September - Cooler?

 

                                                     Armyworm - notice 'Y' on head

Wasp eating Armyworm

 

Armyworm Damage 

Large Patch

Camellias and SeaHume

2 Systemic Fungicides In One

Lasts Up To 60 Days / 2 Growth Regulators

 

Horticulture Hotline 09/01/2025

  Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

I ran into a Horticulture Hotline reader the other day and he mentioned that his wife always put the article where he sits for breakfast to be sure he reads it each week. So, I guess it is time for the Horticulture Hotline disclaimer.

 

For the new readers of the Horticulture Hotline, my To Do Lists are designed to help you target a few activities in your yard and in your home that will benefit you in the future, giving you more free time.  These lists are not designed to interfere with high school, college, or professional football games, soccer, baseball, fishing, shrimping, hunting, golfing, eating chicken wings at a local sports bar, oyster roasts, or watching NASCAR on the couch with closed eyes!  This is not designed to be a “honey do” list. 

 

September is here! My camellia buds are swollen! It was 64 degrees this morning!

 

The day after I wrote the last Horticulture Hotline, I saw a huge fall armyworm outbreak covering a seventeen-acre complex. The ground was so wet from the recent rains, we could not put a piece of equipment on the turf to treat them. We just had to watch them eat for a day or two while the ground dried. We needed a drone for spraying - donation? It was right after that reports from Goose Creek and other areas across the Lowcountry started coming into Possum’s three locations.

 

Armyworms like to feed under the cover of rainfall, when it is darker and birds are less apt to see them. There has been a lot of spotty attacks this year. If you travel during the fall, you might want to use something preventatively because worms can do a lot of damage quickly. If you see moths in your yard at dusk that fly low for about six feet then land again – similar to a bobwhite quail, you have the adult armyworm. One moth can lay up to 1000 eggs usually in groups of fifty (I wonder what lucky person got to count these eggs). There are usually many moths in a yard. When the eggs hatch, the fall armyworm emerges and is hungry! Look for areas that appeared to have been mowed low and with a dull blade. You can see that the leaf blades have been chewed. Also thatch type debris will be churned up on the surface. You might notice birds and low flying wasps that are predators of armyworms.

 

Large Patch Fungus (Brown Patch Fungus) is attacking lawns across the Lowcountry.  I rode through several neighborhoods this week and saw it everywhere.  These cooler nights make conditions right for this disease.  Fungi like moisture and it has been raining a lot recently.  If you can let your grass dry out between watering, you will have less fungus (I understand this is not easy to do with rainfall).  According to several people I talk to, there are organic products that will increase the bio-diversity in the soil and help control Large Patch Fungus. Neptune Harvest Crab shell, SeaHume, and Back to Nature’s Cotton Burr based products – although these are not labeled fungicides so I cannot recommend them as fungicides, customers have reported success by adding these products to their yards – your results may vary.  If you have an active fungus outbreak, a combination of Strobe G and T-Methyl are good chemistries to rotate. Large Patch usually attacks the same areas year after year. If you have a history of Large Patch, preventative applications are most effective.

The wet, cooler weather will also run roaches and rodents into your home (when people come into Possum’s it is never their home – always a nasty friend or relative).  If you are prone to be attacked by these two pests, be sure to prepare for their arrival. 

 

Moles always get more active in the fall.  Manage their food source with Above and Below and use Repellex around the perimeter to keep them out of your yard.

 

Now is the time to put out your fall fertilizer for your trees, shrubs and turf. Fall fertilization is very important for the health of your plants, trees and lawns. 

 

Have you put out a preemergent product for winter weeds yet? Mosquitoes? Mosquito Pro works and is easy to use (kills armyworms too)– check it out!

 

If this sounds like too much work, hire a professional.

 

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 (follow us on Facebook). 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. 

