Fall In The Lowcountry

 

Horticulture Hotline 10/11/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

While walking and driving around, it seems that brown patch/ large patch/ Zoysia patch (I will use these names interchangeable) has invaded the Lowcountry in a big way. As the cooler weather comes and the grass growth rate slows down, large patch / brown patch / zoysia patch fungus began to show up in our lawns. Does it seem to you that right when we got the army worms and sod web worms under control, here comes the large patch? Proving once again, the Lowcountry is the hardest place in the world to grow grass and why it is so important to have a program for your lawn. Do you see areas of your grass that are brown when other parts are green?

 

Large patch disease is always present in the lawn, it just manifests itself when the environmental conditions are right and your grass cannot outgrow the damage. Without any sustained cold temperatures, this disease is slowly spreading across lawns as the temperatures that favor its growth keep coming into play. This prolonged fall is great for outdoor activities like visiting local plantations, fishing, boating, golfing, shopping and working in the yard; however, the temperatures are also perfect for these diseases to develop. The grass is not fully actively growing (not mowing as much) and it is not fully dormant (brown), so these are perfect conditions for the disease to attack.

 

Since this disease is a big problem in the Lowcountry, knowing that it is a soil borne disease can help you with control strategies.  Being a soil borne disease, you know that it will reoccur in the same areas year after year.  There are not any spores flying through the air like many of your leaf spot fungi, so the disease is easier to control.

 

As a soil borne fungus, if you map the areas that you have the disease, you can concentrate your control efforts (dollars) into a smaller area, putting less control products into the environment.  If your yard is 5,000 sq ft usually you might have a few infected areas which might total approx. 500 ft.  Instead of using control products to treat 5,000 sq ft, you can concentrate your efforts into the 500 ft (i.e. 10% of your total yard).  If Large Patch was an air borne fungus with spores, you would have to treat the entire yard because air borne fungi spreads a lot quicker than soil borne fungi.

 

As your grass is going into dormancy and the temperatures begin to cool at night, large patch is ready to attack your grass. Large patch will go inactive when the temperatures get very cold; however, it will become active again when the temperatures favor the disease. If you have discolored areas in your yard that appear to be a disease, check with someone that knows. Even if it is during a cold phase and the disease does not appear to be active, you can still put out a systemic fungicide for protection. Our soils do not get so cold that the plant will not absorb the fungicide with its roots. Remember treating a fungus with a systemic fungicide is like getting a flu shot – you do it preventatively before you have the disease. If it is too late to use it preventively, when you want the disease to stop spreading, you can use the fungicide curatively.

 

 

A good granular one-two punch control strategy is T-Methyl and Strobe Pro G (all systemic fungicides that get into the plant).  Use these products in areas where you have had Large Patch previously at the preventive rates and intervals recommended on the labels. Be sure to use T-Methyl with Strobe Pro G, so you are switching chemistry classes and modes of action. Good control early on can help avoid flare ups in the spring also.

 

Large patch usually likes wet, heavy thatch, improper nutrition, and/or compacted soils.  Culturally you need to manage your irrigation system, raise any low areas, and correct drainage problems.  Reducing thatch (at Possum’s we have a great organic granular product for controlling thatch), maintaining proper fertility levels, and aerating to alleviate compaction, will also help control large patch. A healthy turf (following soil test derived feeding schedule) with a soil with a lot of bio-diversity (use of cotton burr compost, SeaHume and other organics) has shown to help manage this disease.

 

It is a great time to apply Wet & Forget for a little fall cleaning. Great product unless you are in the dog house for something or need immediate results. You spray the product then it slowly starts cleaning. In two weeks, you usually can see a big difference, and it continues to clean for a while afterwards.

 

Time to take soil test. Every soil test is unique to your yard. Time to get ready for 2022.

 

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

 

Planting or Transplanting This Fall?

 

Horticulture Hotline 10/04/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

My Tea Olives exploded with fragrance this week and had me thinking about fall and transplanting. The first call on “The Garden Clinic” (WTMA 1250 AM – noon to 1 on Saturdays) was Ted asking about transplanting. This article reminds me of what someone once told me about car commercials and cars being on sale on the radio – if you are not buying a car, you don’t really hear the commercials, but if you are in the market for a car, you do hear them. So, if you are thinking about transplanting, this article is for you…

 

Now is a great time of year to prepare for transplanting and to plant new plants. Many people are asking me the best way to transplant shrubs and trees. Here are some guidelines for successfully transplanting of plants and trees or planting new ones:

 

·         Decide the size of you root ball. For every inch in tree trunk diameter, you want a foot of root ball. If your tree is three inches in diameter, your root ball should go in a circle one and a half feet from the trunk of the tree. You could tie a string around the tree leaving eighteen inches of string – then draw a line walking around the tree measuring with this string. Root balls can be very heavy so consider a hiring a professional. Be prepared to pay top dollar to move a plant because moving plants requires much more work than planting them out of containers. If your plants are way too crowded, get as much root ball as possible, and if they are so crowded that you cannot even get in there to work, you may have to sacrifice a few plants, so you do not kill them all. Always take as large a ball as possible. Sometimes you have to thin out plants for the overall health of the landscape.

