By Pam Charbonneau,
OMAFRA Turfgrass Specialist
At this point in the year we are roughly in the middle of a typical Canadian winter. How the weather will ultimately affect the turf this spring is not yet known. Based on the weather that we have had so far, we can make some predictions. In most areas now, we have had snow cover for two months. This will provide ideal conditions for pink snow mould. If the snow cover persists for another month, conditions will be ideal for the development of grey snow mould. What happens to the snow over the next month will determine the severity of grey snow mould in Ontario.
Snow cover also has an impact on voles. These rodents are vegetarians. They are heavily preyed upon in the spring, summer and fall by birds. During the winter they can forage on grass under the snow without the threat of attack from birds. They will eat the grass down to the crowns forming interconnected runways under the snow. The longer the period of snow cover, the longer the safe period of feeding, and hence the greater the damage caused by voles. With the length of snow cover so far this winter, suffice it to say there is a good chance we will see a lot of vole damage come spring.
Another question on people’s minds during the winter is the survival of turf pests such as grubs. Luckily, European chafer grubs were not nearly as much of a problem last fall as they have been in the preceding years. The snow cover does insulate the soil from the very low air temperatures that we can experience during the winter. Generally, the grubs do move below the frost line in winter, but with snow cover they may remain higher up at the 5-10 cm depth. The moderation of the soil temperature by snow cover may increase the winter survival of grubs. This is probably true for other insects that overwinter in Ontario such as hairy chinch bugs.
There is one piece of new information about European crane fly larvae (leatherjackets) I would like to share with you. In the text books on turf insect pests, they talk about poor winter survival of leatherjackets in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. I thought that the poor winter survival was because of cold temperatures. During a conversation with Dr. Linda Gilkeson from British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, she informed me that the poor winter survival was because they get eaten by birds. Here in Ontario where we have snow cover during the majority of the winter, the leatherjackets would not be eaten by birds. Her opinion was that they would survive quite well in Ontario over the winter.
A bit of news from the Guelph Turfgrass Institute – the University of Guelph advertised for a new turf faculty position in the fall of 2000. They have short-listed two candidates who will be going through the interview process in late February, 2001. The hope is to have a new turf faculty member starting in July, 2002. This new turf faculty member would take over the teaching and research responsibilities that were previously filled by Dr. Jack Eggens.
