Beat The Rush, Spring is Coming

                                           Mid-January

                                           Week Later

                                           Camellia on SeaHume and 17-00-09 - Still Jamming

 

Horticulture Hotline 01/31/24

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Wow, what a difference a week makes! I went from admiring my hibiscus, milk weed, cassia, lantana, and bottle brush in mid-January to smelling the very distinctive smell of cold damaged, dead foliage! I went from thinking my hibiscus was going to overwinter and bloom all year like in south Florida to pruning out the dead, mushy plant parts. I am so glad my camellias are still blooming profusely (thank you SeaHume and 17-00-09).

 

Of course, I’m already being ask what should I do for my lawn, trees, and shrubs after this “event”. Being the soil test geek that I am, I always recommend taking a soil test to figure out what the soil is needing or has too much of. I still have not met anyone, and I hang around some sharp agronomist, that can look at a lawn and say you need 15#/M of dolomitic lime on that lawn. Labs are used to test human’s blood and labs are used to test soils.

 

SeaHume would help get some minor nutrients in the grass plant (helping to protect the plant from another cold event) and encourage rooting. 00-00-25 would help get some potassium in the plant that would help with cold hardiness and disease resistance. Cotton Burr Compost will help you fill in thin areas and provide housing for beneficial microorganisms.

 

Winter weeds will be in full force when the weather warms up – treat them now before they begin to flower. Depending on when you preemerged last, you might want to consider preemerging. A good one / two punch is to apply a post-emergent product to kill what weeds are up now and a preemergent product at the same time. Doing this method kills what you see and prevents new weeds from replacing the ones you just killed.    

 

With that recent wind storm, we had (remember schools were closed) trees and shrubs took a beating as well. Soil test would help them too. Right now, organics would be the best thing to get them on their road to recovery. Organics are regulated by the microorganisms in the soil. Microorganisms break down the organic product into a useable form for the plant (like in the forest). If it is cold, microorganisms are slow and do not make nutrients available to the plant. When the soil warms, the microorganisms make the nutrients available to the plant and are ready for the plant as it needs them.

 

Back to Nature products as a mulch, Corn Gluten, Milorganite, Vermiplex (worm), worm castings, SeaHume, Fish & Seaweed, SUPERthrive, and others will help get the plants going when they are ready. Nature’s Blend and SeaHume granular will give you a lot of bang for your buck. 00-00-25 is a good addition to this 1-2 punch.

 

With potential cracks (fissures) in the plants from the freezing, Dominion would be a good thing to drench if you have a history borers or insect issues.

 

Pruning is the other hot topic. If you do not have to prune, then wait. Pruning will open a hole for insects and disease and you will lose the insulation of the dead tissue. Who knows, we may have another super cold event. If you have a plant that is total mush by your front door, go ahead and prune away the dead tissue. In about a month or two depending on the plant, you will see the new buds swell up and you will know where the live tissue is and where you should prune. Lantana are famous for looking totally dead, when they might start to grow from four or five feet up the plant. Damaged tree limbs would be the exception.

 

While your deciduous (big word that means your tree gets naked in the winter and loses its leaves) trees do not have leaves, is a good time to get a tree care professional to look at the health of your trees.

 

Tulip (Saucer) Magnolias are blooming, SEWE billboards are up, and the Daytona 500 is being advertised. Are you ready for SPRING?

 

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. 

 

 

Getting Product Out

 

Horticulture Hotline 01/22/24

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Getting a spreader setting for a bag of fertilizer or control product is generally based on the person walking three miles an hour. If you get on a treadmill and set it for three miles an hour, you will realize that is a pretty fast pace. If you have a setting and you walk faster, then you are putting out less product and if you walk slower, you are putting out more product. Curvy bed lines and how we turn around is also a factor because of overlapping the product or slowing down for turns.

 

If you know the square footage of your yard, you will know how much product should go on that area. If you have a 4000 square foot area and are trying to put out 4 pounds per thousand square feet of product then you know you need 16 pounds of the product. You can then get a bucket and a bathroom scale and pour 16 pounds of product into the bucket, Then, pour the product into the spreader, spread the product over the area, and see whether you are going to have too much or too little product. Keep good notes on what setting you used, what product you were spreading (due to particle size and bulk density), what rate you were trying to spread, what area you were spreading (back yard might be bigger and more rectangular so you might walk faster), and what spreader you were using.

 

Knowing the square footage of your grass areas and bed areas are key to applying any fertilizer or control product correctly. Whenever we sell a bag of fertilizer at Possum’s we are going to ask, “how big is your yard?” We need to know if you need one bag or more than one bag. Some of our bags might be able to treat your yard twice. That is nice to know because that cuts the price per application in half, and lets you know you still have product waiting in the garage for your next application (like finding that McDonald’s French fry at the bottom of the bag). During the winter is a great time to get out there and measure the yard.

 

I can remember several times hearing different variations of this same answer to my question while at the counter at Possum’s. “How many square feet is your yard?” Rough answer,” well, last year I put out that bag that covers 5000 square feet and it was perfect for my yard, so I must have 5000 square feet.”  Sorry, wrong answer.

