Too Dry To Aerate This Spring?

 

Horticulture Hotline 08/14/22

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

I was asked about aerating a yard this time of year the other day, and I replied go for it as long as your grass is actively growing and not under any stress. Aerating should be considered for the health of your whole landscape and it is not a spring only activity.  While you have the holes open in your yard, there are many products that you can add to that root zone area that will benefit your turf, trees, and shrubs.

 

Aerating reduces compaction, reduces thatch, increases oxygen movement to the roots, brings beneficial microorganisms to the surface, cuts runners, and allows better penetration of water, fertilizers, or control products into the soil. As a bonus you may cut up an army worm!

 

If you aerate now, it will be the perfect time to apply your winter preemergent weed control. Even if you don’t aerate, now is the time to control those winter weeds with a preemergent control product.

 

If you were too busy in the spring or if your yard was just too dry, aerate now before the grass slows down too much. I imagine there are a lot of landscape professionals that have aerators sitting in their shop that would love to aerate your yard now or get a few neighbors and rent one.

 

Right after aerating, while the holes are open, is a good time to add SeaHume G, BGK 7500, 04-04-04 Bolster, Crab Shell, Turface and/or Cotton Burr Compost.  Even if you are not aerating, these products are great to add to your lawn and beds.

·         SeaHume G is a bio-stimulant humic acid product that will help your roots grow, soften up the soil, feed beneficial micro-organisms in the soil, make nutrients that are in the soil more available to the plants, and keep fertilizer from leaching.

·         SeaHume G also contains 10% cold water seaweed. The seaweed also acts as a bio-stimulant and is a source of over 60 minor elements, amino acids, and natural chelating agents.

·         BGK 7500 is a granular organic product that has thatch eating bacteria mix in with a 03-03-03 fertilizer. BGK 7500 is also fortified with 6% humic acid.

·         04-04-04 Bolster and other products that contain mycorrhiza. By applying these products while the roots are exposed, the mycorrhiza can attach to the roots quickly. These friendly fungi will help the plant absorb water and nutrients from the soil while competing with bad fungus in the soil.

·         Crab Shell by Neptune’s Harvest will increase the chitin eating bacteria in the soil. These bacteria will help control nematodes and fungus. I would definitely use this product in areas that I have problems with large / brown patch.

·         Turface can last about 20 years in the soil and help manage moisture.  This is a clay product that has been super-heated until it pops!  This makes this product sterile as well as turns it into a little capillary.  This capillary holds water and then releases it as the plant needs it.  This product is used on baseball infields to manage the moisture levels in clay; otherwise, the clay would be rock hard or moist and slimy. Turface will also keep fertilizer and water from leaching in sandy soils. Turface is great for wet or dry areas.

·         Cotton Burr Compost will add water holding capabilities to the soil by adding organic matter to the soil.  Cotton Burr Compost will soften up clay as well as giving sandy soil nutrient holding capacity.  Cotton Burr Compost is very high in nutrition and will also help increase populations of beneficial organisms in the soil.

 

All the above products will help conserve moisture as well.

 

Those mean and nasty fall mosquitoes are out and watch out for aphids.

 

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

 

Want To Kill A Tree?

Horticulture Hotline 08/08/22

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Fall is approaching. With all these super-hot days, maybe some of you are going to plant a tree to cool down your environment. Here are a few things that you do not want to do to have a healthy tree.

 

Buy a tree on sale that has been starved for water, food, and is pot-bound.  The tree will probably have a weak structure; this is why no one has purchased it.  Get that real tall 3-gallon plant that should be in a 15-gallon pot.  To be sure you are buying a root bound plant; make sure there are big roots coming out of the holes in the bottom of the pot.

 

Set the tree in the back of a pickup truck or on the roof of your car with no protective covering for the foliage.  Drive 70 mph home with the wind battering the tree (this is good practice for hurricane season), or decide to do other errands while it sits in or on your vehicle all day.  When you get home, the tree will be defoliated and further dried out.

 

After you have cut away the plastic container, be sure you have nice circling, woody roots.  Dig that million-dollar hole.  Go 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide and amend with fresh cow manure from your friend’s farm and leaves you picked up in plastic bags from around your neighborhood.  Once this organic stuff begins to decompose, it will rob your tree of more nutrients and settle.  Settling is a guarantee that your plant will be planted below existing grade, starving it for oxygen.

 

Plant your new specimen tree near your house, between the driveway and the sidewalk that leads to your front door so it will be easy to keep an eye on it.  This way when it gets older, it can rub up and damage your roof and the roots can damage your sidewalk, driveway and foundation of your home. 

