Integrated Management of Dollar Spot Disease of Creeping Bentgrass Using Soil Conditioners
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Integrated Management of Dollar Spot Disease of Creeping Bentgrass Using Soil Conditioners by Eslin Duygu Oztur A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Plant Agriculture Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Eslin Duygu Oztur, December, 2020 ABSTRACT INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF DOLLAR SPOT DISEASE OF CREEPING BENTGRASS USING SOIL CONDITIONERS Eslin Duygu Oztur Advisor: University of Guelph, 2020 Dr. Katerina Serlemitsos Jordan Dollar spot, caused by the fungus Clarireedia jacksonii, can lead to considerable damage to creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) on golf course greens. This one-year study assessed management strategies that integrated soil conditioners (fish emulsion, fish hydrolysate, worm castings, and spent mushroom compost) with a rolling treatment to reduce dollar spot severity. None of the soil conditioners reduced dollar spot in the greenhouse or field studies, nor was there any improvement in turf color, clippings, root dry weight or tissue N content. The rolling treatment had a significant effect on turf color and reduced dollar spot severity at one location and only when disease pressure was high. The results indicated that the use of soil conditioners would not be a recommended practice for dollar spot when disease pressure is high but rolling could be included as a management practice to suppress dollar spot. DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my beloved mother Aysegul Kivanc, whose profound love, support and encouragement made it possible for me to complete this work. I admire the effort and sacrifice you made for my career in supporting my study abroad. You gave me the strength to make it through another day. Without you and your support, I would not have had the perseverance I needed to achieve this challenge. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to everyone who supported me during my tough times here in Canada. Firstly, I’d like to thank my advisor Katerina Serlemitsos Jordan who accepted me as a Master’s student and gave me this opportunity to pursue my dreams in Plant Pathology. Her teaching style and immense knowledge of plant pathology made a strong impression on me and I move forward carrying positive memories with me. Her guidance helped me throughout my research and writing process of this thesis. I would like to again express my profound gratitude to my advisor that her door was always open to me whenever I ran into trouble as a self-funded student. Special thanks to John Watson for his invaluable assistance in the field, advising me on calculations and data collection during the experiment stage of my study. His guidance, recommendations and comments during the study are whole-heartedly appreciated as he enabled me to learn the ropes of scientific research. I am also appreciative of his patience. I am also grateful to all of my lab group with whom I had pleasure to work; Karen Francisco, Vighnesh Sukhu, Conor Russell and Clyde Yan. I would also like to thank my committee members, Eric Lyons and Cheryl Trueman for their valuable guidance and input for this project. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Michelle Edwards who helped me to understand statistics during my study and I could not have done the analyses without her assistance. I would also like to thank Dr. Tevfik Inan for his endless patience to support me through the compilation process of my thesis Lastly, very special thanks to my family; my mom, my dad, my grandma and my aunt for their total support through video calls all days and nights. Even though we were so far away from each other, you were always close to my heart. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 İçindekiler ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... x LIST OF ABBREVATIONS AND ACRONYMS ........................................................... xiii LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................... xiv 1 Review of Literature.................................................................................................1 1.1 General Introduction.........................................................................................1 1.2 Importance of the Turfgrass Industry ..............................................................3 1.3 Creeping Bentgrass .........................................................................................4 1.4 Dollar Spot Disease .........................................................................................4 1.4.1 Biology of Dollar Spot Pathogen ..............................................................5 1.4.2 Epidemiology and Disease Cycle .............................................................7 1.5 Symptomology of Dollar Spot ..........................................................................8 1.6 Management of Dollar Spot .............................................................................9 1.6.1 Host Resistance ........................................................................................9 1.6.2 Chemical Control ......................................................................................9 1.6.3 Cultural Control .......................................................................................11 1.6.4 Biological Control ....................................................................................15 1.7 Organic Fertilizers and Soil Conditioners ......................................................18 1.8 The Effect of Soil Quality and Health on Disease Suppression ...................24 1.9 Project Rationale ............................................................................................27 1.10 Research Hypothesis and Objectives ...........................................................29 v 2 Materials and Methods ..........................................................................................30 2.1 Greenhouse Studies ......................................................................................30 2.1.1 Preparation and Growth Conditions of Plants Materials........................30 2.1.2 Experimental Design...............................................................................32 2.1.3 Preparation and Application of Soil Conditioners ..................................32 2.1.4 Fungicide Application..............................................................................37 2.1.5 Pathogen Inoculum Preparation .............................................................37 2.1.6 Inoculation Protocol ................................................................................38 2.1.7 Data Collection........................................................................................40 2.1.8 Statistical Analyses .................................................................................42 2.2 Field Studies ...................................................................................................43 2.2.1 Site Descriptions .....................................................................................43 2.2.2 Preparation and Application of Soil Conditioners ..................................43 3 Results ...................................................................................................................50 3.1 Greenhouse Study 1 ......................................................................................50 3.1.1 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatments on Dollar Spot Severity ....50 3.1.2 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatment on AUDPC ..........................52 3.1.3 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatments on Turf Color ....................52 3.1.4 The Effects of Soil Conditioners on Root Dry Weight ............................55 3.1.5 The Effects of Soil Conditioners on Clipping Yield ................................57 3.1.6 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatments on Tissue Nitrogen Concentration of Creeping Bentgrass ...................................................................58 3.2 Greenhouse Study 2 ......................................................................................60 3.2.1 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatments on Dollar Spot Severity ....60 3.2.2 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatments on AUDPC ........................63 3.2.3 The Effect of Soil Conditioner Treatments on Turf Color ......................64 3.2.4 The Effects of Soil Conditioners on Root Dry Weight ............................66 vi 3.2.5 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatments on Clipping Yield ..............68 3.2.6 The Effects of Soil Conditioner Treatments on Tissue Nitrogen Concentration of Creeping Bentgrass ...................................................................69 3.3 Field Study 1 ..................................................................................................71 3.3.1 GRS 1 (Guelph Research