Horticulture Hotline 03/06/23
Bill Lamson-Scribner
This is one crazy year! Like most years in Charleston. If you have a chance to go to one of the local public plantations, now is the time! Get the camellias, azaleas, dogwoods, spiraea, Carolina Jessamine (state flower), Loropetalum and many, many, more… Also get the smell of a sweet tea olive or two. If you are super busy and just have aa minute to enjoy Charleston’s spring, ride by or better yet walk through Hampton Park in the City of Charleston. I love riding through certain older neighborhoods this time of year.
While I was working in my yard this weekend, I realized that there are certain products that I use that make my yard work easier and help me get better results. Some of these products might help you out as well.
Blue Alert spray dye indicator. When I spray my yard, I add Blue Alert to my tank mix. Blue Alert is a dye that shows you where you have sprayed. Blue Alert helps you get even coverage and helps you apply products so you do not overlap to the point you do damage to your landscape. If you are spot spraying weeds, you will know which weeds you have sprayed. If you have an interruption (phone call, neighbor asking what you are doing, water break …), you will know where you stopped spraying. One of the ways it helps me the most is if I am spraying a weed killer and accidently hit a non-target plant, I can prune off the part of the plant with the Blue Alert on it before the herbicide is translocated and kills the non-target plant.
Brown Mulch Reviver is a great way to get color back in you mulch without having to add new mulch. The research today suggest that you should only have 2 to 3 inches of mulch in your beds and none right on the trunk of the bush or tree. If you want color without the expense of adding mulch, this is an option. A local resort used a mulch reviver before a major golf tournament a few years ago with great results.
The product I probably use the most is Sticker 80/20 Spreader with ammonium sulfate. When I formulated this product, I added a little ammonium sulfate (a fertilizer) to the spreader sticker to get the plant to grow and move the systemic product through the plant a little faster. Whether you are using a systemic herbicide, insecticide, or fungicide, that little bit of ammonium sulfate with the surfactant makes your product rain fast quicker, stick to the leaf better, translocate faster, and in certain cases you can reduce the rate of the product you are using. Many leaves are waxy (camellia – product rolls off like a freshly waxed car) or have fine hairs (clover – product rolls off like a duck’s back). The Spreader Sticker helps the product (contact or systemic) stick to the leaves. Sticker 80/20 Spreader with ammonium sulfate is non-ionic meaning it does not have a positive or negative charge associated with it. Introducing a charge to your soil (certain dish soaps), can mess up the nutrients in your soil since they are negatively and positively charged.
Tank Cleaner helps neutralize what you have been spraying.
Things are happening in the landscape. Are you ready? Remember this is next year for your soil test!
