Red Maples, Saucer (Tulip) Magnolias - Spring

 

                                                     Lichen

 

                                             Azalea Leaf Gall

                                            Oak Leaf Blister

                                             Large Patch / Brown Patch 

Horticulture Hotline 02/19/25

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

While walking around, I am seeing little pieces of lichens on the ground and street. With the recent snow and rains, trees are sucking up water and getting ready to explode with buds, flowers, pollen (the yellow pine pollen and other pollen is coming – I just sneezed writing about it), new leaf growth, and new plant growth. The red maples are putting on their spring red color show. If you are going to try to control gumballs on your sweetgum tree with a growth regulator, it is time to get on a list with a tree company or arm yourself.

 

A healthy tree should grow from the tips of its branches between 18 and 24 inches. That is in all directions, not just height. Eighty-five percent of that growth will happen by the end of May. Does your soil have the nutrients to support that growth? You longtime readers of the Horticulture Hotline guessed it – a simple soil test will let you know.

 

The new leaves that your plants, turf, and trees are getting ready to put on is what the insects and disease like the most. Soft tender growth. Some diseases are worth treating and some you can let the plant outgrow. An example of this is blister fungus on an oak tree – a few leaves no big deal – the whole tree you may want to treat since the leaves are the trees food factory. Another common example is azalea leaf gall or camellia leaf gall. A few leaves, no big deal. Most of the plant, you may want to manage the disease.

 

With large patch / brown patch in turf I like to treat the disease preventively. If you have lived in your house for a while, you probably know the areas that you are going to get this turf disease. You can concentrate your control products in those areas. If you do not manage the disease, then weeds will move in on the weakened turf. If you do not like weeds in your turf, then you have to manage the weeds. Depending on the time of year, controlling the weeds may damage the turf (heat, transition out of dormancy). Think of it like this. Say food xyz gives you a headache. There is a pill (Fun) you can take before you eat xyz and you will not get a headache. If you do not take ‘Fun” and eat xyz, you get a headache and have to take pill (Herb) to get rid of the headache. Why not take ‘Fun’ preventatively and avoid the headache and the ‘Herb’ pill?

 

Soil Tests, Custom Programs, SeaHume, preemergent weed control, post-emergent weed control, moles, pots (Mt Pleasant Store), potting soil, soil moist, neem oil, horticultural oil, Cotton Burr Compost, organics, gift certificates, rodent control, roach control, mole crickets, fire ants (did they ever go away this year?), are just a few things that seem very popular right now.

 

Always read, understand, and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.

 

Bill Lamson-Scribner can be reached during the week at Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply. Possum’s has three locations 481 Long Point Rd in Mt. Pleasant (971-9601), 3325 Business Circle in North Charleston (760-2600), or 606 Dupont Rd, in Charleston (766-1511). Bring your questions to a Possum’s location, or visit us at possumsupply.com. You can also call in your questions to “The Garden Clinic”, Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, or listen to the replay of Saturday’s show, Sundays from 11:00 to noon on 1250 WTMA (The Big Talker). The Horticulture Hotline is available 24 / 7 at possumsupply.com

Get Ready

                                           Mistletoe

 

                                             Easy to See this Time of Year

                                             A Slow Killer Like Leaches All Over Your Body

Horticulture Hotline 02/03/25

  Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

We finally had some freezing weather, and I am so glad that it was not an ice event too! Broken tree limbs, power lines down, Ravenel Bridge closed because of ice spears, no WIFI, no TV, no heat, switching on lights that don’t turn on… If you have not already pruned your plants that turned to a black mush, you can wait and some of the damaged foliage and branches will help insulate the plant for the next freezing event. I know some of you that maintain high end properties aren’t going to be able to get away with this, so prune away or replace. Sometimes it depends where the damaged plant is located. By the front door – one set of rules. In a big bed mixed in with other plants in the backyard, maybe another set of rules.

 

Mistletoe was a hot topic on the radio and while I was out and about recently. Mistletoe is very damaging to trees. Mistletoe is a plant that grows on another plant (usually a tree or can be a shrub) and steals water and nutrients from the host plant. During the winter it is easy to spot the tuff of green in a deciduous tree. A seed germinates and the haustorium (think of haustorium as the roots of mistletoe) grow into the trees xylem and rob the tree of nutrients and water. Haustorium can grow a good distance away from the mistletoe itself, so if you are trying to remove the mistletoe you must prune much more of the plant than you might think. Since mistletoe is usually high in a tree, consulting an arborist is the way to go to remove it.

 

Spring is on the way:

 

Soil Test / Custom Program for your yard

 

It is about the time to put preemergent herbicides on your lawn that will stop small seeded annual summer weeds from coming up and terrorizing your lawn.  These products are very safe to use in and around shrub beds and trees (of course check the label).  They will not only keep weeds out of your lawn, but will also keep them out of your beds.  Dimension is a very good product, but there are numerous others based on your needs. 

