Turf Disease, Camellias and Moles

Wow, the start to 2015 has either been cold, rainy, or just plain nasty. The sun has hardly peaked out at all (must have been quite the New Year’s celebration for the sun or it is a Buckeye)!

Fungus loves this weather. The grass is pretty much wet all day long, giving the fungal spores an opportunity to germinate and spread. While going through neighborhoods, I see the large circles of brown (large) patch in St. Augustine and centipede. On ball fields that never get fungus (I mean haven’t had fungus in the 24 years that I have worked with them), fungus is popping up. On one ball field after identifying the disease, I said, “what fungicide do you have in your shed?” (It is always good to use a product you have if it effective against the target pest you are after – in this case a fungus.) The grounds superintendent said, “we do not have any fungicides. We haven’t had a fungus since the complex was built.” I guess that complex was built 15 years ago.

Brown patch usually occurs in irregular circles. The good thing is that you do not need to treat your whole lawn, just the areas you see the discoloration. The areas will be bigger than this, but if the area you see is the size of a penny, you would want to treat an area the size of a quarter. In reality the area might be 3 feet across and you would want to treat an area 5 feet across.

Camellia blooms also took a hit during the cold. Pull the damaged ones off your plant and pick up the dead ones from the ground (helps with petal blight and looks cleaner). There should be plenty of buds ready to explode and give you more color. The old damaged blooms will take away from the beauty of the new blooms.

The perennial furry friend in the landscape is certainly making his presence known. Yes, I writing about the dreaded mole. I still recommend a 3 prong approach when controlling moles.  These 3 steps are:

1. Kill the mole (trap or poison)
2. Manage its food source (Sevin)
3. Repel other moles from your yard (Repellex).

The three prong approach usually controls moles for the longest period of time.

We are rapidly approaching the time for preemergent herbicides to be applied once again!

Are you Ready to Garden?

Horticulture Hotline 01/12/15

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

Are you ready for the 2015 season in your yard?

Here are a few things to do on these nice winter days.

·         Get soil tested – for everyone that has not already.

·         Kill winter weeds now while they are young and your grass is dormant.

·         Take mower in to have serviced to beat the Spring rush. With the new ethanol gas lawn mower engines and other engines have had issues. No one likes their mechanic to tell them, “pick it up in 4 weeks.”

·         Keep leaves off lawn areas. Keeps moisture from being trapped and if you or your lawn service are applying products, you will have a more uniform coverage without the leaves.

·         Move any shrub or tree now before it is too late. Root prune now, move before they start putting on new growth. Try DieHard Transplant to help survival.

·          Spray trees and shrubs with paraffinic oil (ultra-fine, Omni Supreme oil) as opposed to petroleum oils (Volck) to control over-wintering insects. Watch temperatures. If you have ongoing issues with scale, aphids, white flies, or other sucking bugs, try Safari or Dominion for long term control. Neem oil works on diseases as well as insects.

·         Have you tried Lime / Sulfur spray around the ground of deciduous plants that get diseased? Roses, hydrangea and blueberries are good examples of plants that benefit from this sanitation practice.

·         Sharpen pruning tools or purchase new ones.

·         If you haven’t already, get your bulbs in the ground.

·         Apply SeaHume to turf, trees, flowers, and shrubs. Adding organics now will help in the spring. Cotton Burr Compost?

·         Re-do bed lines to reflect maturing landscape.

·         Get bird house ready for nesting birds.

·         Have moles, get Mole Patrol or Repellex Mole Repellent – they really work.

·         Have deer, get Deer Stopper – it really works.

·         Check irrigation or get on professional’s list to check. Be sure the heads are pointed the right way. Can you eliminate (turn off) the zone watering the shrubs and trees? Have you tried wetting agents to lower your water bill (we hear between 30 and 60 percent)? Less water equals less disease.

·         Prune Crepe Myrtles – don’t butcher them. Remove crossing (rubbing) limbs, inward growing limbs and diseased limbs. Topping or reducing their height is not considered proper pruning.

·         Hold off on pruning plants damaged by the cold – we could still have freezing temperatures.

·         Test well for salt.

·         Attend meetings of the Rose, Camellia, Horticultural Societies and other like horticultural societies. Get ready to preemerge in February. Kill small seeded summer annual weeds before they take over your landscape.

·         Get out and enjoy our County, State and City parks as well as our local plantations.

Societies and Clubs

Alright, the holiday season is over and time to get back to the yard. In Charleston yard activities never really go away and that is a good thing. The moles and home invaders (roaches, rats, bed bugs, raccoons, squirrels and mice) are always active as well.

Although there is some cold weather in the forecast, the camellias have had a long run of warm weather and look beautiful. Hopefully, you have had a chance to witness these camellias in your yard, neighborhood, one of the parks or one of the public or private plantations. My New Year’s Day Feast of pork, collard greens, and hoppin john had a bowl of camellias as a center piece that looked fake because it was so perfect. This bowl of camellias was picture perfect and ready for any magazine spread!

James Island County Park (JICP) and the whole CCPRC pulled off another (the 25^th) fabulous Light Show. I have been to several different light shows over the years in other towns and none of them hold a candle to JICP. My kids know I love the Light Show, so I think it has become their code word for getting out of the house with their friends and cousins. “Hey Dad, going to the Light Show….” They must have gone 6 or 8 times. Never said anything about the traffic, lights or sand castle and boy, the Light Show closes much later than I remember!

With the new year upon us, have you considered joining an organization that is involved with horticulture? Charleston Lowcountry Rose Society has many Consulting Rosarians and some world class exhibitors that will help you with your roses. With new varieties (there are new varieties other than Knock Outs that are quickly being over used) and long lasting control products that you drench instead of spray, rose growing has become much less time consuming and is still very rewarding. This society is very friendly (I have never been bit), has great vittles before each meeting and has an awesome oyster roast (March 15) at Bowen’s Island. Contact Rosalinda Morgan (rosalindarm@comcast.net) if you would like more information about roses or the Charleston Lowcountry Rose Society.

There are many great organizations and garden clubs in the area. Charleston Horticulture Society, Camellia Society, Native Plant Society, Daylily Society, Fruitmania (Jan 17 having a Garden School at Cypress Gardens), neighborhood or regional garden clubs just to name a few. I have been to many of these different societies and clubs and they are all very welcoming to guest and new members.

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