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Growing Toro fleet for HHA

June 18, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

Growing Toro fleet for HHA: Owing to gradual business expansion, HHA Grounds Maintenance in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, has grown its Toro fleet with the addition of the LT-F3000 Triple Flail Mower and the GrandStand stand-on. The family-run business, which is celebrating 10 years of service, is responsible for grounds maintenance for a number of schools and […]

Turf diseases to be aware of

June 18, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Becky Nelmes

Turf diseases to be aware of: Summer is here and with it are several turf diseases to be aware of. Here’s a guide to dealing with a few of them. Anthracnose is a stress disease, so combining any 2 or 3 of several potential stresses can encourage the disease. Common stresses include lowering of height […]

Growing Toro fleet for HHA

June 18, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

Turf diseases to be aware of

June 18, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Becky Nelmes

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Growing Toro fleet for HHA

June 18, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Rosie Duckworth

Growing Toro fleet for HHA: Owing to gradual business expansion, HHA Grounds Maintenance in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, has grown its Toro fleet with the addition of the LT-F3000 Triple Flail Mower and the GrandStand stand-on.

The family-run business, which is celebrating 10 years of service, is responsible for grounds maintenance for a number of schools and parish councils in the East of England.

Growing Toro fleet for HHA

Owner, Harvey Hart, had encountered Toro Groundscare machines before and at a pivotal moment in the expansion of the business opted to boost the fleet with quality products they could trust.

Harvey comments: “With three two-man teams in operation daily between March and October, we needed a robust range of machinery which could cater for the variety of jobs we encounter.”

With lawns, playparks, schools, business sites and graveyards to maintain, HHA needed different machines to negotiate both urban and rural sites and varying terrains. With busy rotas and a growing client list, quality and longevity became key factors in deciding what machinery to add to the fleet.

Harvey continues: “We have two Toro Z-Master Zero-Turn mowers which we got over eight years ago and they remain in excellent working condition. As the business grew, we decided to add to the fleet with a Triple Flail mower and a GrandStand stand-on machine.

“Both are fantastic, but we are especially pleased with the GrandStand which is compact, nimble and can get into places that the sit-on can’t. As with all Toro mowers the cut is beautiful. Our clients are always thrilled with the finish.

“You can’t fault the Toro machines. They are absolute workhorses that just run and run if you look after them. We get minimal issues and we take good care of them. They pay for themselves, especially when you think that some of our Toro’s have been operating almost as long as our business!”

This was the first time that HHA had bought machines directly from Reesink Turfcare East Anglia branch, which Harvey cites as being ‘fantastic’. Having been impressed by the customer service he also signed up to a maintenance contract to offer ultimate peace of mind in the eventuality the machines required any aftercare.

Alastair Rowell, UK sales manager for turfcare equipment at Reesink Turfcare, comments: “It’s wonderful to work alongside businesses like HHA and help them grow their fleets. Their teams are getting increasingly busier with further expansion on the cards, so it’s important that they are supported with the right tools for the job.”

Speaking of the future, Harvey concludes: “Our potential is vast and to have a range of premium mowers along with the support of a leading brand like Toro is integral to us.”

Reesink Turfcare is the exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland for Toro groundscare machinery. For further information on the range call 01480 226800, email info@reesinkturfcare.co.uk, or visit reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Turf diseases to be aware of

June 18, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Becky Nelmes

Turf diseases to be aware of: Summer is here and with it are several turf diseases to be aware of. Here’s a guide to dealing with a few of them.

Anthracnose is a stress disease, so combining any 2 or 3 of several potential stresses can encourage the disease. Common stresses include lowering of height of cut, low N inputs, heat, extremes of soil moisture, high thatch, aggressive verticutting, high wear, etc.

Turf diseases to be aware of

Symptoms within a sward are patches of irregular, yellow/brown/bronze-coloured patches and a loss of turf density. Foliar blight-affected leaves lose colour to become a yellow colour and black spots containing fruiting bodies (acervuli) can be seen on the leaves.

