Horticulture Hotline 04/02/18
Bill Lamson-Scribner
My name is Bill, and I get vines.
I seem to get vines from air attack (bird droppings) and
infantry attack (crawling over from next door). Right now, the vines have the
soft new growth that is easiest to kill. The infantry attack is mainly Asiatic
Jasmine, English Ivy, and Algerian Ivy. My counter attack has to be swift and
effective because once these vine’s leaves harden off they are very difficult
to control (these vines seem to laugh at my vine killing weapons)!
The air attack vines are tricky! Smilax, pepper vine, and
Virginia Creeper are usually my main enemies. As you pull them, they are
designed to break apart. One common
mistake I see when driving around neighborhood is people pulling vines over the
top of bushes. It is very satisfying to
pull the vines from the top, but if you really want to get rid of them, you
have to get on your hands and knees and find where the vine is coming out of
the ground and treat it at the base. The
best thing to do is to go to the base of the plant and pull the vine down
through the plant. If there is room
beside the shrub that has the vine in it, do the following:
- Pile the vine next to the plant. If this is a turf area, lay a plastic leak proof tarp down first.
- Spray the vine with a combination of Eraser (Gly), Brush Master, Possum’s 80/20 Sticker (help “stick” product to vine), and Possum’s Blue Alert SS Dye (so you can tell where you have treated). These are systemic herbicides that will move through the plant and kill it at the root level so you will not have the re-growth.
- If the vine breaks off and you don’t have any leaves to spray the herbicide on, you can apply an herbicide to the fresh green wound where the vine broke off. Treat the end that is going back into the ground. If you just have a stem coming out of the ground some people will soak a paper towel with herbicide and wrap it around the bare stem. Be sure to contact the green area where the stem broke off.
- Always Read, Follow and Understand the product label and wear proper safety equipment.
Weed control in turf is also a hot topic right now because
the grass is in transition from dormancy to actively growing. Read the label of
the product you want to use and make sure it is Ok on your type of grass during
green up. Our most popular weed control products Weed Free Zone and Speed Zone Southern
are fine to spray on grass (centipede, zoysia, or Bermuda) except St. Augustine
grass during transition. Other products have no restrictions or different
restrictions, so read and follow product label. Hopefully, if you have been
following a good preemerge program, you can simply spot spray a few weeds
instead of going over the whole lawn.
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). The Horticulture Hotline is
available 24 / 7 at possumsupply.com.
