Christmas Tree Time

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/10/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Another year has almost gone by. What a year! Covid, army worms, sod web worms, rats, Asian roaches, fall large patch, mole crickets and moles. With the dry spring very little brown patch – a nice change! Shortages of products? Umm…

 

This week I started seeing tents going up in parking lots and people wearing Christmas Hats, so I figured it was time for the yearly Christmas tree article.  

 

I’m looking forward to my trip through the Festival of Lights at James Island County Park. I understand things are going to be a little different this year; however, I’m sure I will be treated to another outstanding display of lights. If you’re a kid, does Christmas still seems like it takes forever to get here? It sure comes up quick to me! 

 

I wanted to get this yearly Christmas Tree article out early, so you could make plans to go to a local Christmas Tree Farm, find a local source for a cut tree, or use a live tree that you could use in your landscape after the holidays, if you were so inclined.

 

After Thanksgiving, many of you will be searching for a Christmas tree.  If you are going to buy a cut tree, consider buying it from a local business that is here year-round like an independently owned garden center.  If you buy it from a tent, or a temporary site, look for one that is run by the Exchange Club, Optimist Club, Rotary Club, a local church, a local school club, a local landscaper or another local organization.  Many local organizations that sell trees give a portion of the profits to local charities such as Camp Happy Days.

 

There are some people from out of state that set up tents in grocery store parking lots. They take their profits out of state when they leave. If you support our local businesses, then you keep our money in our local economy and maybe save a local job. Very important to always keep profits local, especially these Covid days.

 

Many of the local garden centers offer great Christmas gifts along with trees this time of year.  They have purchased many seasonal items that would be a great present for anyone. Gift certificates are usually available for the hard to shop for gardener. I know I felt like a professional athlete, signing Possum gift certificates last week. Shopping at a garden center is a great way to avoid long lines.  The parking is free and plentiful this time of year.

 

Have you ever considered a live tree? Different Hollies (right now you can tell the females with beautiful berries), Eastern Red Cedar, Little Gem Magnolias, Osmanthus, Deodara Cedar and many more make great trees and after the holidays you can plant them in your yard instead of throwing them to the curb. Leyland Cypress have been removed from this list due to their disease issues.

 

Local tree farms are also an option. A ride in the country is always a good family event (young children, “how much longer will it take to get there?”).  Lebanon Christmas Tree Farm in Ridgeville and Toogoodoo Tree Farm on the way to Edisto are some local tree farms.  Picking out your own tree is fun for the whole family and usually involves hot chocolate and hay rides. You know you are getting a fresh tree when you cut it yourself. 

 

If you go with a traditional cut tree, make sure it is in water at the place you buy it (unless it is coming fresh off of the truck), and make sure it stays in water until you take it to the curb after the holidays.  Once you bring the tree home, cut an inch off of the bottom of the tree, and place the tree in a five-gallon bucket of water.  While the tree is still outside, consider spraying the tree with Transfilm, Cloud Cover or Wilt Proof to keep the water loss through the leaves at a minimum. If you notice any insects on the tree, blast it with a strong stream of water or consider an insecticidal soap. Let the tree dry before bringing it into the house. 

 

Locate your tree within your house away from heating ducts and the fireplace.  A stand that can hold a lot of water is a big plus because a fresh cut Christmas tree can drink 1-2 gallons of water per day.  Have one responsible adult in charge of watering the Christmas tree daily to avoid ruining the carpet or floors.  If you can, fill (2) one-gallon milk jugs each day and let them sit for 24 hours, this will allow the chlorine to evaporate out of the water.  Letting the chlorine evaporate from the water you water your plants is a practice you should use when watering all house plants.  

 

There are many secrets to keeping a tree fresh.  Having a fresh cut and keeping water above this cut at all times is the most important thing you can do for the tree.  The water conducting vessels quickly close up if the tree does not have constant water.  Using a drop of Super Thrive in each gallon of water will help the tree stay fresh. Many people use 7-up and an aspirin in the water. You might want to save the aspirin if you drink Uncle Joe’s egg nog.  

 

Thank you for shopping at Possum’s Landscape and Pest Control Supply and for all of your letters, questions, comments when I meet you, and for reading “The Horticulture Hotline”!