 

Mushrooms and More

 

                                           "Washed Out" Hungry Grass

                                            Fairy Ring

                                             Stinkhorn Fungus with Fly

                                             Chinch Bugs
 

                                                       Stinkhorn in Mulch
 

Horticulture Hotline 08/17/2025

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Hopefully, you have put out (or getting ready to put out) your preemergent product for winter weeds in your beds and on your turf. On your home turf, you should include a nitrogen fertilizer. Many lawns are “washed out” looking after all the rain and the long hot summer, and are ready for some nutrients. I’m a little “washed out” myself. Potash, iron and other minor nutrient products can (and should) be used into the fall. A soil test will help you with any rates to apply.

 

Some 17-00-09 (slow release and loaded with minors) or 08-02-04 (organic) would be great for your trees and shrubs this time of year. Again, a soil test will provide the best information. Fall fertilizer, football, and unfortunately moles and mosquitoes go together this time of year!

 

Mushrooms have been popping up everywhere in the Lowcountry! The weather has been perfect for them (rain). Think of mushrooms as a beautiful flower of a fungus that is underground decomposing organic matter – old tree stump or roots, mulch or compost you have added, or any other organics in the soil. The mushroom has the spores of the fungus like a flower often develops the seeds for plants. Spores are the way fungus propagates (spreads) itself like seeds propagate plants.

 

The way I manage mushrooms is with a plastic bag like picking up dog poop.  Put a bag on your hand, lift up the mushroom pull the plastic bag over the mushroom and try not to drop too many spores. It is best to do this early in the morning before the spores fully mature and before the gills of the mushrooms open to release the spores. Terry Johnson was on “The Garden Clinic” with me yesterday and he prefers to hit the mushrooms with a nine iron – spreading the mushrooms! Obviously, you do not want to randomly eat anything in you landscape – plants or mushrooms.  

 

Stinkhorn fungi (devil’s backbone) smelling up new mulch beds all over the Lowcountry.  The conditions have been perfect for the growth of this fungus with all this rain. This fungus has an awful nasty odor that smells like rotten flesh.

 

Some plants in nature attract insects with sweet smelling nectar to spread pollen to other plants.  This fungus; however, exudes a slime over part of its fruiting body (the mushroom) attracting flies that like rotten flesh or feces.  The flies then spread the fungus because spores attach to their bodies.  Nice! You have mushroom that exudes a smell like rotten flesh and feces to attract flies.  I guess this is the opposite approach of a gardenia. 

 

The way I control stinkhorn is the same way as any mushroom – dog poop bag. The orange fruiting body is attached to hyphae that are underneath the ground decomposing organic matter.  In nature, many fungi are good for your soil; however, this can be an unwelcome guest in your home.  Fungi, in general, tend to like acidic soil as do most plants, so I wouldn’t try to control them by adjusting the pH.  Hopefully, the environmental conditions that cause them to pop up all over the place will go away soon. 

 

There is something that looks like an egg that the mushroom pops out of that some people (mainly in Asia) consider a delicacy.  No thank you, I’m not interested in something that smells like rotten flesh or feces.

 

Fairy Ring is another situation that mushrooms are associated with that can be undesirable. Mushrooms make almost a perfect circle. I will have to address this in a future article as I’m out of column inches (newspaper speak).  

 

With fall arriving, look for mole crickets tunneling near the surface. Mole crickets do a lot of damage in the fall that often goes undetected, leaving big dead areas in the spring. Fire ants are very active with all the rain. Fleas are biting. Large Patch fungus is very active. Mosquitoes, grass and tree damaging worms, chinch bugs, gray leaf spot and rats are abundant. Pots are being purchased for winter color.

 

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 (follow us on Facebook). 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. 

