Meso - Chlorophyll blocker turns weed white
Horticulture Hotline 08/14/23
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
I would say that yard work is the best total workout for a person, behind swimming of course because everyone always says how good swimming is for you and your joints not to mention you are in a pool and not in an extreme weather alert climate.
Over the weekend, I did a little yard work. Loaded two bags of 08-00-08 Acelepryn (fifty pounds each) and a spreader into my car/truck (Prius). Spread the two bags at my mom’s house (mainly for army worms, sod web worms, any grubs, and suppression of chinch bugs). While I was at her house, scouted around for other issues, bent down, and pulled a weed or two, and checked out the kill I managed to get on some dollarweed and sedge that I had sprayed the previous week. Glad to report that the spray was a success! Areas targeted back, core, legs, arms, and shoulders.
Back to my house. Filled my backpack sprayer up with three and a half gallons of weed killing products (Avenue South – general weed killer, Meso – general weed killer and crabgrass, Blue Alert Dye – shows where I have sprayed, and Certainty - sedge). I am now carrying around a little over thirty-five pounds on my back and spot spraying weeds (core strength, legs, pumping up sprayer with arm, balance). After spraying, I cleaned the sprayer with Possum’s Tank Cleaner. Fill it up, shake it up, pump it up, spray out the hose to clean it out. Do this three times and store it halfway full with clean water so the gaskets do not dry rot (back, core, arms).
While spot spraying weeds, I noticed some pruning that I needed to do. Started with the hand pruners on the small stuff (good for hand strength). Loppers for the larger limbs (arms and chest). Pole saw for the higher limbs getting near the house acting as a squirrel bridge (shoulders, arms, core). Bending to pick up and dragging the trimmings to the road (legs, core, upper body).
Now that bark scale on crepe myrtles has arrived in the Lowcountry, I figured I would drench some Dominion around my crepe myrtles preventatively. My lantana is susceptible to lace bugs and I helped a lady in Possum’s East with this issue on Friday, so I figured I would drench these as well. My Little Gem Magnolias always like Dominion for twig borer and scale. I added some Neptune Harvest Turf Formula to the Dominion. Although it is called Turf Formula, it is great on plants as well.
When drenching, I really like the molasses (feeds microbes), and the Yucca Extract (natural wetting agent that breaks down into microbe food) in Turf Formula. It also has hydrolyzed fish (way better than fish emulsion), Seaweed, and Humate that plants love!
Since I was drenching many plants and I was trying to beat the heat, I was using a five-gallon bucket (about fifty pounds) and walking to different areas around my yard (core, arms, and legs). After drenching, I began dragging hose to water the specific areas that I had drenched (arms, core, and legs).
While I was at it, I had some 18-00-06 + Humate liquid fertilizer that I decided to drench around some bottlebrush that are recovering from the cold late last December. More exercise for core, legs, and arms.
When all this was finished, I had several empty containers to triple rinse and poke holes in the bottom of the containers for proper disposal. So, fill up the container, shake it, and pour it out – repeat this three times (work out like the ‘shake weight’ they used to advertise).
After the yard work, I had walked over three miles and it was time to re-hydrate (12 oz curls?)!
Fall fertilization and preemergent products for lawn, trees, and shrubs, and insects seem to be the main topics at the Possum’s counter this week. Armyworms, chinch bugs, fleas, roaches (hey, it is Charleston, they like the world’s best city also) and mosquitoes have been attacking our Lowcountry homes and yards.
Always read, understand, and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.
