Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
We were feeling 20s early on Monday, October 8 and it meant the coldest temperatures since April had come true as forecast. At this point we had to accept our flowers and vegetable gardens were no more. On the turf-side, the grass is still green (or maybe a purple-green) but its use has also tapered - cool temperatures and shortened daylength naturally slows the game of golf, but not greens! We saw the fewest numbers of golfers playing the game in a season that otherwise had a lot (a warm, long lasting, dry season was 2012). Still, we don't quite want to accept it, the end of a growing season. Some even continued a tendency of going outdoors unprepared (from experience...my light jacket thing).
Meanwhile, some good news this week. The landscape did pick up some needed rain, but the bad news is that it still wasn't near enough in a season who's current total is half of normal. And so irrigation and necessary handwatering were still required in an otherwise low water demand period for turf. And golf courses still saw other activity. They saw numerous projects either finished or in their final stretch prior to winter. They saw more tree leaves had senesced, now finding a place among the blades of grass, streams of water, lakes and paths. They saw a golden glow of shagbark hickory, honeylocust, green ash, basswood, elm and maples begin their orange. They saw a most beautiful sky. They saw an exclamation mark in the landscape, the peak purple-red leaf color of white ashes. Man oh man, fall in Illinois is sure nice.
Click here to view the October 12, 2012 Scouting Report.
Enjoy your weekend and those fantastic fall colors.
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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