Pruning and Organics

Bottlebrush blooming up top - surrounded by cold damage

                                                     Hibiscus coming back after looking dead!

Horticulture Hotline 03/13/23

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Some plants were damaged by the recent freezing temperatures, and if you can wait to see where they begin to leaf out, you might be surprised that you have more plant left that is not damaged than you thought. Take a lantana as an example. The leaves may be black and nasty looking, but the branches may be alive and well. Leaves are thin and mostly water. The branches and stems are denser and contain more sugars that make them less susceptible to cold damage. Often on a lantana, the leaves get damaged; however, the plant totally comes back so you do not lose any of the size (mass) of the total plant.

 

Oleander is another plant that will leaf out along the main stems, if you can wait a few weeks. If you just want to reduce the size of the plant, stagger your cuts. Instead of giving the plant a flat top at 8 inches, taper down from the middle of the plant. Have the middle say 14 inches, and as you go to the outer area make your cuts at say 10 inches then down to 8 inches.

 

I know my hibiscus, bottlebrush and lemon tree will often surprise me with new life after a cold snap, and leaf-out far more than expected.

 

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

Cotton Burr Compost, Nature’s Blend, 09-00-00 Corn Gluten, Blood Meal, Bone Meal, Feather Meal, Cotton Seed Meal, 08-02-04 Sustane, 06-04-00 Milorganite 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 or Nature’s Blend as a mulch instead of pine straw (low nutrition) or bark (nutrition not available). If you use Cotton Burr Compost, 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! If you like the color of pinestraw or bark mulch, you can cover the Cotton Burr Compost or Nature’s Blend with a thin layer of pinestraw or bark mulch.

 

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 pretty much inactive. As the temperatures warm up, the microorganisms become more active and 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, 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 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.

 

Nature’s Blend not only contains Cotton Burrs, but also composted cattle manure, alfalfa meal and humates.  Alfalfa meal is high in nitrogen and contains Triacantanol, a natural growth enhancer (basal breaks in roses, root growth …), 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 Nature’s Blend have a cocktail of good organics, I am starting with them this year. The 09-00-00, 08-02-04, or 06-04-00 I will use later. I am hoping to bring my cold damage plants back and have them healthy to repair themselves from the 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. One annual blue grass plant can produce up to 6,000 seeds for next year – control it now!

 

Before another season of applying products to your landscape, now is a great time to measure your turf areas and your bed areas, so you know how much product to use.

 

Read and follow product label.

 

 

Additives

 

Horticulture Hotline 03/06/23

  Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

This is one crazy year! Like most years in Charleston. If you have a chance to go to one of the local public plantations, now is the time! Get the camellias, azaleas, dogwoods, spiraea, Carolina Jessamine (state flower), Loropetalum and many, many, more… Also get the smell of a sweet tea olive or two. If you are super busy and just have aa minute to enjoy Charleston’s spring, ride by or better yet walk through Hampton Park in the City of Charleston. I love riding through certain older neighborhoods this time of year.

 

While I was working in my yard this weekend, I realized that there are certain products that I use that make my yard work easier and help me get better results. Some of these products might help you out as well.

 

Blue Alert spray dye indicator. When I spray my yard, I add Blue Alert to my tank mix. Blue Alert is a dye that shows you where you have sprayed. Blue Alert helps you get even coverage and helps you apply products so you do not overlap to the point you do damage to your landscape. If you are spot spraying weeds, you will know which weeds you have sprayed. If you have an interruption (phone call, neighbor asking what you are doing, water break …), you will know where you stopped spraying. One of the ways it helps me the most is if I am spraying a weed killer and accidently hit a non-target plant, I can prune off the part of the plant with the Blue Alert on it before the herbicide is translocated and kills the non-target plant.

 

Brown Mulch Reviver is a great way to get color back in you mulch without having to add new mulch. The research today suggest that you should only have 2 to 3 inches of mulch in your beds and none right on the trunk of the bush or tree. If you want color without the expense of adding mulch, this is an option. A local resort used a mulch reviver before a major golf tournament a few years ago with great results.

