Planting or Transplanting This Fall?

 

Horticulture Hotline 10/04/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

My Tea Olives exploded with fragrance this week and had me thinking about fall and transplanting. The first call on “The Garden Clinic” (WTMA 1250 AM – noon to 1 on Saturdays) was Ted asking about transplanting. This article reminds me of what someone once told me about car commercials and cars being on sale on the radio – if you are not buying a car, you don’t really hear the commercials, but if you are in the market for a car, you do hear them. So, if you are thinking about transplanting, this article is for you…

 

Now is a great time of year to prepare for transplanting and to plant new plants. Many people are asking me the best way to transplant shrubs and trees. Here are some guidelines for successfully transplanting of plants and trees or planting new ones:

 

·         Decide the size of you root ball. For every inch in tree trunk diameter, you want a foot of root ball. If your tree is three inches in diameter, your root ball should go in a circle one and a half feet from the trunk of the tree. You could tie a string around the tree leaving eighteen inches of string – then draw a line walking around the tree measuring with this string. Root balls can be very heavy so consider a hiring a professional. Be prepared to pay top dollar to move a plant because moving plants requires much more work than planting them out of containers. If your plants are way too crowded, get as much root ball as possible, and if they are so crowded that you cannot even get in there to work, you may have to sacrifice a few plants, so you do not kill them all. Always take as large a ball as possible. Sometimes you have to thin out plants for the overall health of the landscape.

·         Spray the plant you are going to move with an anti-transpirant (Cloud Cover, Wilt Proof, or Transfilm). These products will hold moisture in leaves and stems. 

·         Drench the ground with SeaHume and SuperThrive. These are bio stimulant products that encourage rooting. Repeat monthly until you move the plant.  

·         Root prune the plant. Go to the area that you determined your ball to go out to and push a shovel straight down – do not pry on the shovel – just cut the roots. Repeat this root pruning all the way around the plant. If the plant has been in the ground a long time, you may have to skip a shovel width each time you root prune to lessen the shock. Apply SeaHume granular (Humic acid and Seaweed bio stimulants) to decrease stress. Repeat monthly until you move the plant.

·         Keep an eye on the plant for the next month. Be sure to water it as needed.  When watering the soil, spray a fine mist on the foliage of the plant.  Since the roots have just been severed, this will help the plant absorb the water through the foliage and water the roots as well. 

·         After thirty days or if you could wait until a cooler time (February), dig away from the plant in the area that you root pruned. Resist the temptation to pry up on the plant. You should have a ball in a mote when you are finished. Try to have the plant moved a month before it sends out new growth or flowers in the spring (early February to be safe).

·         Water the ball so the soil will stick to the roots.

·         Severe the ball from the area underneath the plant.

·         Always handle the root ball – do not grab the plant by its trunk.

·         Move the plant onto a tarp or some burlap.

·         Be sure when you move the plant to its new home, you plant it above existing grade.   Plants buried too deep are the biggest problem I see in landscapes.  A plant that is planted too deep is starved for oxygen which affects many other plant processes (ability to absorb nutrients or causes root rot). 

·         Be sure not to pile mulch up against the trunk of the tree or shrub as this will also kill the plant over a period of time. Consider using Cotton Burr Compost or Nature’s Blend as a mulch to get the nutrition associated with these products.

·         Spray the leaves and stems with anti-transpirant.

·         Use Diehard Transplant (contains a friendly fungus inoculum, wetting agents, water holding gel, humic acid, Sea Kelp, root stimulating vitamins and beneficial bacteria) should also be added to increase the surface absorbing area of root systems with the back fill. Spray foliage with BioRush as it is a special blend of natural organic ingredients designed to help transplant survival. Drench with SuperThrive.

·         Apply the right amount of water.  Be sure to spray the foliage.

·         Apply the right amount of Cotton Burr Compost or Natures Blend mulch.

