Horticulture Hotline 01/08/18
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
Wow, what a difference a week makes! I thought I was going
to be writing about different strategies in the landscape or around the house,
and the craziest snow and cold weather hit that I can ever remember.
I’m very glad and thankful that this event wasn’t an ice,
break limbs of trees, knock down powerlines, and knock out the electricity for
thousands of people for days type of storm. Come to think of it, it seems that
the ice is always the bad guy. Slip while walking on the ice on the driveway, slide
while driving on the ice, ice building up on tree limbs causing them to break and
damage something else including powerlines, cars, houses, and people…
Ironically, in agriculture ice is used to protect plants
from the cold. Strawberries and citrus are the two crops that come to mind that
are most commonly protected from the cold by spraying a thin layer of water on
the plant and turning it to ice. You have to know what you are doing because
too much ice will split limbs.
Of course, I’m already being ask what should I do for my
lawn, trees, and shrubs after this “event”. Being the soil test geek that I am,
I always recommend taking a soil test to figure out what the soil is needing or
has too much of. I still haven’t met anyone, and I hang around some pretty
sharp agronomist, that can look at a lawn and say you need 15#/M of dolomitic
lime on that lawn. We all use labs to test the soil.
With the weather forecast, some T-Methyl would be good as a
preventive for brown patch / large patch. SeaHume would help get some minor
nutrients in the grass plant (helping to protect the plant from another cold
event) and encourage rooting. 00-00-25 would help get some potassium in the
plant that would help with cold hardiness and disease resistance. Cotton Burr
Compost will help you fill in thin areas.
Winter weeds will be in full force when the snow melts –
treat them now before they begin to flower. Depending on when you preemerged
last, you might want to consider preemerging. This event was not a big leaching
rain event like some we have had. The ice and snow when melted would not amount
to much water.
Trees and shrubs took a beating as well. Soil test would
help them too. Right now organics would be the best thing to get them on their
road to recovery. Organics are regulated by the microorganisms in the soil.
Microorganisms break down the organic product into a useable form for the plant
(like in the forest). If it is cold, microorganisms are slow and don’t make
nutrients available to the plant. When it warms up the nutrients are there and
ready for the plant as it needs them.
Back to Nature products as a mulch, Corn Gluten,
Milorganite, Vermiplex (worm), worm castings, SeaHume, Fish, Seaweed, Fish
& Seaweed, SUPERthrive, and others will help get the plants going when they
are ready. Flowerbed Amendment and SeaHume granular will give you a lot of bang
for your buck. 00-00-25 is a good addition to this 1-2 punch.
With potential cracks (fissures) in the plants from the
freezing, Dominion would be a good thing to drench if you have a history borers
or insect issues.
Pruning is the other hot topic. If you don’t have to prune,
then wait. Pruning will open up a hole for insects and disease and you will
lose the insulation of the dead tissue. Who knows, we may have another super cold
event. If you have a plant that is total mush by your front door, go ahead and
prune away. In about a month or two depending on the plant, you will see the
new buds swell up and you will know where the live tissue is and where you
should prune back to. Damaged tree limbs would be the exception.
An interesting fact is that if you look back in my old
articles, these are the kind of things that need to be done this time of year –
any year.
Always read, understand and follow product label. The
product label is a Federal Law.
