Baseball spring training is in full swing, which for me always signifies the beginning of the growing season. Sure, it might still feel like winter out there, and I wouldn't put away the snow shovel just yet, but it's time to begin preparing for the summer ahead.

I see a lot of parallels between baseball and turf management. For one, it's a long season, and all of the little things you do now (whether working in the batting cage or applying a pre-emergence herbicide) will pay dividends later in the year. To take it a step further, you could look at a turf manager as the batter and Mother Nature as the pitcher with a vast repertoire of pitches like brown patch, Pythium, grubs, weeds, and many others.

And Mother Nature can throw a nasty curveball.

There's no question that our weather conditions are becoming more extreme and difficult to predict. Mother Nature has thrown us some nasty curveballs over the last few years, from hot to cold and wet to dry in every combination. This is making it much more difficult to time our product applications and other management practices for optimal performance. While in a "normal" year, June 1 might be the best time for a given application, in a given year the best time might be anywhere between April and July.

The key to hitting a curveball is being able to see it coming as early as possible, and it's exactly the same for managing turfgrass pests.

Most weeds, insects, and diseases are simple organisms that are driven by temperature and/or moisture. For example, we all know that crabgrass seed can germinate when soil temperatures reach about 60°F. Similarly, the brown patch pathogen becomes active when night temperatures exceed 60°F, and the summer patch pathogen begins to infect and kill roots when soil temperatures are consistently above 65°F. If you get to know your turf pests and the conditions that trigger their activity, you'll be able to accurately time your product applications even in the face of erratic weather patterns.

One tool that can help you track and predict pest activity is Syngenta's GreenCast website www.greencastonline.com/default.asp. From the home page, select Agronomic Tools, where you will find Pest Outlook Maps for several major turf pests in addition to soil temperature maps (current and 5-day forecasts) and detailed weather conditions and forecasts. You can also register on the site to create a customized weather and pest outlook profile. Under Reference Library, there is a wealth of information on turf and ornamental pests in a variety of formats. If you're looking for a product to control a particular pest, go to Product List, where you can narrow the list of Syngenta products by market, pest, and state. I encourage everyone to take advantage of these resources to help them hit Mother Nature's curveballs "on the screws" more consistently.

Now, back to the batting cage...