I am president of Georgina Lawn Bowling Club and our town currently does our greens. On the mornings that they aren't doing our green, we sometimes have dew on the green and we don't have members in our club who can comfortably wick the dew off the greens. A long term member advised me today that dew causes dollar spots and I can't find anything on the internet that supports what he has said. Does dew cause the dollar spots?
If our grant application is accepted, we are hoping to get a roller that will remove the dew.
In Florida, we sometimes use the large mats to remove moisture from the green. Do you know of any firm in Ontario where we can purchase the large mats? I understand that the firm where most clubs purchased their mats is no longer making them. If the wick is too hard on our members, is there anything else you could recommend to remove the dew?
Thanks for your time, we would appreciate your help.
Regards
Judy Anderson
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Hi Terry,
No, dew by itself doesn’t created dollar spots. Dollar spots is a disease that is in your soil. All it needs to hit the turf is high temperature with high humidity. When the temperature stays above 75 degrees during the night with high humidity and your green has not been treated for dollar spots, you will get them.
A couple of things you can do to help yourself is remove the thatch in your green and remove the dew in early morning before the sun has a chance to dry it off.
One way to check for dollar spots is when your green is covered with dew, walk the green and look for some cobweb-y small areas the size of a loonie. If you don’t remove the dew and you have some of these spots, in a couple of days you will see that the spots will have turned brown and you are stuck with dead turf for the rest of the season.
Dew removal is very important. That is why the golf courses do it every morning. At my club I have two people coming every morning that we don’t mow, to remove the dew starting in May until the end of the season. We use a broom that I made, I got 2 brooms 36 inches wide with soft bristles and screwed them together to form a 6 feet wide brush. We used to have a mat but the brush does a better job. Any way you take the dew off is good, but remember to remove thatch and remove the dew and you should be okay.
If I can be of any more help let me know.
Charles
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Hi Charles,
Thank you for your good advice, I will share the information with our team and see what we can do to get the green fixed up.
Regards
Judy