Although September is here, the summer has not ended. With tempertures in the mid 90's we are still in summer maintenance mode of the grass courts. Heat and drought stress are still problems and not just to the grass. Many of the trees and shrubs around the property are still suffering. Disease pressure is also an issue. Dollar spot and Summer patch fungi are very willing to kill much of our grass if we let them - so our fungicide preventative program continues. Pictured is some summer patch with chlorosis of the grass leaves.

John Kaminski, turf pathologist at Penn State wrote this recently - As for summer patch (which I have been getting a lot of calls about), we are seeing breakthrough of even the best fungicide programs for summer patch this year. Resistance is not an issue with this disease. It is just that the extreme environmental conditions have proven just too much in situations where the disease is chronic or extremely severe.

Our case is not chronic or extremely severe but we do keep a watchful eye on it.

Below is the crew syringing the courts between the 85 and 90 championship matches. As always the water is carefully applied to maintain the delicate balance between having firm courts and healthy turf.