 

Based on a pound of nitrogen, we sell 50-pound bags that cover as much as 23,000 square feet and as little as 1000 square feet. Unfortunately, the bag does not know the size of our yards or how fast we walk.

 

In the old days, yards were mostly square or rectangular, and they were easy to measure. Now most yards have curvy bed lines that sweep across the landscape, making them more difficult to measure. If you can break the yard up into little squares or rectangles, and measure the length and the width then you can get your square footage. Length multiplied by width will give you your square footage. Add up all the squares and rectangles that you measured the square feet of, and you will come up with the square footage of your yard.

 

If this sounds like total “Greek or Geek” to you, ask a landscaper, a realtor, a landscape architect, someone that works with floors or carpets, an engineer, a construction worker, someone who pours driveways, or anyone else that regularly needs to measure the square footage of something to help you. Some golfers are good at pacing off areas. Your plat map from when you purchased your house might help as well.

 

Now, there are even websites that you can log onto and they will tell you the square footage of your yard. Of course, I like to do it the old fashion way – length times width.

 

I know this measuring seems like a pain, but most of us stay in a house for several years or decades. A little pain spread over several years of having very useful information is worth it.

 

Once you measure the yard, put the measurements in about 5 to 10 locations throughout your house, your car (so you have it with you when you go to buy product) and the garage, so you do not lose them. Come into the camera phone age and take a picture of the measurements so you have the information when you come into the store. I have learned over the years that I put information like that in one “special place” so I do not lose the information. I then forget where that “special place” is!

 

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

Soil Test

 

                                           Very low pH

                                            High pH - have to test to find out

                                           Cassia and Bottlebrush Blooming in mid January
                                          

Horticulture Hotline 01/17/24

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Since I am always talking about taking soil test, this week’s article about how to take a soil test might be of some help. I like to compare a soil test for a gardener to a blood test for a doctor. When I have a physical, my doctor has me take a blood test about two weeks in advance. She (I have a lady doctor) has time to look at the results and make recommendations based on the results by the time I get there for my appointment.

 

If the blood lab mailed me the results directly or I picked the results up from the lab, I am sure I would not be able to tell if my good cholesterol was high enough and my bad cholesterol was low enough. What is the ratio of these two numbers? Are my thyroid, liver, and gizzard working properly? Am I getting enough vitamin A, B, C and D? Are they in the right ratio? What is my blood sugar? I end up paying the blood lab for the lab fees, and the doctor her fee for her interruption of the results, which usually goes something like this - eat like a vegetarian only in very small portions and exercise like an Olympic athlete.

 

The custom program is like the doctor’s visit. When most people look at soil test results from the lab, they comment on the soil pH. They never comment on the buffer pH, which is more important in determining lime recommendations. In all my years of working with soil tests, I have never heard a customer comment about calcium to magnesium ratios, or it looks like I need 5 pounds of ProMag 36 per thousand square feet to get the 1.8 pounds of magnesium I am lacking.

 

 SOIL TESTS

Turf grass areas

Proper interpretation of soil test results depends upon collecting a representative sample of the soil. Soil samples can be taken at any time of the year.  Samples are most easily collected using a PVC pipe, garden trowel or spade.

¨       Each soil sample should be a composite of sub-samples collected from randomly selected spots within the chosen area.

¨       Soil Sample should be 3 inches deep straight down.  These samples should be equal parts of the first 3 inches of soil.  Avoid pie shaped samples that have more of the 1^st inch of soil and less of the 2^nd and 3^rd inches.

¨       Take 5-10 sub-samples for relatively small areas (less than 1000 square feet) in home lawns.

¨       Collect the sub-samples in a clean plastic pail, mix the soil thoroughly, and put about one cup of this mixture in a sample bag.

¨       Remove grass, thatch, and debris from sample.

¨       One sample per lawn should be good unless you have different types of soil or grass.

 

 

Landscape Beds

¨       Soil Sample should be 6 inches deep.

¨       Repeat the steps above.

¨       Please remember to record the location of your samples

(Rose bed, flower bed, shrub bed etc…)

 

 

Test results include

¨       pH, Buffer pH (when needed), Available Phosphorus, Exchangeable Potassium, Calcium Magnesium, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and Percent Base Saturation

With recommendations for:

            Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash, Magnesium and Lime - based on plant type and use

¨       Sodium can be tested for an additional charge. Very important in Lowcountry. We see a lot of high sodium yards in areas that you would not expect sodium to be an issue. Many wells around here also have high sodium (salt) in the water they put out.

¨      Other tests are available including tissue samples; however, these are our most common two. 

 

Bring Your Sample to a Possum’s Near You

 

“The Garden Clinic” time slot has been changed to 10:00 am – 11:00 am on Saturday mornings. A replay of the show airs Sunday from 11:00 am – noon. It is a live call-in garden show (on Saturday) to answer your questions, so give us a call at (843) 556-1250.

 

The cold wet weather has roaches and rats moving into people’s homes.

 

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.