Summertime and the Garden Is Busy

Horticulture Hotline 06/22/20

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

Today’s article is what I would call, “The Statement of the Obvious” article. These are things that I have run across in my house, friends of mine houses, or relatives of mine houses. I will expand on many of these situations in the near future. This article will be like a table of contents of articles to come. This is the type of article that the column inches go fast!

Flies around trash cans and grills are obnoxious and serious disease spreaders. When you open the trash can lid and flies fly out that have been standing on raw, half rotten chicken and follows you inside and lands on that drink you are drinking – gross! A fly is on some dog poop out in the yard. The grill master takes off the rare steaks and the grilled corn, while the medium and well-done steaks continue to cook. The grill master is a little thirsty and goes inside for another beer. When he returns, the dog poop flies are all over the rare steaks and corn. Nasty!

At Possum’s we sell to a lot of people that manage pest in restaurants and to restaurant owners themselves. Flies will close down a restaurant and will affect that “A” rating. We sell fly lights (more commercial), fly sticks, fly bags (one holds 20,000 flies another 40,000), aerosol fly bait (very popular), scatter baits, the old fly tape, products you mix up and spray… Fly control products are available. Get some before you get salmonellosis or one of the other 65 diseases they are known to carry! One group of diseases they carry

are called ‘diarrhoeal diseases’ – I don’t know what exactly that means, but umm, no thank you!

Wasps, gnats, no-see-ums, mosquitoes, fire ants and other biting / stinging insects are out there waiting on you or your children. Of all these I guess fire ants scare me the most. Yesterday I saw a fire ant ‘mound’ coming out of a sidewalk curb and an area where kids play. The area is currently closed to kids, but I could picture a kid unknowingly sitting down on the curb to tie his / her tennis shoes and getting bit by the dreaded fire ant.

Squash, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, cucumbers … and here come the drain flies! Rats, here come the snakes! Hot weather, here come the roaches! Warm humid weather, here comes the gray leaf spot. Chinch bugs, oh yeah. And yes, people are still fighting dollar weed. Dove weed is up along with crabgrass. Those vicious vines …

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

From Spring to Summer

Horticulture Hotline 06/15/20

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

Time is flying by once again! It is already mid-June. The heat brings many situations in the landscape.

Right now, there is a great opportunity for those that love fragrance. I know I have mentioned this several times this spring, but usually the weather goes from cold to hot and these flowers don’t last as long. Magnolias and Gardenias will stop you in their tracks with their fragrance! Either flower is great to pick and throw in your truck, car or in a room of your house for good smells all day long.

If you haven’t feed your trees, shrubs or turf since early spring, it is probably about time to do it again. We have had some heavy downpours!

I put out some organic liquid fertilizer yesterday morning thinking it was going to rain by 11 am and wash the fertilizer into the ground. Well it didn’t rain until 5 pm. Let’s just put it this way the walkers didn’t think it smelt like Magnolias or Gardenias!

If you have a sunny St. Augustine lawn, it is time to get some protection out there on your turf for chinch bugs. I don’t know how much any of us will be travelling, but you don’t want to leave town without protection. Chinch bugs do a lot of damage – FAST! Your nice lawn then gets invaded by bermuda grass and other weeds where the chinch bugs attacked. EcoVia EC is a NOP (National Organic Program) compliant product. Allectus is a long-term control product. Bug Blaster, Cyonara, Bifen, and Lebanon Sevin will provide short term control.

Speaking of sunny yards, remember to protect yourself from the sun. Since I hang around mostly people that spend time in the sun, I have witnessed and heard about many sun related horror stories. These stories revolve around getting areas cut out and tested for sun cancer.

Drain flies are becoming an issue with all the good local vegetables and fruits being consumed in our kitchens. Using the scum eating microbes in InVade BioDrain will help eliminate the organic build up in drains that harbor the drain flies and the citrus oil will help reduce odors as well. The EcoVia EC (National Organic Program compliant) will help if they are already getting active.

Mosquitoes are out and about looking for a blood meal. The high tides and the heavy - rains we had, have ditches and other areas with enough water for mosquitoes to breed. Scout your yard for potential breeding sites. EcoVia EC (National Organic Program compliant) is great on mosquitoes for an organic approach. LambaStar, Bifen, and Proflex for conventional control. Proflex has a built in growth regulator which is nice.

