Horticulture Hotline 02/07/22
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
I stepped out of my house to get a little pruning done after working on soil tests all morning and it was just plain NASTY. 40 degree’s and spitting rain was not my idea of a yardwork day. A good day for the Oyster Festival…
Some plants were damaged by the recent freezing temperatures, and if you can wait to see where they begin to leaf out, you might be surprised that you have more plant left that is not damaged than you thought. Take a lantana as an example. The leaves may be black and nasty looking, but the branches may be alive and well. Leaves are thin and mostly water. The branches and stems are denser and contain more sugars that make them less susceptible to cold damage. Often on a lantana, the leaves get damaged; however, the plant totally comes back so you don’t lose any of the size (mass) of the total plant.
Oleander is another plant that will leaf out along it’s main stems, if you can wait a few weeks. If you just want to reduce the size of the plant, stagger your cuts. Instead of giving the plant a flat top at 8 inches, taper down from the middle of the plant. Have the middle say 14 inches, and as you go to the outer area make your cuts at say 10 inches then down to 8 inches.
Judging from the talk in the stores, rats, mice and roaches sought shelter from the cold in our nice warm homes. Great!
When I see those buds on my bald cypress swelling, I think of one thing – ORGANICS!
Cotton Burr Compost, Nature’s Blend, 09-00-00 Corn Gluten, Blood Meal, Bone Meal, Feather Meal, Cotton Seed Meal, 08-02-04 Sustane, 06-04-00 Milorganite and / or SeaHume are great products to use now on your ornamental plants and turf. If you plan to use just one product, I would go with SeaHume now. After the oaks lose their leaves, use Cotton Burr Compost or Nature’s Blend as a mulch instead of pine straw (low nutrition) or bark (nutrition not available). If you use Cotton Burr Compost, or Nature’s Blend as a mulch, every time it rains your plants will get a drink of compost tea, and you know how we like our tea around here!
For best results spread over the whole bed; however, you can spread the products around individual plants. If you plan to do individual plants, be sure to cover where the roots are and out a little past where you think they are. Remember to keep compost or mulch off the trunk of trees and shrubs.
As microorganisms break the organics down into a usable form to the plants, organic products feed the soil. When the soil is cold, these microorganisms are pretty much inactive. As the temperatures warm up, the microorganisms become more active and begin to break down the organic material and make the nutrients available to the plant. The plant is beginning to grow and put-on new leaves as the temperature warms up, so like magic there is food available to the plant right when it needs it most. The forest with its leaves, twigs, limbs, and microorganism population is fertilized in this manner.
Cotton Burr Compost, Nature’s Blend, composted chicken manure, and composted cow manure are all composted to the point that they do not tie up nitrogen. Some organics can actually steal nutrients away from the plants while they decompose fully. Wood chips, fresh raked leaves, or grass clippings are best put into a compost pile until you are unable to tell what they were originally, and they are fully composted.
Nature’s Blend not only contains Cotton Burrs, but also composted cattle manure, alfalfa meal and humates. Alfalfa meal is high in nitrogen and contains Triacantanol, a natural growth enhancer (basal breaks in roses, root growth …), and may help in the suppression and control of certain fungal diseases.
SeaHume is a combination of cold-water kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) and humates.
The seaweed is full of sixty major and minor nutrients, amino acids, carbohydrates and natural occurring plant growth promoting substances (bio stimulants, gibberellins) that increase plant vigor, quality and yield. Humates increase the availability of nutrients in the soil, increase root growth, keeps nutrients in area that roots can reach (increase CEC), make the soil more friable and many other benefits.
Since SeaHume and Nature’s Blend have a cocktail of good organics, I’m starting with them this year. The 09-00-00, 08-02-04, or 06-04-00 I will use later. I’m hoping to bring my cold damage plants back and have them healthy to repair themselves from the pruning back some of them will get.
Control summer annual weeds before they emerge with preemergent herbicides. Crabgrass will be germinating soon, so get your preemerge of choice out now! Kill winter weeds that are up now before they produce viable seed for next year. Try not to prune azaleas now or you will be removing their flower buds and their spring flowers.
Before another season of applying products to your landscape, now is a great time to measure your turf areas and your bed areas, so you know how much product to use.
Read and follow product label.
