Transition Time

                                           Aphids on Milk Weed Seed Pod

     The Nerve of those Aphids! Knowing I won't spray them and hurt the Monarch Butterfly

                                           "Nasty Rascal, The Chinch Bug"

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

Horticulture Hotline 09/12/23

 

Aphids, lace bugs, chinch bugs, mosquitoes, and fire ants are just a few of the insects that are either sucking on your plants or biting you. It is the time for sod webworms to munch on your turf. Right now, you can put out a preemergent herbicide that will control many of the weeds that compete with your grass in the early spring. Mums for the fall? Rye grass seed for the lawn? Are you planning to do some transplanting this fall of a tree or shrub. Are you adding some pots to your landscape? With the daylight hours shrinking and the grass slowing down, have you notice you are mowing less? Unfortunately, when the grass slows down, fungus can become an issue. Like the flu shot, put out fungicides preventatively, before you have an issue (you get the flu shot before you have the flu). Did you fertilize your grass, shrubs, and trees so they are ready for the fall? So many situations, so few column inches (newspaper lingo)! I will probably take a few weeks to cover all these topics.

 

Now is the time to put out preemergent products in the lawn and beds to prevent those small seeded annual weeds. Henbit, chickweed, Poa annua (annual bluegrass), cudweed and lawn burweed are a few of the winter weeds that would like to occupy your lawn and flower beds. Poa annua (the green grass that is very visible in February and March) and lawn burweed (the prostrate growing weed that develops a sticker) are usually the most hated of the winter weeds. Some people use profanity while describing them at the counter of Possum’s! 

 

For those of you with St. Augustine, zoysia, bermuda, bahia or centipede, keep your eye out for the sod web worm. Watch for moths in your yard around dusk. If you begin to see a moth that gets out of the grass, flies for 6-10 feet then lands again (like a bobwhite quail for you bird hunters) you may want to consider using one of the above-mentioned products. Usually sod web worms would not come out until September / October; however, with the crazy weather we are having, scouting for them could not hurt.

 

We just had a wind event that came up from the south. The moths of these worms will often catch a ride on wind currents from areas that they are active year-round (Florida). Watering first to bring the worms to the surface and applying control products in the evening when the larvae are about to feed, will often help your success depending on the product.

 

The “nasty rascal the chinch bug” is still sucking the life out of many St. Augustine lawns. I call the chinch bug the “nasty rascal” for many reasons. Chinch bug damage is often missed diagnosed as dry areas or fungus. Chinch bugs can also severely damage a yard very quickly. The weaken lawn is then susceptible to hard to control weeds (common Bermuda to name one).

 

Aphids attacking my milk weed? The nerve! 

 

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

 

Bill Lamson-Scribner can be reached during the week at Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply. Possum’s has three locations 481 Long Point Rd in Mt. Pleasant (971-9601), 3325 Business Circle in North Charleston (760-2600), or 606 Dupont Rd, in Charleston (766-1511). Bring your questions to a Possum’s location, or visit us at http://www.possumsupply.com. You can also call in your questions to “ The Garden Clinic”, Saturdays from noon to 1:00, on 1250 WTMA (The Big Talker). Saturday's show is replayed Sunday from 11:00 - Noon.

 

Fertilization and Sumo Wrestlers

                                           Bradford Pear Famous for Splitting

 

Horticulture Hotline  09/06/23

  Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

After last week’s Horticulture Hotline, I had some people ask me about weak crutch angles and about tree structure in general. If you hold your hand, like you are holding a can or a bottled beverage, your thumb and your pointer finger would make a “U.” A “U” is how you want your tree limbs to come together. If you hold up a “Peace Sign,” your pointer finger and your middle finger make a “V.” You do not want your limbs to come together as a “V.”

 

When you were a kid, you might have learned that you could count the rings of a tree to determine the tree’s age. Limb’s get bigger and bigger each year (hopefully). As they get bigger year after year, if they are connected by a “V,” the limbs begin to push against each other and become susceptible to splitting. If you were a super thin and tall (6’6”, 165 pound) 16-year-old boy and you bent your arm at the elbow, your forearm and bicep would make a tight “V” at your elbow. Then one day you decide you want to be the biggest Sumo Wrestler ever in history, so you eat and work out with lots of curls. You become 6’8” and 650 pounds. Now when you bend your forearm to your bicep by the miracle of the joint in your elbow, the arm stays attached even though they have grown much bigger. A tree does not have an elbow or a joint, so splitting become an issue.

 

Right now, there are a lot of national advertisements directed towards fall fertilization.  These national ads are directed towards cool season grasses, like fescue.  Most of these products have a fairly high first number - Nitrogen (18-24), a fairly high middle number - Phosphorous (18-24), and the last number – Potassium, between (8-14).  In the Lowcountry where we have warm season grasses, our needs are totally different. 

