Keeping Busy In The Yard

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/14/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Moles are doing their fall tunneling, and they are everywhere! The three-step method of control still gets the best results. Kill the mole. Traps,

Mole Patrol and Talprid seem to work best. Manage the moles food source. Sevin, Over & Under and Grubz Out are very good at killing moles’ food supply. The third step is to apply a repellent to keep new moles out of the yard. Mole, Vole, and Gopher repellent and No Moles do a very good job. With the repellents, you can create a barrier around your property, so you use less repellent and save money.

 

Speaking of small fury animals, I can’t believe how many RATS are in the Lowcountry. I know Charleston has been written up several times for being a great place to live, but I never knew RATS could read.

 

Large Patch / Brown Patch / Zoysia Patch have been in lawns this fall. The recent rains made it explode in some yards with those all too familiar circles of disease. In our warm season grasses, these diseases can be in irregular patterns as well as the circles. Map the areas you see the disease, since the disease is in the soil it will tend to reappear in the same areas. Turn off the irrigation. Correct any thatch, compaction or drainage issues. Apply T-Methyl or Strobe G to manage the disease. Add Neptune Harvest’s Crab Shell (organic) product to the area to add beneficial organisms to the soil to combat the bad organisms. We have also seen for ourselves and heard from customers that the use of Cotton Burr Compost really helps with this disease.

 

Yes, you can still winterize your turf – it is not too late. Look for a product with a 00 for the first number (nitrogen). A 00-00-25 with sulfate of potash and minors would be great. If you do not need the potash, consider SeaHume a wonderful combination of seaweed and humic acid. The seaweed has over 60 minor nutrients, amino acids, and bio stimulants. The humic acid is also full of bio stimulants that help make nutrients that are in the soil available to the plant, help with soil structure, grow roots, and feed the microorganisms in the soil. Both these products can be used together and will help your yard this winter and next spring.   

 

Now is the time to collect soil to get on a program for 2022. If it has been 30 days since you applied a fertilizer, why wait? Beat the spring rush of soil tests at the lab (and my desk if you use Possum’s). If you have any amending to do (lime, etc.), you do it over the winter and be ready for spring. Having a soil test and program is like having a landscape design; it gives you a roadmap to follow, so you are applying the right products at the right time for your soil. 

 

Yes, you still have time to plant bulbs. A little 04-04-04 Bolster, Bio-Tone Starter Plus, and / or SeaHume should get them off to a good start.

 

Do not forget your Neem oil or Horticultural oil for your plants. With all the leaf spot diseases this year, I really like the Neem oil, since it acts as a fungicide as well. If you had any plants that had leaf spot this year, rake up the leaves as they fall (and destroy them), and spray Lime / Sulfur on the ground to help kill overwintering spores.

 

Hopefully, you have applied a preemergent herbicide to your lawn and beds. If not, why wait? Applying these products now can save you a lot of time this spring and your lawn and plants will thank you for removing the weed competition.

 

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

 

Christmas Tree Time

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/10/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Another year has almost gone by. What a year! Covid, army worms, sod web worms, rats, Asian roaches, fall large patch, mole crickets and moles. With the dry spring very little brown patch – a nice change! Shortages of products? Umm…

 

This week I started seeing tents going up in parking lots and people wearing Christmas Hats, so I figured it was time for the yearly Christmas tree article.  

 

I’m looking forward to my trip through the Festival of Lights at James Island County Park. I understand things are going to be a little different this year; however, I’m sure I will be treated to another outstanding display of lights. If you’re a kid, does Christmas still seems like it takes forever to get here? It sure comes up quick to me! 

 

I wanted to get this yearly Christmas Tree article out early, so you could make plans to go to a local Christmas Tree Farm, find a local source for a cut tree, or use a live tree that you could use in your landscape after the holidays, if you were so inclined.

 

After Thanksgiving, many of you will be searching for a Christmas tree.  If you are going to buy a cut tree, consider buying it from a local business that is here year-round like an independently owned garden center.  If you buy it from a tent, or a temporary site, look for one that is run by the Exchange Club, Optimist Club, Rotary Club, a local church, a local school club, a local landscaper or another local organization.  Many local organizations that sell trees give a portion of the profits to local charities such as Camp Happy Days.

 

There are some people from out of state that set up tents in grocery store parking lots. They take their profits out of state when they leave. If you support our local businesses, then you keep our money in our local economy and maybe save a local job. Very important to always keep profits local, especially these Covid days.

 

Many of the local garden centers offer great Christmas gifts along with trees this time of year.  They have purchased many seasonal items that would be a great present for anyone. Gift certificates are usually available for the hard to shop for gardener. I know I felt like a professional athlete, signing Possum gift certificates last week. Shopping at a garden center is a great way to avoid long lines.  The parking is free and plentiful this time of year.

