTurf

February 2015

SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/448298

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 33 of 51

34 SportsTurf | February 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com M y earliest memories from child- hood are working with my father on his mushroom farm in Avondale, PA. We grew the "white button" mushroom, and today Pennsylvania remains the leading pro- ducer of edible mushrooms in the USA. I was always fascinated with the biology of those fungi, and years later I am still investigating mushrooms in the form of the fairy ring complex in turf. Fairy ring symptoms are the most commonly seen disease disorders of turfgrasses worldwide. Fairy ring is not caused by dancing fairies or woodland elves, but is attributed to more than 60 species of basidiomycete (or mushroom) fungi. Fairy ring occurs on golf course turf, athletic fields and pitches, and lawns and landscapes. Fairy ring can occur on all turfgrass species, all climates, all times of the year, and under any and all turf management programs. These basidiomycetes are wood decaying fungi, typically seeking lignin of tree roots, but lignin and organic matter found in turf- grass thatch and within the turf rootzone is on their menu as well. Fairy ring is a curious oddity of nature, but to the turf practitioner it can be a persistent scourge of turf loss and a disruption of turf qual- ity and function. Seeing mushrooms during a walk in the forest is a thing of beauty, but seeing mushrooms and dead, necrotic turf on your morning turf inspection is not. Biology of fairy ring Fairy ring symptoms are classified as Type I, II and III, based on the visual appearance of the affected turf. These symptoms can occur in circles, rings or arcs, because the fungus grows radially from its point of origin in the thatch or soil. Type I is necrotic, dead turf. Type II is dark green, stimulated and lush growing turf. Type III is the appearance of basidiocarps or mushrooms. These three symptoms can occur alone or in pairs or all three at the same spot. The fairy ring fungus does not directly infect turfgrass plants and cause leaf lesions and blights like other pathogens such asRhizoctonia sp. As the fairy ring fungus colonizes turfgrass thatch and rootzone areas, its mycelium and other substances coat sand and soil particles which can cause severe hydrophobicity or soil water repellency. Thus, turf loss is due in part to wilt simply because the roots can't all you need to know aBout fairy ring ■ By Dr. Mike FiDanza Fairy ring is not caused by dancing fairies or woodland elves, but is attributed to more than 60 species of basidiomycete (or mushroom) fungi. Classic example of necrotic turf loss (Type I) with appearance of a basidiocarp (mushroom). Field Science

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of SportsTurf - February 2015