Crazy Weather

Well, I guess all the rain is helping to flush out the salt water from all the flooding; however, there is still some flooding of salt water at high tide because of all the rain. Crazy weather! If I lived in a cave without a way to see the outdoors and strictly based my predictions of what is going on outside by what the three Possum Stores were ordering, I would guess fungus is very prevalent and rats.

This year I tried something new for my winter application of preemerge. I treated my yard with a onetime heavy rate in late August and I did a split application at my mother’s house. Well, needless to say, this was not the year for experimenting with the huge amount of rain we have had. My yard is getting a few winter annuals and hers is still free of weeds at last check. Winter annual weed seeds will be germinating for a long time still, so if you haven’t applied a preemergent for winter weeds, you might consider it.

  

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, Aloft, 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. Repellex does a very good job. With the repellents, you can create a barrier around your property, so you use less repellent and save money.

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 Cleary’s, Prophesy, Serenade (organic) or Disarm. 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 and SeaHume 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 should be used together with all the rain we have had, and 00-00-25 and SeaHume will help your yard this winter and next spring.    

If you have not lowered your mower height to help reduce winter kill, now is the time.

The lower cutting height will remove the leaf blades that trap the cold air near the crown of the plant. Most of the winter kill occurs on Centipede grass that has a lot thatch and is tall (over 1.5 inches). The lower height of cut will also help dry out the grass, reducing fungus.

Now is the time to collect soil to get on a program for 2016. 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.  

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

Salt Damage From Full Moon Tides

Ok, we get done with the 20 - 30 plus inches of rain water, then have a few more rains. What’s next? Some crazy “Kings Moon High Tide” comes along to flood salt water all over our landscape!

Since we had the salt water flooding, the best thing for our landscape was all the rain before the salt water hit our landscape. If our plants were super thirsty from a drought, and their first drink of water was salt water, the damage to the plants could have been much greater. Many of the landscapes were still super saturated with fresh water that would help dilute some of the salt water.

Now is the time to flush out the salt water if you have not already. Although watering your yard is probably the last thing you want to do, you need to flush out the salt. Using a product like Possum’s Salt Free makes this very easy. Use 1.5 oz per thousand square feet in 2 – 4 gallons of water for 2 – 4 consecutive weekly treatments.

We have sold Salt Free to homeowners, to parks and to large sport complexes with great results for over 10 years. Some of the sport complexes inject it in their irrigation system, since they are watering with salty water. As a result they are constantly removing the salt that they are adding!

Gypsum is another product you can use to “flush out” salt. 100 pounds per thousand would be a good place to start and apply ProMag with it at 12 pounds per thousand. Gypsum and ProMag are granular. Some people prefer granular.

Excell (start at 25 pounds per thousand and apply weekly until soil test looks good) and SeaHume G (start at 15 pounds per thousand and apply weekly until soil test looks good) will also help with high sodium soils. Excell and SeaHume G are both granular as well.

Doing soil test while you try to rid your soil of salt, will help you greatly. Checking the sodium levels along with the base saturation levels will let you know how successful you are at flushing the sodium.

As always, if this is hard to understand, hire a professional.

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

Getting Trees and Shrubs Ready For Winter

I’m not going to mention s$d w*bw@rm or Bro%n P@tch. Here are a few things to do while enjoying the beautiful Lowcountry weather.

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

05-30-30 Root Pusher by Dogget is a 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 Root Pusher 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, Dominion … Root Pusher has special penetrants incorporated in the product to improve distribution in the soil and humates. Root Pusher will promote good wintering and fast spring starts without stimulating soft growth that is susceptible to damage. Just writing about this product makes me want to get a bag out in my yard!

Root Excellerator, SeaHume (granular is best this time of year, liquid still very good),

00-00-25, Cotton Burr Compost, Flowerbed Amendment, SuperThrive, Fish / Seaweed Blend, 04-00-10, Possum’s Minors are a few products that will benefit your trees and shrubs this winter. Trees and shrubs, like people, like to have some nutrition, so they do not go to bed hungry.

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 Flowerbed amendment.

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