Horticulture Hotline 11/19/18
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
Happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is usually considered the
most travelled vacation of all holidays. Watch out for that person that asks inappropriate
questions at the dinner table and watch out for bedbugs. You might get bedbugs
where you stay or someone might bring bedbugs with them when they stay with
you. If you notice bedbugs, call a professional immediately or head to Possum’s
– The Bedbug Killing Capital of the Lowcountry.
Moles are doing their fall tunneling, and they are
everywhere! The three step method of control still gets the best results.
Control the mole. Traps, Mole Patrol or Talprid seem to work best. Manage the
moles food source. Sevin, and Grubz Out are very good at killing moles food
supply. The third step is to apply a repellent to keep new moles out of the
yard. Moles like to takeover tunnels that are already built , so they will not
have to build them. Repellex Mole and Vole repellent do a very good job. With
the repellents, you can create a barrier around your property, so you use less
repellent and save money compared to treating the whole yard.
Large Patch / Brown Patch / Zoysia Patch have been in lawns this
fall; however, the lack of rain was keeping it to a minimal. The recent rains
made it explode in some yards with those all too familiar circles of disease.
In our warm season grasses, these diseases can be in irregular patterns as well
as the circles. Map the areas you see the disease, since the disease is in the
soil it will tend to reappear in the same areas. Turn off the irrigation.
Correct any thatch (our BGK7500 works great for dethatching - organic),
compaction or drainage issues. Apply T-Methyl, Prophesy, Serenade (organic) or
Fame. Add Neptune Harvest’s Crab Shell (organic) product to the area to add
beneficial organisms to the soil to combat the bad organisms. We have also seen
for ourselves and heard from customers that the use of Cotton Burr Compost and
/ or SeaHume really helps with this disease.
Yes, you can still winterize your turf – it is not too late.
Look for a product with a 00 for the first number (nitrogen). A 00-00-25 with
sulfate of potash and minors would be great. If you do not need the potash,
consider SeaHume a wonderful combination of seaweed and humic acid. The seaweed
has over 60 minor nutrients, amino acids, and bio stimulants. The humic acid is
also full of bio stimulants that help make nutrients that are in the soil
available to the plant, help with soil structure, grow roots, and feed the
microorganisms in the soil. Both these products can be used together and will
help your yard this winter and next spring.
Now is the time to collect soil to get on a program for 2019.
If it has been 30 days since you applied a fertilizer, why wait? Beat the
spring rush of soil tests at the lab (and my desk if you use Possum’s). If you
have any amending to do (lime, etc.), you do it over the winter and be ready
for spring. Having a soil test and program is like having a landscape design;
it gives you a roadmap to follow, so you are applying the right products at the
right time for your soil.
Yes, you still have time to plant bulbs. A little 04-04-04
Bolster, Bio-Tone Starter Plus and / or SeaHume should get them off to a good
start.
Do not forget your Neem oil or Horticultural oil for your
plants. With all the leaf spot diseases this year, I really like the Neem oil,
since it acts as a fungicide as well. If you had any plants that had leaf spot
this year, rake up the leaves as they fall (and destroy them), and spray Lime /
Sulfur on the ground to help kill overwintering spores.
Hopefully, you have applied a preemergent herbicide to your
lawn and beds. If not, why wait? Applying these products now can save you a lot
of time this spring and your lawn and plants will thank you for removing the
weed competition. Some winter annual weeds have already germinated. If you
control them now and apply a preemergent product, you will not have a steady
crop of weeds showing up throughout the winter.
Always read, understand and follow product label. The
product label is a Federal Law.