Moles just have had their spring babies, so expect a surge in their population – wonderful!

Japanese Beetles have emerged (pun intended) on the scene, tearing up Crepe Myrtles, Roses, and many other plants. These heavy eaters are easy to kill with a little persistence. Bifen, Cyonara, and many others will take care of the Japanese Beetle. Traps also work if placed away from where the preferred meal of the Japanese Beetle and are more of an organic approach. EcoVia EC is a Botanical Insecticide that is NOP (National Organic Program) compliant and works.

The baby mole crickets are hatching and the adults are dying off. Now is a good time to ‘flush’ an area that you think you might have mole crickets. Get two ounces of lemony dish soap in five gallons of water and slowly pour it over a 2 x 2 area where you have tunneling damage by mole crickets and see what comes out of the ground in the next 3 to 5 minutes. Depending on your tolerance level, you can decide whether or not to treat. A golf green would have zero tolerance because the tunnels would affect the ball roll. EcoVia EC and Intice Perimeter are two NOP compliant products that should work good for you. Allectus and Lebanon Sevin are conventional control products that will ‘kill the baby’ mole crickets.

These wet cool nights are keeping brown patch / large patch / zoysia patch around. Strobe G, T-Methyl, and Fame are good systemic fungicides for this disease.

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 http://www.possumsupply.com. You can also call in your questions to “ The Garden Clinic”, Saturdays from noon to 1:00, on 1250 WTMA (The Big Talker). Saturday's show is replayed Sunday from 11:00 - Noon.

Tree Cattle and Lichens

Horticulture Hotline 06/08/2020

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

What a different year – and the Horticulture Hotline has suffered! For over 30 years I wrote this column every Monday morning without fail. I believe at least twice this spring Monday has come and gone without me writing the Horticulture Hotline. I was talking to a friend last week about grub damage, and in my mind, I was picturing that it was April and they should be near the surface feeding – causing damage. He reminded me that it was June. I quickly corrected myself and said the grubs have been emerging as beetles. These beetles (June beetles, Japanese beetles) have been shredding many of your ornamental plants (roses, crepe myrtles…). I completely lost the month of May! Maybe selling masks (starving my brain of oxygen), hand sanitizer (taking a sip to be sure alcohol content is remaining high or dermal exposure) and gloves has affected me!

Tree cattle or bark lice (louse) are out in big numbers. They do not eat leaves. If you try to scare them away with a branch, they scattered, usually just by running to the other side of the tree, and then they regrouped on the tree.  Tree cattle look scary, but they are good guys.  The tree cattle clean the tree by eating dead organic matter and lichens (algae and moss combination) out of the bark crevices of the tree.  Even though crepe myrtles have smooth bark, there are plenty of places for the tree cattle to find food.  They are the house cleaners of the trees! Maples are another favorite tree of the tree cattle.

Tree cattle produce that stocking like webbing that looks like something out of a horror movie in the late summer and fall.  The webbing is tight against the bark of the tree just like a stocking.  It is found on limbs as well as trunks of trees.  The tree cattle use this webbing as protection from predators and weather. 

Tree cattle do not harm a tree. They do not eat leaves, just dead organic matter.  If they are really bugging you, you could spray them with a blast of water.  I would let them clean the bark of the tree, so you do not have excessive organic debris buildup.

If you have a lot of lichens, you may want to check the general health of the tree. Lichens produce their own food like plants. If you have a healthy thick canopy of foliage from the tree, lichens will not grow because they cannot get the sunlight they need to survive. A soil test and the appropriate fertilizer should help with this situation unless the tree has other cultural issues (compacted soils, wet soils, dry soil, planted incorrectly or in the wrong place …).  

Mosquitoes, fleas, Palmetto bugs (big roaches), flies, stinging insects are out!

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 http://www.possumsupply.com. You can also call in your questions to “ The Garden Clinic”, Saturdays from noon to 1:00, on 1250 WTMA (The Big Talker). Saturday's show is replayed Sunday from 11:00 - Noon.