How to Protect Your Turf During the Summer Holiday Period

The Christmas and New Year period is one of the most challenging windows for turf managers. Disease pressure increases due to warmer, wetter and more humid conditions, while staffing often decreases and site monitoring becomes less frequent. Even venues that typically use minimal fungicides may consider targeted protection during this time.
This article explains why strobilurins especially azoxystrobin are ideal for the Christmas window, and how they can deliver reliable, long-lasting coverage when you need peace of mind the most.

Why Strobilurins Matter During the Christmas Window

Strobilurins are one of the most important fungicide families in turf management. Their preventative strength, broad spectrum and natural longevity make them foundational in annual programs often used first, with the rest of the program built around them.

Azoxystrobin stands out due to its ability to move acropetally. When applied to the soil, it enters through the roots and moves upward, protecting:

• Root tissues

• Crown tissues

• Newly developing foliage

This creates whole-plant protection, making it perfectly suited to a period when quick curative responses are harder to deliver. Unlike triazoles, strobilurins move slowly, which is beneficial when used before disease is active but can disappoint when used reactively. Their mode of action involves interrupting fungal energy production (ATP), progressively shutting down infection.

Understanding these chemistry behaviours mobility, solubility, speed and tissue binding is essential for using them effectively during high-risk, low-supervision period

Using Azoxystrobin Effectively Before the Holiday Break

A soil application of azoxystrobin several days before Christmas gives the plant time to absorb and distribute the fungicide through its vascular system, creating a stable internal reservoir.
This protects the turf through:

• The initial holiday period

• Fluctuating humidity and temperature

• Extended leaf wetness

• Post-rain disease pressure

• Reduced on-site monitoring

This strategy mirrors the model used in renovation programs: apply early, allow movement through the plant, and rely on the long duration of activity.

Because azoxystrobin binds strongly to plant tissues, its protection remains stable through the days where intervention is difficult. With La Niña bringing additional humidity and wet rootzones, this pre-holiday protection becomes even more critical to keeping surfaces healthy.

Why the Christmas / New Year Period Increases Disease Pressure

The Christmas / New Year window combines several risk factors:

• Warm, humid, storm-prone weather

• Long periods of leaf wetness

• Smaller teams and reduced monitoring

• Increased disease pressure from foliar fungi

• Root and crown stress following early-summer weather

This is why this period is widely acknowledged as one of the strongest logical placements for strobilurin chemistry in a yearly program. Even for community fields, a single well-timed application can prevent early-January decline and unnecessary recovery work later.

The principle is simple: apply before issues appear, let the chemistry move internally, and rely on spectrum + longevity to carry you through the break.

How Nuturf can help you

Nuturf stock straight strobilurin chemistries as well as combination products with triazole fungicides for even broader spectrum. We can assist with further technical advice in understanding the different attributes of the chemistries available, practical tips on the application process looking for optimization of treatments and further advice on relevance to renovations in terms of timings, scheduling and compatibility with other cultural practices.