The three biggest factors in anthracnose development are mowing height, deficiencies of N or K (mainly N) and poor control over soil moisture. Avoid these three and your chances of avoiding anthracnose are greatly increased. Keep green speeds up by applying slow-release N to maintain turf health without excess growth. I recommend high potassium liquids in nearly all my golf green recommendations throughout summer to help keep anthracnose at bay as higher levels of K in the leaf reduce anthracnose. It’s also a good idea to add in phosphite and salicylic acid with your foliar mixes. Both work in a similar fashion by ‘tricking’ the plant into thinking it’s under attack from a pathogen and increasing its defences.

Consistent moisture levels across the whole surface are important in preventing Localised Dry Spots and anthracnose, so use of a soil moisture meter and hand watering is crucial. Maintain a good wetting agent programme to maintain consistent soil moisture across your site.

Take-All Patch affects golf greens and you probably won’t see symptoms until later in the summer, but you can prevent it now. For those on Take-All prone sites: get a good programme of biostimulants in place employing seaweeds, amino acids and humic acids.

Light straw-coloured circular patches become visible that have a well-defined edge between healthy and infected turf. They may have a bronze tinge around the edge when the disease is active. These may be slightly depressed and contain unaffected species or weeds in the centre

Low soil manganese levels are often associated with this disease as the pathogen oxidizes available Mn²⁺to Mn³⁺or Mn⁴⁺, making it unavailable to the plant; extra manganese inputs have been shown to be effective in reducing symptoms. High pH soils are also more vulnerable.

On sites who traditionally suffer badly, two applications of azoxystrobin 2 weeks apart in early summer, and then again in late August will help. Combine applications of azoxystrobin with a wetting agent to get the active ingredient down into the soil where it’s needed.

Be aware of Waitea Patch during a hot spell. Hydrophobic layers are a factor with this disease, therefore moisture and thatch management are key. With modern moisture meters you can really track soil moisture levels very accurately and watch the VMC% drop and then treating with a hand water and surfactant hose end pellets to keep moisture consistent.

With a Poa annua sward, turf shows symptoms of coalescing yellow rings around 20-40cm in diameter. There is often (but not always) darker green turf in the centre of the ring. The disease affects the leaves, stem, crown and upper roots and if it gets to advanced stages will turn leaves a brown/red colour and kill plants. Very similar in appearance to Superficial Fairy Rings, but Waitea does not have the mushroom smell or mycelium below the surface associated with Superficial Fairy Rings. Waitea Patch can develop mycelium on the leaves, crown and soil surface, but not sub-surface.

The big difference between Waitea and Superficial Fairy Ring is smell: fairy rings give off a distinct mushroom smell when you take out a core and have good sniff. Waitea Patch does not smell anywhere close as strong of mushrooms, if at all. Mycelium can develop on the surface with Waitea Patch, but below the surface with Superficial Fairy Rings and is usually reasonably easy to spot with Fairy Rings (take a core and put it into a ziplocked, soil sampling bag to incubate for 24 hours to see where mycelium develops if uncertain).

Superficial Fairy Ring always have some element of hydrophobic soil associated with them – Waitea CAN have hydrophobic soil too, but it will be likely be completely unrelated to the disease.

With Waitea Patch you need to try to reduce surface moisture (i.e. don’t hand water it!) and with Superficial Fairy Rings you’ll need to break that hydrophobicity with a wetter and get moisture back into the soil (i.e. hand water it with a hose and wetting agent pellet!).

Geoff Fenn BSc (Hons)

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Growing Toro fleet for HHA

Turf diseases to be aware of

Growing Toro fleet for HHA

Turf diseases to be aware of

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Growing Toro fleet for HHA

Growing Toro fleet for HHA: Owing to gradual business expansion, HHA Grounds Maintenance in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, has grown its Toro fleet with the addition of the LT-F3000 Triple Flail Mower and the GrandStand stand-on.

Turf diseases to be aware of

Turf diseases to be aware of: Summer is here and with it are several turf diseases to be aware of. Here’s a guide to dealing with a few of them.

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