Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Midweek, a light frost on Chicago's blades of turf. I would take a look at my weather archives only to discover we hadn't been that cold since the 3rd week of May. So now the growing season works in reverse as we lose daylength by about 3 minutes a day - it all happens too quickly. To be clear we had wished for our first fall day of September 22nd months ago. For most (those in the growing season trenches of 2012) that wish was about mid-July when extreme weather events had brought us to our knees both mentally and physically. Olympics weren't just on TV because we were living it! It was record pace stuff - an early greenup in March segwayed into extreme summer drought/heat and later meterologists would report clocking the hottest summer month ever in the United States. If you ask some they will say we were just fine.
Actually we had begun to panic, but of course we can never publicly say so. Nevertheless by about late summer (regardless of year) both human beings and plants seem to say, "What summer?" Our human mind is forgetful and plants in the landscape are just amazingly resilient. Still we should know otherwise - the watchful superintendent continues to monitor and report surface water levels are still quite low. But alas we are now well progressed into our end of season project phase. In a week a certain camera was focused less on being a scout in the name of integrated pest management (IPM). Click would follow the hum of engines that propell heavy equipment to rennovate areas. Click would follow the silent germination and emergence of turf. Yep, it's fall.
Click here to view the September 21, 2012 Scouting Report.
Enjoy your cool, with a dash of a little wet, weekend.
Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
(630) 685-2307
dsettle@cdga.org
Weather Blog
Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
(630) 685-2310
tsibicky@cdga.org
Research Blog
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