 

Planting near a down spot is nice for the free water off of your roof.  During rainy seasons, this will also help the tree drown. 

 

When you plant the tree, make sure the soil goes over the root ball so the tree looks like a telephone pole or pencil coming straight out of the ground.  Make sure that the flare of the tree is below grade.

 

Once you have the tree planted, mulch it. Put a huge volcano of mulch around the base. Make sure a good part of the truck is covered, so adventitious roots will grow and insects and disease will have a good entry area.

 

Now you are ready to stake it.  The old garden hose cut up with wire run through it is still a popular way to kill a tree.  Stake it in three directions tightly so that the tree doesn’t sway in the wind, thus guaranteeing that the tree will not become strong enough to support itself.  Mark your calendar three years from the day you staked it.  If the tree hasn’t already died, the guide wires from the stakes should have girdled it by now.  If you want to make sure you kill the tree, put tree wrap on it as well.  This wrap will constrict trunk growth and hold moisture rotting the bark.  This soft bark makes a good place for insects to enter the tree and fungus to rot the tree. 

 

On the serious side, it is time for the fall application of preemergent herbicide to the lawn and beds. We have a long growing season here, so it is important to maintain your barrier against weeds. Rain has been sporadic. Try wetting agents this fall and save water and your fungicide bill

 

Everyone has already done a soil test – right? So, you know what your yard needs to be it’s healthiest this year. The nasty rascal the chinch bug is still doing damage and leaving weeds in its wake.

 

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

 

 

Dog Daze

Horticulture Hotline 08/01/22

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

I have to tell myself again, “it will get cooler, soon.”  The kids are headed back to school. Football season will start on all levels soon. I saw a sasanqua camellia full of buds, ready for its early fall flowering display. Some overworked and maybe under fertilized crepe myrtles are losing their leaves. What a crazy weather year this 2022 has been! Hot, dry, and windy then some good rain and now back to hot and dry. Generally, our soils dry out quickly in the Lowcountry. After a few days without rain, many of our lawns can show stress.

 

When it gets cooler, the winter weeds, that you see in your otherwise brown grass in about January, will germinate. They can begin to germinate as early as late August, depending on soil temperature and microclimate. The weeds will hide in the canopy of your green grass until all the sudden they show up uninvited and ruin your uniformly dormant grass.  In Hilton Head in a shady, damp area, I have seen annual bluegrass (Poa annua) rearing its ugly head in mid August.

 

I have heard similar reports from turf professionals though out the state. The manufactures suggest you get the product out two weeks before the weeds germinate. To pull this off to an exact day you would have to have some sort of crystal ball. We have all watched the weather, it is not that easy to predict.

 

Get your preemergent product out early. Worse case you might catch some late germinating crabgrass. You can fertilize your yard at the same time, giving the grass one last nitrogen feeding before fall. Depending on your grass type and soil test, several good fertilizers and preemergent combination products are available. I know at Possum’s we sell 00-00-07, 15-00-15, 15-00-05, 23-00-08 fertilizers with various types of preemergent active ingredients sprayed on them.

 

 Be careful where you purchase your preemerge products. I have seen Dimension (a type of preemerge by Dow AgroSciences) loads of active ingredients as low as 0.10% to 0.15%. This low amount of active ingredient will keep the cost of the bag low; however, you have to put out much more to get the desired results from the preemergent. The 0.10% product you have to put out 100% more to get the amount of active ingredient as a 0.20% product and the 0.15% product you would need 33% more product. Are you really saving money?

 

By pushing your spreader across the yard soon, you will save yourself about six mowing this winter / spring depending on the weather. Your lawn will look better and not have to compete with the weeds when the grass is coming out of dormancy. How about no burweed (low growing weed with a sticker that dogs and kids hate) or Poa annua (the grassy weed with the white seed head.

 

Putting a preemergent product in your beds is also a good idea right now. For those of you that fight Florida Betony (Rattlesnake weed or Wild Artichoke) every year, now is the time to put out Casaron. Be sure to read the label carefully because it is not labeled for all plants.

 

Army worms are marching across the Lowcountry, munching on grass as the go. Chinch bugs are still rampant, and these hot high humidity days have many fungi flourishing. Roaches, mice and rats are coming inside out of the heat. Remember the next time a web hits you across the face, spiders are generally good. Mosquitoes anyone? Fall garden?   

 

The weather will get cooler.

 

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