 

Transition Time - Don't Miss Out

 

                                                      Brown Patch   Large Patch

                                                      Annual Bluegrass  Poa Annua

 

                                            Ryegrass

Horticulture Hotline

  Bill Lamson-Scribner 08/03/2025

 

Although still hot, August is when you have to plan and prepare for how you want your yard to look like in the spring. Weeds? Spring-flowering bulbs? Flower beds with annuals for color? Vegetable garden – collard greens for Thanksgiving? Fungus – dead areas? Insects – dead areas? Transplanting this fall or winter?

 

Treat for mosquitoes in your yard! Mosquitoes kill millions of people and carry diseases. Usually, I recommend the organic repellents; however, with the amount of rain we have had, try some Mosquito Pro and kill the mosquitoes for months! The growth regulators in this product really extend the length of control of this product. Scout around your yard for potential breeding sights. It is amazing how many places that collect water and a mosquito can lay an egg. Old tarps, tarps on boats, saucers under flower pots, a dent in a trash can lid, old fountain, bird bath, tires, refrigerators, old cars, and even half - filled rain gauges all provide enough water to help mosquitoes breed. If you do not have time to do scout your yard, hire a professional, and they will help make your yard safe.

 

Large Patch fungus has raised its ugly head again in the Lowcountry.  The decrease in daylight hours and rain have been great for Large Patch disease to kick in.  Water only as needed and apply Strobe Pro G or T-Methyl.  Two great systemic control products.

 

If you have any bushes or trees that need to be transplanted, you can begin to root prune them.  Ideally if you transplant a tree, you would have a ball that is 12 inches for each inch in diameter of the tree (3-inch diameter tree would be 18 inches on either side of the tree).  Take a shovel and dig straight down without prying and just sever the roots of the tree.  Depending on the size of the tree, whether it was planted or a volunteer seedling, how long it has been in the ground, and whether it is in a group of other plants, will dictate how big of a root ball you will be able to dig. Add some SeaHume and other rooting biostimulants to the area to encourage new roots.  Root prune now and for the next few months for transplanting in November-January.

 

It is getting close to the time to switch over from summer annuals to winter annuals.  When amending your annual beds this year, try Back to Nature’s Nature’s Blend.  It’s balanced blend of cotton burrs and cattle manure along with alfalfa meal, humates and sulfur will surely make your winter annuals a hit.  The alfalfa contains Triacantanol, a natural root growth enhancer and may aid in the control and suppression of certain fungal diseases.   Unlike wood and wood by-products, cotton burr and cattle manure do not tie up valuable nutrients in the soil and help neutralize the soils pH. Humate is a great carbon source and has many other benefits to the soil including making nutrients that are tied up in the soil available to the plants.  If you are planting bulbs for next spring, consider using Nature’s Blend to amend the soil.

 

The change in weather will also bring on the winter annual weeds. Are you going to put out ryegrass this fall? Are you going to fight that grassy weed with the white seedhead this spring – annual blue grass, Poa annua and other winter annual weeds? Now is the time to put out preemergent in your lawn as well as your beds. If you have had Florida Betony in the past, consider using a preemergent that contains Dimension. Many of our customers have noticed a decrease in Florida Betony in lawns that they have used Dimension in late August and again in October. Over twenty years ago, I put out some test plots for Dow AgroSciences, and I saw about an 85% reduction in Florida Betony the first year! Dow AgroSciences did not add Florida Betony to the label because of the costs of dealing with the EPA; however, I say, “try it you ‘ll like it!”

 

Watch out for mole crickets, grubs and sod web worms in your turf.  Mole crickets have just developed their wings and are beginning their fall flights, which means they will be up near the surface tunneling (damaging) your grass. Grubs are near the surface and easy to kill before they become a food source for moles (armadillo) or damage your root system themselves.  Sod web worms can eat a huge amount of grass in a short period of time.  Look for moths as you walk around your lawn in the evening.  These moths will come up from the ground, fly erratically for a few feet, then land, almost like a quail.  Treat with Above and Below and you will take care of both of these guys as well as many other insects. 

 

Always read, follow and understand the product label before applying any products.

 

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.