Social Distancing And Exercising

Horticulture Hotline 03/16/20

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

For all the gym rats and exercise guru’s out there, I contend that working in the yard is some of the best and most rewarding exercise out there and you are not exposed to too many people. Yard work requires many different muscle groups and when you are finished, you can see a visual difference in your yard.

When you walk away from a swimming pool, stair climber, tread mill, spin bike, elliptical machine, rack of weights, or road you just walked or ran on, they look exactly the same as you found them unless you didn’t wipe your sweat off... The good thing about working in the yard or splitting firewood is you get that visual sense of accomplishment when you are finished. I can spend an hour on a rowing machine or in a pool, and they look the same when I’m finished as when I started.

Since a contractor doing work at my house decided he needed my chain saw more than I did, I have been doing most off my pruning with a Wolf Garten Hand Saw / Pole Saw Combination. Yesterday, I was pruning limbs away from my house for air movement, to keep the limbs from rubbing on my paint, and to keep the squirrels from climbing on my roof and trying to knawel their way into my attic. Depending on where the limbs that I was removing were in relation to my ladder, I was sawing with my right hand or left hand at all different angles while balancing on the ladder. Good exercise!

Then, I’m dragging these cut limbs to the area where the City picks them up and re-cutting the limbs that are too long. Next, pushing a lawn mower, priming a well, lifting a 50-pound bag, spreading a preemergent, lifting a 50-pound bag, spreading SeaHume, lifting a 50-pound bag, spreading more SeaHume, dragging a hose to water in these products. Unload the Cotton Burr Compost into a wheelbarrow (of course the tire is a little low on pressure), push the wheelbarrow across the yard to the trees and shrubs, lift the bags of Cotton Burr Compost and spread the “good stuff”. Then I rake down the high piles and level off the organics.

Time to prepare a bed for a few hibiscus and summer annuals. Digging and mixing in Flower Bed Amendment is always good exercise and the bed will be ready when the threat of frost is over. A good time to get the vegetable garden ready as well. Growing my own vegetables will ensure that I am the only one touching the vegetables. Bending down weeding and harvesting vegetables is good exercise also.

Next, I will re-establish my bed lines that define my beds by digging out the edge. Lift bags of mulch into that same wheelbarrow with the half flat tire to spread in areas that will not be affected by any late falling leaves. Lift the bags of mulch again and spread the much over the bed. Smooth out the much with a rake. Re-peat this series of exercise several times.

Then pump up the sprayer and do a little spot spraying of weeds and put out some mosquito protection… Multiple muscles used, and I can instantly see results in the yard and know there are more results to come.

Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.

Dancing Fairy? What?

Horticulture Hotline   03/09/20

By, Bill Lamson-Scribner

Bill,

After reading your articles for several years now, I’m going to give you a shot at my problem.  I have these perfect circles in my yard.  Sometimes there are mushrooms growing in the circle and other times they are just green grass followed by a dead area then green grass again.  The circle looks like a halo or a ring around Saturn.  The dead areas are just a little band about six inches around the circle.  These circles are amazing because you could take a compass, and they appear to be perfect circles.

I know you have helped out many people including myself in the past, any ideas on this problem?

Will you be offended if I tell you that you have fairy ring?  It is amazing how nature produces these perfect circles!  There are myths about these rings going back to medieval times.  When I was in college (also the dark ages!), the only control for this fairy ring was to dig up all the soil up to 20 ft. deep and replace it.  Luckily science has advanced since then.

A fairy ring, in the old days, was believed to be where a fairy danced around in your yard.  It is actually caused by decomposing organic matter either in the soil or in the thatch.  There is a certain class of fungi (Basidomycetes) that are responsible for the rings that you see. 

You described in your question the damage very accurately.  You have a band of green grass and a band of dead grass then the center of the circle is usually green, next to the dead area, and then just regular color in the middle.  Under ground, the fungus is sending out mycelium which are root like structures of the fungus that grow in a dense mass.  This mass doesn’t allow water to penetrate it (think of a real pot-bound plant when you water it and all the water goes to the outside edge of the pot and runs down the edges and out of the holes in the bottom, without really wetting the plant).  The mycelium mass is hydrophobic (water hating), this results in the dead ring that you see above ground.  The turf in this area is not getting any water.  Also the mycelium are constantly sloughing off and dying and as they break down in the soil, they release nitrogen.  This nitrogen can be in toxic levels, resulting in the dead areas.  Next to the dead areas, the nitrogen causes the areas to be dark green.  Think of an area where you have seen a dog urinate.  You have a dead area from too much nitrogen, then a green halo where the nitrogen levels are ok for the grass.  The mushrooms are just a fruiting body of the fungus that you see at different times of the year.  It is amazing how they are in a perfect circle. 

To control fairy ring, unlike 20 years ago, you don’t have to dig up your entire yard.  A good cultural practice is to apply a wetting agent, then aerate, and then reapply a wetting agent.  If that doesn’t give you satisfactory results, you can also put out a wetting agent, aerate, drench in a fungicide including a wetting agent, and see how your results are.  It may take several cycles of this treatment to be effective.  Strobe G, Heritage fungicide (derived from a mushroom), Fame and Pro-Star are fungicides that are labeled to control fairy ring.  Always read and follow product label.

It is truly amazing how Mother Nature creates these perfect circles.  However, I don’t believe many golf course superintendents are praising her when these circles show up on their golf green.

Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.

Organics - Time To Get Things Growing

Horticulture Hotline 03/02/20

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

When I see those buds on my bald cypress swelling, I think of one thing – ORGANICS!

Cotton Burr Compost, Flower Bed Amendment, Nature’s Blend, 09-00-00 Corn Gluten, Blood Meal, Bone Meal, Feather Meal, Cotton Seed Meal, 08-02-04 Sustane, 06-04-00 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, Flower Bed Amendment or Nature’s Blend as a mulch instead of pine straw (low nutrition) or bark (nutrition not available). If you use Cotton Burr Compost, Flower Bed Amendment 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 inactive. As the temperatures warm up, the microorganisms 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, Flower Bed Amendment, 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.

Flower Bed Amendment not only contains Cotton Burrs, but also composted cattle manure, feather meal, cotton seed meal and alfalfa meal.  Alfalfa meal is high in nitrogen and contains Triacantanol, a natural growth enhancer, 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 Flower Bed Amendment have a cocktail of good organics, I’m starting with them this year. I’m hoping to bring my cold damage plants back and have them healthy to repair themselves from the severe 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.