·         Spray the plant you are going to move with an anti-transpirant (Cloud Cover, Wilt Proof, or Transfilm). These products will hold moisture in leaves and stems. 

·         Drench the ground with SeaHume and SuperThrive. These are bio stimulant products that encourage rooting. Repeat monthly until you move the plant.  

·         Root prune the plant. Go to the area that you determined your ball to go out to and push a shovel straight down – do not pry on the shovel – just cut the roots. Repeat this root pruning all the way around the plant. If the plant has been in the ground a long time, you may have to skip a shovel width each time you root prune to lessen the shock. Apply SeaHume granular (Humic acid and Seaweed bio stimulants) to decrease stress. Repeat monthly until you move the plant.

·         Keep an eye on the plant for the next month. Be sure to water it as needed.  When watering the soil, spray a fine mist on the foliage of the plant.  Since the roots have just been severed, this will help the plant absorb the water through the foliage and water the roots as well. 

·         After thirty days or if you could wait until a cooler time (February), dig away from the plant in the area that you root pruned. Resist the temptation to pry up on the plant. You should have a ball in a mote when you are finished. Try to have the plant moved a month before it sends out new growth or flowers in the spring (early February to be safe).

·         Water the ball so the soil will stick to the roots.

·         Severe the ball from the area underneath the plant.

·         Always handle the root ball – do not grab the plant by its trunk.

·         Move the plant onto a tarp or some burlap.

·         Be sure when you move the plant to its new home, you plant it above existing grade.   Plants buried too deep are the biggest problem I see in landscapes.  A plant that is planted too deep is starved for oxygen which affects many other plant processes (ability to absorb nutrients or causes root rot). 

·         Be sure not to pile mulch up against the trunk of the tree or shrub as this will also kill the plant over a period of time. Consider using Cotton Burr Compost or Nature’s Blend as a mulch to get the nutrition associated with these products.

·         Spray the leaves and stems with anti-transpirant.

·         Use Diehard Transplant (contains a friendly fungus inoculum, wetting agents, water holding gel, humic acid, Sea Kelp, root stimulating vitamins and beneficial bacteria) should also be added to increase the surface absorbing area of root systems with the back fill. Spray foliage with BioRush as it is a special blend of natural organic ingredients designed to help transplant survival. Drench with SuperThrive.

·         Apply the right amount of water.  Be sure to spray the foliage.

·         Apply the right amount of Cotton Burr Compost or Natures Blend mulch.

·         Apply granular SeaHume after you have moved the plant to encourage new root growth.

·         Stake the tree or shrub if needed.

·         Good Luck!

 

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

Fall Is Here!

 

Horticulture Hotline 09/27/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Fall is officially here, and we are already getting some cooler weather. My Tea Olives are getting ready to bloom, so that wonderful fall fragrance is on the way.

 

Did you put out a preemergent product to your lawn and beds for winter annual weed control in August? If yes, depending on the product and the rate you used, it is time to reapply. If no, now is the time to get it spread onto your lawn and beds. Preemergent products control weeds as they germinate making your life and your plants’ (including grass) life easier.

 

Winterizing grass, trees and shrubs with either a few products individually or as a multi prone approach will help insure the health of your landscape investment.

 

A witch’s brew is a good fertilizer for trees and shrubs this time of year. A fertilizer that mainly arborists use with special equipment to inject into the ground can also be used by the avid “Do It Yourselfer”. The DIY can apply “the brew” to the top of the ground and water it in, or make it into a slurry in a bucket and pour the fertilizer around the plant or tree. If you go with the slurry in a bucket method, you can always add SuperThrive, BioRush, SeaHume, Fish / Seaweed blend, Vermaplex, Yucca … “The Brew” will promote good root growth and fast spring green up without stimulating soft growth that is susceptible to damage. A professional’s machine will add some hydraulic aeration (very beneficial) and other benefits. The professional is also use to mixing products at certain rates for different species of trees, age of trees and soil types.

 

SeaHume (granular is best this time of year, liquid still very good), 00-00-25, Cotton Burr Compost, Nature’s Blend, SuperThrive, Fish / Seaweed Blend, 04-00-10, Possum’s Minors are a few products that will benefit your lawn, trees and shrubs this winter. If you haven’t fed your trees and shrubs in a while 17-00-09 might be appropriate. Like people, trees, grass and shrubs, like to have some nutrition, so they do not go to bed hungry. Don’t be fooled by National Products that advertise heavily in this area as ‘winterizes’ that are designed for fescue and other cool season grasses. These products are not good for our warm season grasses.

 

For trees and shrubs, you can get ahead of the insect battle by using Neem oil or Horticulture oil. Neem oil has some fungicide benefits also which is a bonus. If you have a tree or shrub with a history of scale, twig borer, aphids, white flies …, apply a drench of Dominion now to protect the new growth next spring.

 

Leaf spot diseases have been a big issue this summer with all the rain. As the leaves fall, rake them up to remove overwintering fungus. If you had any major problems, you might want to remove your old mulch, spray with lime / sulfur, and replace the mulch with Cotton Burr Compost or Nature’s Blend.

 

Transplanting on you winter project list? Stay tuned.

 

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