Tag Archive for: After

Anthracnose Risk After Summer Stress

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Anthracnose Risk After Summer Stress: After a summer of prolonged dry weather, grass plants have experienced extreme droughts, and greenkeepers are reminded to act now before disease onset this autumn.

Dr Colin Mumford, Bayer technical manager, explains that stressed turf is more likely to be affected by diseases such as Anthracnose, foliar blight and Anthracnose basal rot.

Anthracnose Risk After Summer Stress

“Grass swards are struggling to recover following this summer’s extreme weather conditions, making them more susceptible to disease. If weather conditions are cool and damp going forward you’ll be more likely to see disease outbreaks,” he says.

“Anthracnose is known as a low nitrogen disease so it’s essential to monitor plant nutrition regularly to keep your grass plant in the best condition. You can do this by looking at grass clippings when mowing greens or taking soil or tissue samples and applying correct nutrients if required.

“However, if conducive weather conditions prevail, I’d advise greenkeepers to treat turf preventatively to stop disease from establishing, using a dual action fungicide such as Dedicate (tebuconazole and trifloxystrobin).

“As well as helping to reduce the impact of scarring, treating turf preventatively will minimise the effect of Anthracnose, in turn leaving you with a healthier grass plant that’s able to withstand other disease stresses like Microdochium Patch,” says Colin.

Following the loss of iprodione, Colin recommends that greenkeepers use an integrated approach to combat disease. This should include both cultural and biological controls as well as fungicides if required.

For further information about preventative fungicides please visit www.environmentalscience.bayer.co.uk or contact the Turf Solutions Team on 00800 1214 9451, at turfsolutions@bayer.com

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Match Off After Pitch Vandalism

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Match Off After Pitch Vandalism: Ongoing damage at Putaruru’s Totara Park is angering the community and sparking fears public access could be restricted.

In the latest incident a vehicle damaged the football pitch so badly that the Rangers team had to cancel its final game of the season.

Manager Derek Roberts, who has been with the club since the 1960’s, said although not the first time vehicles have damaged the grounds, it was the worst he had seen.

South Waikato District Council parks and reserves manager Phil Parker said the damage was “frustrating”.

“Staff and contractors find this behaviour equally annoying as park users,” he said.

“Our staff and contractors work hard to maintain our parks, reserves and sports grounds for our community and to see them treated with such disrespect is very frustrating.”

Parker said prior to the latest incident the council’s contractor was due to begin the bi-annual turf renovation programme.

“This will continue, however, obviously, this part of the grounds will now require some additional work and effort,” he said.

He said the ongoing damage was costing ratepayers.

“Sadly this is not an isolated incident,” he said.

“There is a cost to ratepayers to repair this kind of damage which is unfortunate, but the greatest cost in this instance is that the Putaruru Rangers had to forfeit their last game of the season. That’s really disappointing.”

Parker said the council was disappointed that the actions of a few people were ruining things for the majority.

“Those responsible for this vandalism should be held to account. Unfortunately without eyewitnesses that is close to impossible,” he said.

“We would encourage anyone who knows anything to contact the council or the police.”

Senior Sergeant Jason Henderson said he wasn’t aware of any reports being made to police.

“We haven’t received any report as yet. That is quite often the thing, if we don’t know about it we can’t actually do anything about it,” he said.

“More often than not we find people don’t want to bug the police because we are already busy and all the rest of it but if there is a trend and it is annoying people then we need to know so we can look into it.”

Henderson said such incidents could lead to public access being restricted to such facilities.

“These people will end up ruining it for everyone,” he said.

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Arrests After Golf Course Vandalism

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Arrests After Golf Course Vandalism: Two men have been arrested and charged in relation to vandalism at a golf club in Oamaru.

The North Otago Golf Club was vandalised overnight on Saturday when a 4WD vehicle was driven over several of the club’s fairways and greens.

Sergeant Blair Corlet confirmed men, aged 25 and 22, had been charged with burglary, and unlawfully interfering with a motor vehicle.

The 25-year-old, the alleged driver of the 4WD, had also been charged with intentional damage.

Club secretary Julia Knight said security footage showed one person appearing to try break into the club’s green-fee box.

“Luckily our green-fee box is very well secured so they couldn’t get into that,” she said.

The footage then showed what appeared to be a man trying to unsuccessfully hotwire one of the golf buggies.

Knight said a 4WD could then be seen driving about the clubhouse side of the course.

“It’s a substantial mess,” she said.

“Then they got in their big 4WD and broke down one of the fences and got onto to the course.

“They ran over greens and snapped about four pins that are in the greens and knocked over about three or four signs.

“Then they demolished one of the sheds … and then they did donuts around the course and made a real mess. The ground’s very soft at the moment because of all the rain.

“They’ve probably driven over at least half the fairways on that side of the course. We’ve got 14 holes on that side and they actually went to the furthest point, which is where the shed was.”

Knight said the club only has one greenkeeper, and the rest of those who look after the grounds are volunteers. Pleasingly, she said the course was still usable.

“It’s very pleasing too that we’ve got good cameras and we picked the two guys up on the cameras.

“We’ve got our greenkeeper assessing the cost at the moment.”

Corlet said the men will appear in the Oamaru District Court next Wednesday.

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Club Devastated After Mower Theft

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Club ‘Devastated’ After Mower Theft: Nantwich Town FC have spoken of their devastation following the theft of thousands of pounds worth of groundsman’s equipment.

In a statement released by the club this afternoon (Wednesday) a spokesman said they were “sad to report” that the club was broken into overnight, with thousands of pounds worth of equipment being taken from the groundsman’s store.

This is the second time the club has been targeted in two years, the spokesman said, adding that some of the equipment had been donated by supporters.

They said: “Thieves broke into the ground and took a Ride on John Deere mower and one of our Haytor mowers plus other pieces of kit. Both pieces of equipment stolen were less than two years old. The Haytor mower was bought for the club by our supporters.”

Chairman Tony Davison said: “This is devastating news for the club. The equipment stolen was nearly brand new. Some of it had been donated by supporters which makes the theft even more upsetting.

“Running a club at this level is difficult enough at any time but events like this can put the whole future of the club at risk.

“We will have to launch and emergency fund raising initiative to replace the equipment and make sure we can look after the pitch to make sure it is ready for next season.”

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: “Police are investigating a burglary at a football club in Waterlode.

“Sometime between 10pm on 12 June and 8am the following morning thieves broke into the grounds of Nantwich Football Club and forced open a container stealing garden equipment including lawnmowers.

“Anyone with information should contact Cheshire Police on 101 quoting incident number IML 92102.

“Alternatively information can be given anonymously by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

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Contractor Fined After Wall Collapse

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Contractor Fined After Wall Collapse: A landscape contractor has been fined £20,000 plus costs after a worker was seriously injured injured when a retaining wall collapsed and trapped him underneath.

Contractor Fined After Wall Collapse

Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court heard that while he was excavating a trench in front of an existing blockwork wall, a section of the wall collapsed and fell on him trapping him underneath. He sustained a complex fracture to his pelvis which required surgery and he has not been able to return to work since the incident.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company failed to properly plan and manage the installation of the timber structure, and had not put sufficient control measures in place to prevent the collapse of the existing blockwork wall.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 19 (1) of The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1048.86 and a victim surcharge of £220.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Cain Mitchell said: “This case highlights the dangers of undermining a free-standing wall by excavating alongside the structure without appropriate planning and the necessary precautions in place.

“If the company had implemented reasonably practicable measures that minimised the risk to persons working next to such structures this incident could easily have been avoided.”

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