This cool weather really has our local oysters tasting good,
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. There is
also less stress on you trying to find time to control the weeds in your yard
(example “Honey, [Johnny or Jane] and I are going [turkey hunting, spot tail
fishing, golfing, to watch March Madness and eat chicken wings {Jane shopping}].”
Spouse reply, “ok sweetie, have you sprayed the weeds in the front yard like
you said you were going to do last week?”) Kill them now with a preemergent
control product!
For those new readers of the Horticulture Hotline,
preemergent control products 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.
Read the label of the specific product that you are using to
get an exact list of weeds that the manufacturer has tested and shown to control.
Preemergent products applied now do not control winter annual weeds that are
already up like annual blue grass. To control annual bluegrass, you would have
used a preemergent in August.
Clover, Florida Betony, Nutsedge and Dollar weed are not
controlled by preemergent control products.
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.
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.
Always read, understand and follow product label. The
product label is a Federal Law.