 

Have you ever considered a live tree? Different Hollies (right now you can tell the females with beautiful berries), Eastern Red Cedar, Little Gem Magnolias, Osmanthus, Deodara Cedar and many more make great trees and after the holidays you can plant them in your yard instead of throwing them to the curb. Leyland Cypress have been removed from this list due to their disease issues.

 

Local tree farms are also an option. A ride in the country is always a good family event (young children, “how much longer will it take to get there?”).  Lebanon Christmas Tree Farm in Ridgeville and Toogoodoo Tree Farm on the way to Edisto are some local tree farms.  Picking out your own tree is fun for the whole family and usually involves hot chocolate and hay rides. You know you are getting a fresh tree when you cut it yourself. 

 

If you go with a traditional cut tree, make sure it is in water at the place you buy it (unless it is coming fresh off of the truck), and make sure it stays in water until you take it to the curb after the holidays.  Once you bring the tree home, cut an inch off of the bottom of the tree, and place the tree in a five-gallon bucket of water.  While the tree is still outside, consider spraying the tree with Transfilm, Cloud Cover or Wilt Proof to keep the water loss through the leaves at a minimum. If you notice any insects on the tree, blast it with a strong stream of water or consider an insecticidal soap. Let the tree dry before bringing it into the house. 

 

Locate your tree within your house away from heating ducts and the fireplace.  A stand that can hold a lot of water is a big plus because a fresh cut Christmas tree can drink 1-2 gallons of water per day.  Have one responsible adult in charge of watering the Christmas tree daily to avoid ruining the carpet or floors.  If you can, fill (2) one-gallon milk jugs each day and let them sit for 24 hours, this will allow the chlorine to evaporate out of the water.  Letting the chlorine evaporate from the water you water your plants is a practice you should use when watering all house plants.  

 

There are many secrets to keeping a tree fresh.  Having a fresh cut and keeping water above this cut at all times is the most important thing you can do for the tree.  The water conducting vessels quickly close up if the tree does not have constant water.  Using a drop of Super Thrive in each gallon of water will help the tree stay fresh. Many people use 7-up and an aspirin in the water. You might want to save the aspirin if you drink Uncle Joe’s egg nog.  

 

Thank you for shopping at Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply and for all of your letters, questions, comments when I meet you, and for reading “The Horticulture Hotline”!

 

Sweetgrass - Purple in the Fall

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/01/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Question: Bill, I have a white, sticky, fuzzy fungus on my Sweetgrass plant. What can I do? I am retired now and my wife expects me to help her keep a nice yard when I’m not fishing or emailing jokes to my friends.

 

Answer: Congratulations on your retirement! Good luck with your fishing!

 

The purple of the sweetgrass plant is looking lovely right now throughout the Lowcountry. Another sign of fall – oysters anyone?

 

Your Sweetgrass plant most likely has a soft body, sucking bug called a mealy bug attacking it. Mealybugs are like aphids, scale, white flies, the “nasty rascal, the chinch bug”, lace bug and other sucking bugs in that they suck plant juices or sap from the host plant.

 

I was surprised when I first saw mealybugs on Sweetgrass. I usually associate mealybugs with plants grown inside buildings, homes (interior plantscapes) or greenhouses. I usually think of ornamental grasses as being pest free – wrong!

 

As with any sucking bug, you want to get the situation under control fast, or you will have the secondary problem that looks way worse than the fuzzy, airy mealybugs. The secondary problem is the dreaded sooty mold.

 

Sooty mold is the black mold that grows on the excrement (poop) of certain sucking bugs. Have you ever seen a black gardenia (from white fly poop) or crepe myrtle (from aphid poop)? Certain insects have a very short digestive track and they are drinking sap from a plant that is pressurized. The sap goes in their mouth and out their behind very rapidly covering the plant with a sugary substance (often called honey dew) that this mold grows.

 

In human terms, if you could connect your mouth to, let’s say, a keg of beer or maybe a soft serve ice cream machine at some point the beer or ice cream would be coming out of somewhere (nose, ears, …) leaving a mess. Insects have hardly any digestive tract to slow things down.

 

A very effective way to control these mealybugs, while not hurting the beneficial insects, is to use an insecticidal soap. Also drench the area around the Sweetgrass with Dominion.

Dominion is a long-term systemic insecticide that will free you up for more time fishing.  

 

Large Patch Fungus is really active. Fall Army Worms are still very active. Rats, roaches, mole crickets and fire ants thrive in the fall. It is a good time to apply Neem Oil or Horticulture oil for over wintering insects.

 

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

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