Horticulture Hotline 10/25/2026
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
Ahh, the fall - usually the threat of hurricane season comes
to an end (fingers crossed), football season is in full swing, the weather is
perfect, visits to our local gardens, parks, and plantations are awesome - oysters,
anyone?
One big question to answer this time of year is do I want to
grow ryegrass in my lawn, paint my lawn green, or let it go dormant? The
football fields, soccer fields, baseball fields, and golf courses look so nice
this time of year. Green grass all winter would be nice. Many of the people
that live in Charleston now are used to green grass in the winter. If you are a
little apprehensive, instead of doing the front yard where the whole world can
see, try the back yard or a side yard. If you have active children or dogs (the
other children), ryegrass can lessen the damage from traffic. Ryegrass does
very good under the canopy of oak trees – just ride by The College of
Charleston’s Cistern during the winter. (pictured)
While driving through neighborhoods, I see a lot of houses
for sale. Ryegrass or green paint could separate your house from the multitude
of other houses that are on the market.
For the very low cost of seed and fertilizer or paint, if
you could sell your house one month earlier saving you a monthly payment,
wouldn’t it be worth it? What about a year earlier?
Ryegrass has a bad reputation because people misapply it. I
often get asked, “doesn’t rye kill my centipede (or St. Augustine)?” If you
manage the rye correctly, you should have no problems.
The 3 biggest mistakes I see with rye grass that give it a
bad reputation are:
- Put out at too high of a
rate, so it chokes permanent grass.
- Use cheap rye with lots of
weed seeds and poor color.
- No fertilizer programs.
Light green grass and no additional fertilizer so dog urine spots (dark
green grass) become your fertilizer program (see picture)
- It is not managed in the
spring chemically or culturally, so it competes with permanent grass while
it is coming out of dormancy.
If you decide you want to put out ryegrass, now is the time
to check your trusty application chart. Have you put out a pre-emergent herbicide
this fall on your lawn? If so, when and at what rate? If you have recently
applied pre-emergent products, you may want to try the paint or wait until next
year. You could put out something to deactivate the pre-emergent so you could
rye, but that will just add to your cost. If you decide to rye, putting a pre-emergent
product in your beds will help to keep rye from popping up in your beds, saving
you time and frustration.
If you are painting or not using rye, you can attack some of
the nasty winter weeds that will compete with your turf grass next spring
without having to worry about the rye grass. Painting will also capture heat
that will help your grass “green up” sooner in the spring. Who wants to be
“mowing weeds” late winter / early spring? Florida Betony and other winter
weeds are visible now. Remember it is easier to kill them now when they are
young and actively growing than to wait until they are flowering.
Three Possum’s Stores hot topic reports – vicious late
season mosquitoes, winterizing fertilizers (use SeaHume, Possum’s Minors, 00-00-25, Cotton Burr Compost - stay away from winter fertilizers
for fescue and bluegrass), large patch (I was trying to avoid saying large
patch this week), moles (of course), pots / winter color, fire ants, Neem oil
for shrubs, and mole crickets. Bring your soil to test now, so you beat the
spring rush!
Always read, understand, and
follow product label or hire a professional. The product label is Federal Law.
Bill Lamson-Scribner
can be reached during the week at Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply
(follow us on Facebook). Possum’s has three locations