 

Kill winter weeds now before they produce seed for next year.

 

Is your mower ready?

 

Neem oil or dormant oil spray.

 

Rose pruning, other plants.

 

Adding organics – Cotton Burr, Nature’s Blend, SeaHume…

 

This is a good time to rake out beds and do some good sanitation. Old leaves can harbor disease and insects. The accumulation of leaves can damage your plants by making them planted too deep, insect and disease entry points, and adventitious roots.

 

With Valentines Day coming up, why not buy a nice decorative pot, some good potting soil, some slow release fertilizer, some nice plants, and some wetting agent and have a present that can last forever?

 

 

As with any product, read, understand, and follow product label when applying. 

 

Bill Lamson-Scribner can be reached during the week at Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply. Possum’s has three locations 481 Long Point Rd in Mt. Pleasant (971-9601), 3325 Business Circle in North Charleston (760-2600), or 606 Dupont Rd, in Charleston (766-1511). Bring your questions to a Possum’s location, or visit us at possumsupply.com. You can also call in your questions to “The Garden Clinic”, Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, or listen to the replay of Saturday’s show, Sundays from 11:00 to noon on 1250 WTMA (The Big Talker). The Horticulture Hotline is available 24 / 7 at possumsupply.com. 

 

Snow!

 

                                           I Figure You Have Snow Pictures - Riverdogs Soon!

Horticulture Hotline 01/26/25

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

I was recently asked a question that I have never heard before in my lifetime. “Is it OK to put out a preemergent product over their snow-covered yard?” As far as I can remember, this was the first time we had snow on the ground during preemergent season in the Lowcountry. What a great question! A spreader equipped with snow tires or chains? Since a lot of preemergent products are yellow, this would bring a new paradigm to the whole yellow snow deal. Anyway, according to the label, preemergent products should go out onto healthy, dry grass.

 

The past week we have really had a chance to observe how snow “works” in nature. Remember when you were a kid walking, then running across a black top asphalt parking lot (maybe coming from the beach or a swimming pool), and stopping on the white lines marking the parking places because they were cooler? The white snow reflects the sunlight like the parking lot stripes. If you want the underlying ice to melt, you should remove the snow and expose the darker surface underneath the snow (road, sidewalk, driveway, grass).

 

Snow also has many air pockets that make it a great insulator. When I was a young lad, the “goose down jacket” was introduced to the fashion world. Now the same idea is called a “puffer jacket.” I guess the idea of a bunch of plucked geese running around offended someone. The coats have lots of air pockets that protect you from the cold. These air pockets from the snow help to protect the ice underneath the snow from melting as well by keeping the cold air trapped.

 

After a snow event, the winter weeds really stand out in the grass and should be managed before the go into the reproductive stage of their life cycle when they are harder to kill and they are producing more plants for you to manage the following year. Weed Free Zone (liquid) and Dollar Weed Control (granular) are two great products for now. Dollar Weed Control should not be used on dormant centipede grass; however, if you do not have centipede, it is labelled to kill some hard to control weeds - Controls: Chickweed, Clover (Hop, Red & White), Dandelion, Dollar Weed, English Lawn Daisy, False Dandelion, Florida Betony, Ground Ivy, Lespedeza, Black Medic, Parsley-Piert, Broad leaf Plantain, Buckhorn Plantain, and Virginia Buttonweed. This centipede grass restriction illustrates why you should always read and follow product label. At Possum’s we have many other products to manage your weeds that will work on different types of turf and other products for weeds in your beds.

 

Get ahead of small-seeded summer annual weeds with a preemergent herbicide in about two weeks.

 

With “spreader season” beginning make sure your spreader is ready for action before you put product in the hopper because spreaders are known to rust over the winter.

 

The cold weather has forced many of rodents to seek refuge under and inside many homes in the Lowcountry. To avoid smelling the dead varmint, snap traps and glue boards are the way to go. Baits are very effective; however, you might have to smell a dead animal for a few days if they die in a crawl space or wall void.

 

 

Bill Lamson-Scribner can be reached during the week at Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply. Possum’s has three locations 481 Long Point Rd in Mt. Pleasant (971-9601), 3325 Business Circle in North Charleston (760-2600), or 606 Dupont Rd, in Charleston (766-1511). Bring your questions to a Possum’s location, or visit us at possumsupply.com. You can also call in your questions to “The Garden Clinic”, Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, or listen to the replay of Saturday’s show, Sundays from 11:00 to noon on 1250 WTMA (The Big Talker). The Horticulture Hotline is available 24 / 7 at possumsupply.com.