 

The product I probably use the most is Sticker 80/20 Spreader with ammonium sulfate. When I formulated this product, I added a little ammonium sulfate (a fertilizer) to the spreader sticker to get the plant to grow and move the systemic product through the plant a little faster. Whether you are using a systemic herbicide, insecticide, or fungicide, that little bit of ammonium sulfate with the surfactant makes your product rain fast quicker, stick to the leaf better, translocate faster, and in certain cases you can reduce the rate of the product you are using. Many leaves are waxy (camellia – product rolls off like a freshly waxed car) or have fine hairs (clover – product rolls off like a duck’s back). The Spreader Sticker helps the product (contact or systemic) stick to the leaves. Sticker 80/20 Spreader with ammonium sulfate is non-ionic meaning it does not have a positive or negative charge associated with it. Introducing a charge to your soil (certain dish soaps), can mess up the nutrients in your soil since they are negatively and positively charged.

 

Tank Cleaner helps neutralize what you have been spraying.

 

Things are happening in the landscape. Are you ready? Remember this is next year for your soil test!

Tree Pruning to Liriope Pruning

                                            Liriope Cut Back

                                            Preemergent  vs No Preemergent. Right to the property line!

                                                     Wet Winter - Treat now for Turf Disease
                                                  

Horticulture Hotline 02/27/23

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Now, is a great time to inspect your trees for torn limbs that need to be properly pruned. Many of my deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves) are either just starting to put on new leaves or still naked. The green weeds are easy to spot in the lawn or beds (yes, I get weeds too). Insect inventory, especially scale, is easy to evaluate at this time. Any sooty mold left behind from last year indicates other insects. Have you inspected your yard for mosquito breeding areas? Do you have liriope that needs to be cut or mowed. I hate to ask this, but does anyone have moles? Have you seen any Lady Banks Roses or Carolina Jasmine? How about the smell of a sweet tea olive?

 

Right now, before your deciduous trees put on new leaves, is an excellent time to take a close look at them. If your trees are larger, it is a great time to get a professional tree company in to look at them. Look for crossing and rubbing limbs or limbs that are growing towards the middle of the tree. Look for limbs that have died, been damaged by ice or wind or just look unhealthy. By pruning these limbs now, you can direct all the new leaves and growth to limbs you want to keep long term, and not waste the energy of the tree to put on new leaves that you are going to remove later.

 

Dr. Shigo (the main man as far as early tree knowledge goes) found that trees do 85% of their growing for the year by May, so it is very important to have fertilizer available to your trees at this time. Either hire a professional to soil inject your trees or use a granular. SeaHume granular along with a 17-00-09 will get the tree headed in the right direction. A soil test is always the best way to determine your soil’s needs.

 

When your tree is naked, vines growing up into the canopy are easy to spot along the trunk of the tree. Since the tree does not have any leaves, these vines are easier to remove than when the tree and vine have leaves. I pull these vines away from the tree, scrap off some bark and apply Brush Killer to the open wound.

 

Weeds growing beneath the tree are easier to spot and deal with if you have a low branching deciduous tree. My fig tree has these big leaves, so once the leaves come out, it is very hard to spray herbicide underneath the tree without hitting the fig tree’s leaves. Some herbicides volatize, so without leaves a tree is less likely to get damaged. Spray now before the flush of leaves.

 

If you have any Asiatic Jasmine or Ivy that has grown into areas you do not want it, right now, while it is putting on young tender growth, is going to be your best time to control it. Consider using a product like Brushmaster for these hard to kill vines. Once the new growth has hardened off, certain vines are very hard to control.

 

If you have been plagued by black sooty mold in the past, right now, apply Dominion Tree & Shrub as a drench to these plants to control the insects that produce the black sooty mold. Get it out now to protect the new foliage from insect attack. Insects like that young tender foliage like us (cabbage, spinach, lettuce).

 

 

The temperatures are right to apply preemergent products. Do not delay! Get them out now for less hot, gnatty, summertime weeding and competition for your plants, and weeds are unsightly.

 

Hold off on the high nitrogen fertilizers for now. SeaHume and controlling winter weeds to lessen your seed bank for next year should be your focus. With all the winter rains fungus could be a big issue in your yard depending on your soil type and drainage.

 

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