Winter Kill On Turf

Horticulture Hotline 12/07/20

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Have you ever had winter kill? Several years have passed since the last major winter kill event. Let’s say 11 years. With fifty plus people moving here a day, that would mean that roughly 200,000 people have never experienced winter kill. Now is the time to prepare your grass for the wide variations in temperatures we have.

 

Preparing your lawn to avoid winter kill will also help with large patch / brown patch disease. Many of the cultural practices are the same. The rain, the shorter daylight hours and the cooler temperatures have large patch / brown patch exploding in yards of all types. Winter kill temperatures are not in the forecast; however, it is best to be proactive, so if and when the time comes, you are ready.

 

If you had winter kill in the past, you need to be sure to correct low and poorly drained areas, reduce thatch in the yard, increase air movement in low areas, keep your lawn hydrated and feed (with the right food for the winter). These same cultural practices will help with large patch / brown patch disease as well.

 

Mow your grass lower than normal (centipede 1.0 to 1.5 inches, St. Augustine 2.5 to 3.0 inches, zoysia will depend on whether it is fine blade or coarse blade). By mowing your grass lower, you will increase the air movement around the crown of the plant, so cold air will not settle at the crown of the plant and damage the grass. In Florida helicopters fly low over citrus groves that are in valleys to get the cold air out. Tall grass or thatch will insulate the crown of the plant like a goose down jacket, keeping the cold air near the crown where it can cause winter kill. Centipede lawns usually get winter kill the worst if temperatures plummet quickly. Tall grass will also stay wet longer. Wet grass favors the development of disease.

 

Fine blade Zoysia grass can grow very dense and get thatch. De-thatching, verticutting, using Bio Grounds Keeper, and regular topdressing with cotton burr compost should be part of your maintenance schedule.  

 

With the conditions so favorable for large patch / brown patch disease, an application of a systemic fungicide (Strobe, T-Methyl) is a good idea. This application is like us getting a flu shot. You want to get the flu shot or the fungicide out before you or your lawn get the disease.

 

Gift Certificates? Moles? Rats? Roaches? Fire ants? Putting in winter annual color? Preemergent herbicides? Transplanting shrubs or trees? A lot goes on this time of year in the landscape.

 

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

 

 

Something Good To Know

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/30/20

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

This weather is crazy. I can’t decide whether to run the heat or the air conditioner! This type of weather is why our grass can not decide whether to go dormant or continue to grow. The rain continues and so does the Large Patch / Brown Patch / Zoysia Patch. Hopefully, the cooler weather will make the environmental conditions part of the ‘disease triangle’ less of a factor. Of course, the cooler weather will make the rats, mice and roaches come inside out of the elements.

 

Knowing the square footage of your grass areas and bed areas are key to applying any fertilizer or control product correctly. Whenever we sell a bag of fertilizer at Possum’s we are going to ask, “how big is your yard?” You have to know if you need one bag or more than one bag. Some of our bags might be able to treat your yard twice. That is nice to know because that cuts the price per application in half, and also lets you know you still have product waiting in the garage for your next application. With the nice weather we are having, now is a great time to get out there and measure the yard.

 

I can remember several times hearing different variations of this same answer to my question while at the counter at Possum’s. “How many square feet is your yard?” Rough answer,” well, last year I put out that bag that covers 5000 square feet and it was perfect for my yard, so I must have 5000 square feet.”  Sorry, wrong answer.

 

Based on a pound of nitrogen, we sell 50 pound bags that cover as much as 23,000 square feet and as little as 1000 square feet. Unfortunately, the bag does not know the size of our yards or how fast we walk.

 

In the old days, yards were mostly square or rectangular, and they were easy to measure. Now most yards have curvy bed lines that sweep across the landscape, making them more difficult to measure. If you can break the yard up into little squares or rectangles, and measure the length and the width then you can get your square footage. Length multiplied by width will give you your square footage. Add up all the squares and rectangles that you measured the square feet of, and you will come up with the square footage of your yard.

 

If this sounds like total “Greek or Geek” to you, ask a landscaper, a realtor,  a landscape architect, someone that works with floors or carpets, an engineer, a construction worker, someone who pours driveways, or anyone else that regularly needs to measure the square footage of something to help you. Your plat map from when you purchased your house might help as well.

 

Now, there are even websites that you can log onto and they will tell you the square footage of your yard. Of course, I like to do it the old fashion way – length times width.

 

I know this measuring seems like a pain, but most of us stay in a house for several years or decades. A little pain spread over several years of having very useful information is worth it.

 

Once you measure the yard, put the measurements in about 5 to 10 locations throughout your house, your car (so you have it with you when you go to buy product) and the garage, so you do not lose them. I have learned over the years that I put information like that in one “special place” so I do not lose the information. I then forget where that “special place” is!

 

Color in the Lowcounrty and that Rampant Disease

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/23/20

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

The Lowcountry – what a beautiful place! We have a different fall color than many areas of the country, and the wonderful fragrance of Tea Olives as a bonus. Our fall color is not limited by the color of falling leaves. Our fall color comes in the form of berries, fruit, bark, grasses, foliage, and flowers. There is one not so pleasant color showing up in our turfgrass that needs to be addressed.

 

Large Patch / Brown Patch / Zoysia Patch are still very much an issue on our warm season grasses. Diseases need a susceptible host (your grass), the disease present (Large Patch / Brown Patch / Zoysia Patch is in the soil), and the correct environmental conditions (temperature, moisture). These three parameters are often called the ‘Disease Triangle.’ The environmental conditions part of this triangle has been off the chart this year. The weather that has been perfect for us to be outside has been perfect for the disease to flourish.

 

I like to look at the ‘disease triangle’ as a three-legged stool. If you can take away one leg, the disease / stool will fall. Your grass is not something you want to remove; however, you can keep it healthy (proper fertilization via soil testing, proper mowing height, healthy soil, manage low areas that collect water and thatch free.)

 

The environment is very difficult to control. Managing your watering would be the only easy thing to do with this leg of the stool. Temperature and rainfall are a little more difficult to control.

 

The disease in this case is pretty hard to deal with because it is in the soil. We (Possum’s) get reports from customers that using SeaHume and Cotton Burr Compost lowers the disease pressure in their lawn. In this case the good fungi are competing with the bad fungi. Fungicides are also work. When the weather conditions stay so perfect for the disease, multiple applications are required.

 

I don’t like writing about something that I just wrote about 2 weeks ago (go to possumsupply.com and look under the Horticulture Hotline tab for the 11/09/20 article), but this disease is running rampant!

 

The warm weather has lent itself to some nice color options in the Lowcountry. Many of my plants are blooming - Cassia is a bright yellow, Hibiscus (two colors), Bottlebrush (red), Lantana (multi), Milkweed (multi), Burford Holly Berries (red), Yaupon Hollies (iridescent red), Sasanqua Camellias (white) and Camellia Japonica (red and white). I also have brown backed Magnolia leaves that with the Camellias and the lemons off my lemon tree make a nice Thanksgiving arrangement. The warm weather has kept my Tea Olives smelling great!

 

My friend across the street has persimmon trees that have this cool red / orange fruit. The fruit appears after the leaves fall and from a distant look like plastic ornaments on the tree. They are tasty as well! I also saw some Pyracantha the other day. Beautiful berries but do have thorns. When I grew up people planted them and you learned quickly to stay away. Nowadays people probably just plant something else. Sweetgrass and ryegrass are jamming.

 

If you are planting pansies or snapdragons, be aware that these warm temperatures might make these plants more susceptible to disease. T-Methyl or Strobe should help you.

 

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