 

Sweetgrass - Purple in the Fall

 

Horticulture Hotline 11/01/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

Question: Bill, I have a white, sticky, fuzzy fungus on my Sweetgrass plant. What can I do? I am retired now and my wife expects me to help her keep a nice yard when I’m not fishing or emailing jokes to my friends.

 

Answer: Congratulations on your retirement! Good luck with your fishing!

 

The purple of the sweetgrass plant is looking lovely right now throughout the Lowcountry. Another sign of fall – oysters anyone?

 

Your Sweetgrass plant most likely has a soft body, sucking bug called a mealy bug attacking it. Mealybugs are like aphids, scale, white flies, the “nasty rascal, the chinch bug”, lace bug and other sucking bugs in that they suck plant juices or sap from the host plant.

 

I was surprised when I first saw mealybugs on Sweetgrass. I usually associate mealybugs with plants grown inside buildings, homes (interior plantscapes) or greenhouses. I usually think of ornamental grasses as being pest free – wrong!

 

As with any sucking bug, you want to get the situation under control fast, or you will have the secondary problem that looks way worse than the fuzzy, airy mealybugs. The secondary problem is the dreaded sooty mold.

 

Sooty mold is the black mold that grows on the excrement (poop) of certain sucking bugs. Have you ever seen a black gardenia (from white fly poop) or crepe myrtle (from aphid poop)? Certain insects have a very short digestive track and they are drinking sap from a plant that is pressurized. The sap goes in their mouth and out their behind very rapidly covering the plant with a sugary substance (often called honey dew) that this mold grows.

 

In human terms, if you could connect your mouth to, let’s say, a keg of beer or maybe a soft serve ice cream machine at some point the beer or ice cream would be coming out of somewhere (nose, ears, …) leaving a mess. Insects have hardly any digestive tract to slow things down.

 

A very effective way to control these mealybugs, while not hurting the beneficial insects, is to use an insecticidal soap. Also drench the area around the Sweetgrass with Dominion.

Dominion is a long-term systemic insecticide that will free you up for more time fishing.  

 

Large Patch Fungus is really active. Fall Army Worms are still very active. Rats, roaches, mole crickets and fire ants thrive in the fall. It is a good time to apply Neem Oil or Horticulture oil for over wintering insects.

 

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

Visit our website at possumsupply.com.

 

Yellow Leaves?

 

Horticulture Hotline 10/25/21

By Bill Lamson-Scribner

 

I’m not going to mention s$d w*bw@rm, Ar^y Wo%^s, L@$&3 P@tch or Bro%n P@tch. Here are a few things to do while enjoying the beautiful Lowcountry weather.

 

One thing that I’m getting asked about right now is yellow leaves or discolored leaves on gardenias, azaleas, camellias, crepe myrtles, magnolias, viburnum, … For the most part these are old leaves that are falling off and are going to make room for new leaves. With the exception of the crepe myrtle, this list is all evergreen plants and tree. Just because these plants are evergreen doesn’t mean that they never lose their leaves. Evergreens will lose many leaves between now and April, just not all at once like the crepe myrtle. I have seen many azaleas that are almost naked when the new leaves appear in late February early March (depending on the weather).

 

Leaves are interesting in many ways. Chlorophyl is the green in leaves that captures the sunlight and by photosynthesis (probably the longest word ever used in a Horticulture Hotline – and I spelled it right – yes!) produces carbohydrates. Chlorophyl masks the other colors of the leaf. In the fall when chlorophyl is not being produced, the other colors of a leaf are visible. That is how we get fall color - reds (maples), yellows (sweet gum).

 

Due to changes in available control products, mole crickets have become quite the pest again. The populations have become so high that they are doing damage in areas that they didn’t really mess with before the availability of these products went away for certain uses. Mole Crickets overwinter as adults, so they will do damage throughout the winter. Since your grass will not have chlorophyl in the leaves, it will be harder to see the damage. Your grass will already be brown. With low humidity, drying winds during the winter, if mole crickets have separated the soil from the roots, the grass plant can desiccate and die, leaving big dead areas of grass in the spring. Mole crickets fly and are very mobile so even if you kill them today they can return.    

 

Did you put out a preemergent product to your lawn and beds for winter annual weed control in?

 

I’m not going to use the words, but rainy days and warm temperatures make disease flourish in the yard, especially yards that are already under attack. T-Methyl and Strobe are two good systemic fungicides with different modes of action to avoid resistance to the disease to apply now.

 

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