·         Apply granular SeaHume after you have moved the plant to encourage new root growth.

·         Stake the tree or shrub if needed.

·         Good Luck!

 

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

Fall Is Here!

 

Horticulture Hotline 09/27/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Fall is officially here, and we are already getting some cooler weather. My Tea Olives are getting ready to bloom, so that wonderful fall fragrance is on the way.

 

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

 

A witch’s brew is a good 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 “the brew” 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, Vermaplex, Yucca … “The Brew” will promote good root growth and fast spring green up without stimulating soft growth that is susceptible to damage. A professional’s machine will add some hydraulic aeration (very beneficial) and other benefits. The professional is also use to mixing products at certain rates for different species of trees, age of trees and soil types.

 

SeaHume (granular is best this time of year, liquid still very good), 00-00-25, Cotton Burr Compost, Nature’s Blend, SuperThrive, Fish / Seaweed Blend, 04-00-10, Possum’s Minors are a few products that will benefit your lawn, trees and shrubs this winter. If you haven’t fed your trees and shrubs in a while 17-00-09 might be appropriate. Like people, trees, grass and shrubs, like to have some nutrition, so they do not go to bed hungry. Don’t be fooled by National Products that advertise heavily in this area as ‘winterizes’ that are designed for fescue and other cool season grasses. These products are not good for our warm season grasses.

 

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 Nature’s Blend.

 

Transplanting on you winter project list? Stay tuned.

 

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

 

 

A Few Questions

 

Horticulture Hotline  09/20/21

  By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

A few questions that I have been asked recently:

 

What is a good all-purpose insecticide besides Sevin?

 

Sevin is great on turf because it kills above ground (ants, ticks, chinch bugs, sod webworms, mosquitoes, fleas and many more) and below ground (grubs and mole crickets) insects. For above ground insects in turf areas consider a product containing bifenthrin (Bifen, Bug Blaster), and for below ground insects use Grubz Out for long term control. If you are after both above and below ground insects, try Bug Blasters Above and Below.

 

Sevin has been a go to product for a long time in gardens (as a dust and as a liquid). There are many general insecticides that you could replace it with in the garden. Neem Py is a natural product that is broad spectrum and works on insects as well as certain diseases (fungi). Insecticidal Soaps are also good for the garden. Viper dust is a good replacement for Sevin dust. Always read, understand, and follow product labels.

 

What is a good soil to compost ratio in a large raised garden?

 

The ratio of compost to soil depends on the native soil and the compost you are working with in your garden. If you have a tight, heavy clay soil, you would start with one part cotton burr compost to four parts clay. If you have basic loamy soil, you would use one part cotton burr compost to two parts soil. If your soil is real sandy, use one part cotton burr compost to one part sand. On athletic fields we mix four parts sand with one part cotton burr compost (often called 80:20 mix). On an athletic field you want to limit organic matter to maintain good drainage. Try to let your garden rest for thirty days after amending (not necessary with cotton burr compost since it is already fully composted, but still a good idea).

 

What is a good all purpose organic fertilizer?

 

You know I have to recommend a soil test. You could use the best fertilizer in the world; however, if you are missing one part of the plant nutrient puzzle, your crop will not reach its potential.

 

We have a lot of customers at Possum’s use Nature’s Blend as a top dress fertilizer. With its blend of composted cotton burrs, humates and alfalfa meal it would certainly have something in it to get your plants growing happily. The cotton burrs will also condition your soil and last for up to two years!

 

Something a little more conventional would be products by Sustane and Espoma..The 08-02-04 by Sustane is widely used in the organic farming world in the Lowcountry. I like using a mix of different organic products on my yard, so I get the different benefits each one has to offer. SeaHume will make all fertilizers work better by adding biostimulants and minor nutrients.

 

Using Neptune’s Harvest fish, seaweed, and fish and seaweed blend as a spray or a drench will also help increase your yield.

 

Always read and follow product labels.