Management practices

• Use acidifying fertilisers.
• Apply moderate to high levels of phosphorous, potassium and minor elements where these nutrients are depleted from the soil.
• Improve drainage of turf.
• When liming apply the coarsest grades of lime to avoid rapid changes in pH.
• Removal of diseases patches and resodding where small areas are affected.
• Preventative systemic fungicide applications.

Fungicidal control

At present there are no Syngenta fungicides with label recommendation for control of take all patch in turf.

TAKE-ALL PATCH

Causal Agent

Susceptible Turfgrass

Symptoms 

• Small, light brown dead patches appear on turf.
• Established patches continually spread.
• Stressed grass appears bronze to reddish brown and then fades to a dull brown.
• During winter affected patches turn grey.
• In pure Bentgrass stands circular dead spots occur.
• Patches may enlarge (up to 15 cm a year) to reach diameter of 1 m or more or may appear briefly and then cease to spread.
• Affected patches do not usually heal rapidly and the centres are invaded/ colonised by Fesuce and weeds.
• Stolons, rhizomes, roots and bases of shoots become dark brown to black before they are killed.
• Less severely infected tissues often bear dark strands of mycelium oriented primarily parallel to the root axis.

Conditions Favouring Disease

• Severe during cool, wet years and in poorly drained turf.
• Greatly enhanced on turfgrasses grown in soils with high pH.
• Increasing acidity tends to suppress this disease.
• Soil conditions favouring the disease include, light texture, low organic content, low or unbalance fertility, soil pH above 5.5. 

General Comments 

• Take-All Patch predominately affects newly sown bentgrass golf greens
• In mixed stands, the bentgrass appears yellow-brown to brown, leaving a thinned overall stand dominated by wintergrass or fesuce.

Distribution