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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
IPM Enhancement Grants |
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Project Title:
IPM research-based recommendations for viral mosaic disease in turfgrass |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: FL Lead Organization: University of Florida |
| Undesignated Funding: $28,572 |
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Start Date: Mar-01-2015 End Date: Feb-29-2016 |
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No-Cost Extension Date: Feb-28-2017 |
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Pests Involved: sugarcane mosaic virus |
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Site/Commodity: turfgrass |
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Summary:
In September 2013, symptoms of viral mosaic and necrosis on St. Augustinegrass were reported by a lawn care professional from greater than 50 residential lawns within a 10 km radius of the Bayway Isles community in south St. Petersburg, FL (Pinellas Co.). According to the turfgrass manager and Arysta sales representative, St. Augustinegrass Floratam sod which had been purchased and installed in spring 2013, largely had died by September despite receiving three fungicide applications per residence in various rotations and combinations.
In 2014, the same pattern occurred in the same lawns as 2013, but symptoms were now observed in an estimated 450 lawnspotentially spreading on lawn mowers. Only Floratam lawns died; however, additional unknown genotypes found as contaminates in affected sod, or installed in the few non-Floratam lawns, were found to have the virus and less severe symptoms. As a result of Extension efforts to educate turfgrass managers and county extension faculty about the disease, it was also detected in four different locations (Boynton Beach, Jupiter, Wellington, W. Palm Beach,) in Palm Beach Co. The presence of Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV, Potyviridae) has been confirmed in necrotic plants by (ELISA or RT-PCR) from all samples tested in the 2013 and 2014 outbreaks (Harmon et al. 2014). The virus has been seen only rarely affecting St. Augustinegrass since it was discovered to affect the grass in the 1960s (Todd 1964). It has never caused this level of epidemic previously. Management options are limited and an IPM strategy needs to be developed to 1) discourage unnecessary pesticide use 2) encourage reestablishing lawns with less-susceptible cultivars or species of grass and 3) slow spread by using sanitizers on commercial mowing equipment. We propose to mechanically inoculate commercially-available cultivars of St. Augustinegrass with SCMV and to quantify host resistance. These data will help inform recommendations for alternative turf choices in affected lawns. We will make inoculations onto potted grass in a greenhouse at the University of Florida in Gainesville. We will procure the grass for testing from sod farms. We will also test commercial sanitizers on clippers used to cut affected grass for their effectiveness in preventing spread to healthy pots of St Augustinegrass. These data will help inform recommendations on products that can be used on mowers to help prevent spread of the virus between accounts. We will use these data to develop an Integrated Pest Management resource for viral diseases of lawns. This resource will be disseminated through Extension programming including an EDIS fact sheet, recommendations accompanying disease diagnoses delivered by the UF IFAS Plant Diagnostic Center, and through invited turf disease updates. The resources will be updated with additional data from ongoing and future research. The resource will increase awareness of the disease and will inform management decisions where the virus occurs, reducing economic and environmental impacts. Objectives: 1) Identify resistant cultivars of St. Augustinegrass to recommend: We propose to mechanically inoculate commercially available cultivars of St. Augustinegrass with SCMV in a greenhouse and quantify host resistance. We will replicate the treatments and use appropriate controls. Standard methods of mechanical inoculation of SCMV will be used and a severity rating scale will be developed. Inoculated cultivars will be assessed using the rating scale. Appropriate statistics will be use to assess differences between cultivars. These data will provide short term management recommendations to lawn care professionals and homeowners for which cultivars to select for replanting where a lawn has died from this disease. Medium-term outcomes will be a reduction in lawns that are resodded back to Floratam by homeowners and lawn care professionals after dying; only to die a second or third time from this disease. Long-term outcomes will be to increase profitability of pest control operator business by reducing unnecessary pesticide use and loss of business due to lawns dying from SCMV. 2) Determine if sanitizers can be used on mowers to prevent spread of the disease: We will test commercial sanitizers for their effectiveness in preventing spread of the virus. We will use clippers to cut infected grass, spray or dip the blades in sanitizer solutions to include bleach, alcohol, quaternary ammonium, and Lysol. Treatments and inoculation attempts after treatment will be replicated with appropriate no pathogen and no sanitizer controls for comparison. We will then cut healthy grass and record transmission. Appropriate statistics will be used to assess differences between treatments. These data will help inform recommendations on products that can be used on mowers between accounts to help prevent spread of the virus. Medium-term outcomes would be a change in behavior of lawn maintenance companies that included use of the effective sanitizers, and the long-term outcomes would be prevention of state- and region- wide spread of the virus and therefore economic and environmental impacts associated with turf loss. 3) Develop an IPM resource for viral disease management in turfgrass: The resource will include information on how to have a potential virus lawn problem diagnosed, what varieties of St. Augustinegrass are resistant and good options for regrassing lawns that die from this disease, and on how to use sanitation to prevent spread of the virus on mowers. The resource will be incorporated short term into an extension fact sheet and into diagnoses given to clientele of the UF IFAS Plant Diagnostic Center. Medium term outcomes of the resource will be to increase knowledge of citizens of Florida and the Southeast about potential impact and management options for SCMV in turfgrass. Long term outcomes will be a reduced spread of the disease, and impact where it does spread. |
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