 

Our warm season grasses are getting ready to go dormant for the winter.  Cool season grow best right now and in the early spring while our warm season grasses are dormant.  The fall fertilizer for this area would have very little nitrogen, if any, and a high micro-nutrient package, especially iron.  Rarely on a soil test do I see a recommendation for Phosphorous at all because of the high levels of Phosphorous that are naturally occurring in our soils (Ashley Phosphate Road!).  Potassium is also good to add at this time of year in the Lowcountry. 

 

There are several products on the market that are good fall fertilizers for our warm season grasses.  At Possum’s, our three most popular fall fertilizers are; 00-00-25, Possum’s Minors and SeaHume.  Depending on your soil tests or what you have applied this season, one of these products will meet your needs. These products contain proprietary ingredients that will benefit your lawn at this time.  Cotton Burr Compost is another organic product that can be used alone or in combination with one of the above products. These products will help your yard this fall and, in the spring, when the grass is coming out of dormancy. It is always best to go to sleep (dormancy in this case) with some food in the belly (roots).

 

Iron, magnesium, and manganese are important for your lawn in the fall because they are part of what makes up chlorophyll.  Iron is the center of the chlorophyll molecule.  The chlorophyll is what makes grass green.  By adding iron now, you get a lot of green in the leaf blade.  The green in the leaf blade is what catches the sun’s rays and performs photosynthesis.  The photosynthesis is what produces sugars (carbohydrates).  These carbohydrates are stored as roots and other woody structures.  A high amount of sugar in the plant will also help the plant avoid winter kill (acts like anti-freeze).  It will also keep it green in the fall longer and it will green up earlier in the spring. 

 

If you think of the old TV’s that had dots on the screen that made up the picture, the iron will make more chlorophyll (dots on your TV screen).  Just as the more dots give you a better picture, the chlorophyll will give you a better-looking greener lawn and collect more sunlight for the grass plant.

 

 

After A Storm and Weak Crutch Angles

                                            Poor Structure
 

                                           Split - No Electricity

Horticulture Hotline 09/01/23

By Bill Lamson-Scribner       

 

Well, we got lucky once again for the most part. Whoever was in the airborne car in Goose Creek that was the lead story on most of the national (maybe international) news broadcasts might not feel that way. I guess in current terminology you would say the video went viral, and how many hits on YouTube it had. I lost three pine cones and had about an inch of rain, and I did lose electricity because a maple with a weak crutch angle split and knocked down an electric wire down the street from me. Dominion did a great job of getting the power back up and running.  The Lowcountry did get some flooding.

 

Salt has been the biggest issue with flooding this year. Unfortunately, we were in a very dry pattern of weather right before the storm hit, so the first drink many plants got was salty. I know some of my lantanas were showing signs of drought stress on Monday and I figured I would let them wait until the storm rains. We did not have much rain in the coastal areas during the storm or after the storm to leach the salt out of the soil profile and there is not much rain in the forecast. Rain or heavy watering are good ways to flush out salt; however, watering can get expensive and lead to fungus outbreaks this time of year when the grass is slowing down for the fall. A significant rain event is not in the forecast.

 

If you had salt intrusion, Gypsum, Salt Free, Excell, SeaHume G, ProMag and a soil test that test for Sodium provide the road map for the recovery of your landscape. You would want to take a soil test first so you know where your starting point is, then you could immediately apply products to mitigate the salt damage (keep track of what you use and at what rates so when your soil test results come back you will know what you have already applied). At Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply we can help you through this process and help you with directions on taking a soil test and using these products. Salt Free is probably our biggest seller for homeowners and it comes in a convenient Ready To Spray container that you hook up to a hose and spray.  

 

If a storm’s threat or the aftermath of the storm gets you to look up into your trees for broken limbs, diseased limbs, structural issues, limbs with cavities, or heavy overhanging limbs, then the storm has done some good. Inspect your trees closely for “widow makers”. Gravity will pull these limbs that are hanging in the trees down to the ground, and hopefully, you or your loved ones are not between the ground and the tree that they are hanging out of. Getting a tree care professional out to your house is always a good idea. Remember most injuries and deaths occur during cleanup. A reputable, local, insured tree care professional should come inspect your trees for dangerous situations.

 

The daylight hours are getting shorter. Some of the worms that eat grass in the Lowcountry overwinter and spend most of their time in Florida where they have huge numbers and multiple generations. With this current storm moving up from Florida, some worms might kite-surf the winds up to our area.

 

Worms eating the grass and chinch bugs sucking the grass are already in full force. The worms love the cloudy weather we have had because the birds and the wasps that feed on them cannot see them as easily. I noticed and the white flowers of Virginia Buttonweed are visible peeking through the foliage of the turf grass. Protect your grass from fungus by applying Strobe G or T-Methyl. Fungicides work best if used before you have a fungus (like the flu shot for us).  

 

Preemergent herbicides for the lawn and beds now will make your spring landscape much nicer. It is hard to believe, but winter weeds germinate and hide in the canopy of your green grass. Once your grass goes dormant (brown) you can see the green weeds. Treating your lawn and beds with Cyonora will keep mosquitoes, fleas, roaches, and other pests from bothering your pets, your lawn, your shrubs, or yourself.

 

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