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Horticulture Hotline 08/16/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

For the new readers of the Horticulture Hotline, my “To Do Lists” are designed to help you target a few activities in your yard and in your home that will benefit you in the future.  These lists are not designed to interfere with high school, college, or professional football games, sunset boating, shrimping, hunting, golfing, eating chicken wings at a local sports bar, oyster roasts, collecting oysters or clams from the local waters, or watching NASCAR on the couch with closed eyes! Shopping the sales (saving money), getting a foot massage, and going to the movies should not be interfered with.  This is not designed to be a “honey do” list.

 

Hurricane season is upon us. Now is the perfect time to look up into your trees (and your neighbors if their trees hang over into your yard) and look for broken off limbs that are hanging over your yard or any cavities that might become a problem (rotten wood) in a wind event. Tree limbs rubbing against a house are always an issue.

 

Many of you will be changing out annual color in the next few weeks. While the beds are empty, you have to chance to amend your soil for better flower production and address any drainage problems. If the bed stays wet, this is a good time to raise it with the addition of soil or amendments. You can also crown the bed so it drains off to the sides.

 

Back To Natures’ Nature’s Blend has proven to do a superb job in our Lowcountry soils. The special blend of composted cotton burrs, composted cattle manure, humate and alfalfa meal has the best of gardeners coming back for more. Alfalfa contains Triacantanol, a natural growth enhancer, and is high in organic Nitrogen to get your plants growing. Nature’s Blend may also aid in the suppression and control of certain fungal diseases.

 

Here is what Dr. Herman Daniell had to say about his experience with the product, “The Nature’s Blend has been a superior product for my rose garden. I have had healthier bushes with more blooms since I began using this product.”

 

Many of you will also be changing out containers, hanging baskets and potted plants. If your plants are in an exposed place requiring daily watering, consider adding soil moist or other water holding gels to your soil. These gels and the use of a wetting agent like Possum’s Wetting Agent with Biostimulants can make your life much easier. If you go away for the weekend, your plants will hardly miss you.

 

Now is the time to apply preemergent products for your winter weeds. The mosquitoes have really come out with all the rain and the Buck Moon. Protect yourself from Covid and mosquitoes. Lawn eating worms and lawn sucking bugs (the nasty rascal the chinch) are still an issue. Roaches and earwigs are coming in out of the rain. Moles and mole crickets are also damaging lawns. The rain has surfaced the hated fire ant as well. Hibiscus are looking good!

 

Always read and follow product label.

 

Fall Is Coming

 

Horticulture Hotline  08/08/21

  Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

On my way to the radio show on Saturday, I was talking with one of the guys I work with at Possum’s (Nathan), and he said he was carrying out a bag of 15-00-15 Dimension to a customer’s car. Since I don’t have young children going back to school, Nathan’s statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Summer is over! Cool weather is on the way! Football! Fall fishing! Deer Hunting! Shrimping! Golfing! Volleyball! Pickleball? Time to put out your fall application of preemergent herbicide!

 

Before giving you a product name and time to put it out, I want to explain a little bit about the life cycle of the weeds you are trying to control and how preemergent products work. 

 

What you are targeting now are small seeded winter annual weeds.  These are weeds that germinate from seeds late summer, grow into plants during the winter, then flower and produce seed for the following year in early spring.  The seeds lay dormant over the summer, and then germinate late summer to begin another life cycle. 

 

Some examples of the most common winter annual weeds are annual bluegrass (Poa annua), chickweed, Carolina geranium, and Henbit.  The weed that we get the most complaints about is annual bluegrass.  It is the grassy weed with the white seed head in late March, early April.  If you control your winter weeds, you usually will not have to mow your grass until later.  All of these weeds are very visible in a brown dormant grass. 

These weeds also compete with your existing turf when it tries to come out of dormancy in April. 

 

A couple of weeds that are not annual weeds that are visible at the same time are Dollar weed and Florida Betony (rattlesnake or artichoke weed).  These weeds require different control methods since they are not coming up from seed. 

 

Preemergent products do what their name implies.  These products kill the weeds seed before it can emerge from the ground.  By killing the weed before it emerges from the ground, you are making your life a lot easier.  Killing weeds after they emerge (post-emergent) is much harder on you and your grass. 

 

Be careful to read and follow product labels so that you do not over-apply products.  Since a lot of people put out preemergent products as a granular, be careful not to overlap too much or you can damage your turf. 

 

Now is the time to put out preemergent products (two weeks before the soil temperatures are ready for winter weeds to germinate).  There is an organic product, Corn Gluten that received rave reviews from the people that tried it.  Various fertilizers such as; 15-00-15, 15-00-05 and 23-00-08 combined with preemergent will give your lawn and shrubs (don’t forget the shrubs!) one last feeding of nitrogen for the year while controlling the weeds.  Usually, you will want to come back with another preemergent in 6-10 weeks depending on the products you use and the weather conditions. If you plan to plant ryegrass, make sure you understand about the rates to use and timing.

 

Always read, understand and follow product labels.

 

 

Rye Grass?

Horticulture Hotline 08/02/2021

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

August is a month that the yard begins to transition out of the summer mode and moves into the fall / winter mode. Even though it is 135 degrees outside and 150 percent humidity, the air will cool, the kids will go back to school (hopefully), football and volleyball will start, the daylight hours will decrease, and deer season will begin with a bang. 

 

One big question to answer this time of year is do I want to grow ryegrass in my lawn, paint my lawn green, or let it go dormant?

 

While driving through neighborhoods, I see a lot of houses for sale. Ryegrass or green paint could separate your house from the multitude of other houses that are on the market.

For the very low cost of seed and fertilizer if you could sell your house one month earlier saving you a monthly payment, wouldn’t it be worth it? What about a year earlier? Whether you are selling your house or not, ryegrass always looks good in the winter.

 

Ryegrass gets a bad reputation because people misapply it. I often get asked, “doesn’t rye kill my centipede (St. Augustine, Zoysia)?” If you manage the rye correctly, you should have no problems. The ryegrass question is like buying a dog. If you base your decision on the few untrained pit bull stories and never purchased or adopted a dog of any type because of these stories, it would be too bad. I write this as my almost nineteen-year-old mixed dog, Ol’Boy, softly snores under my desk at my feet.

 

If you decide you want to put out ryegrass, now is the time to preemerge your grass for winter weeds (read and follow product label). Depending on what preemerge you use and the rate you apply it, you usually want to get it out 60 days before you overseed with ryegrass. By using a preemerge product in advance of spreading the ryegrass, you should help eliminate some of the competition from unwanted weeds.

 

If you are painting or not using rye, you have until mid August to apply your preemerge for winter weeds. Do not miss this first application of preemerge, or you might miss some of the nasty winter weeds that will compete with your turf grass next spring. Who wants to be “mowing weeds” late winter / early spring?

 

Grass eating worms (army worms, sod webworms, fall army worms), mosquitoes, fleas, rats, weeds, and pruning questions seem to top the question list at Possum’s.

 

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