Call it climate change, a weather pattern, or not to be
political, “global warming”, I like this weather. Baggy t-shirts all year long!
Daffodils showing color, Prunus trees
blooming (Cherry, Peach, Crabapple) and the soil temperature indicates that it
is just about time to apply preemergent products to your beds and turf. I know
many of you are used to waiting for Valentine’s Day (a great present by the way
if you like living with the dog in the dog house) or the running of the Daytona
500 to apply the magical weed preventer, and this year is shaping up to be no different.
Depending on which Phd doctor you believe, crabgrass
germinates when the soil temperature (3 inches deep) stays above 55 degrees
(some people say 57 degrees), for 3 straight days provided adequate moisture in
the soil. Now some doctors say remains 57 degrees or above for 24 hours at a
depth of 3 inches with adequate moisture.
If you are not in to monitoring the soil temperature, Valentine’s Day or
the running of the Daytona 500 should work for you.
The turf areas as well as the landscape bed areas will
greatly benefit from the use of preemerge products. Not only will the yard look
better, but your plants will not have to compete with the weeds for sun,
nutrients, and water. If you are controlling weeds with preemergent products,
there are less weeds there for you to spray or pull, saving you time.
For those new readers of the Horticulture Hotline, preemergents
kill weeds as they germinate. The weeds
never come up and you never have to worry about them. Crabgrass, goosegrass, barnyardgrass,
crowfootgrass, dallisgrass (seedling), foxtail, annual bluegrass, smutgrass,
barley, kikuyugrass, wild oats, bittercress, carpetweed, chickweed, Carolina
geranium, henbit, knotweed, lespedeza, marestail, black medic, mustard, oxalis,
pineappleweed, pigweed, redroot, parsley-piert, purslane, rocket,
shephardspurse, speedwell, spurge, and woodsorrel are examples of weeds
controlled by preemergent products.
Small seeded annual weeds are controlled by preemergent products.
Clover, Florida Betony, Nutsedge and Dollar weed are not
controlled by preemergents. These are
perennial weeds. Weed Free Zone is a liquid that will do a good job on
controlling many of your broadleaf weeds. The Nutsedge will require a different
product and is most likely not visible right now. It is important to control these weeds now
before they go into their reproductive stage.
A weed in its reproductive stage is harder to control than a weed in its
vegetative stage. By killing the weed now you avoid having to deal with more
weed seeds next year.
With the warm weather we have had, it is very noticeable
when you ride through the Lowcountry which homeowners and which businesses used
preemergent products last fall at the correct time. One business or home lawn
will be nice and brown and dormant with-out a spec of green in sight. Right
next to it will be brown turf mixed with green weeds. Again, it is very
important to control those weeds now before they begin to flower.
If you want to control the Sweetgum balls, now is the time
to arrange that treatment. An arborist can inject Snipper now and the balls
will not develop into the nuisance in the landscape that they would otherwise.
Call right away as this is a timing issue as well.
