Horticultural Oil

Treating with horticultural oil involves injecting essential nutrients into the root zone. Surface drench or dry nutrients may be used under certain situations. Insect and/or mite controls are applied as young foliage develops. This treatment minimizes early season damage caused by insects, mites and diseases. It also helps to control certain pests during their overwintering stage, before damage occurs. Horticultural oil enhances color, improves leaf size, while stimulating overall growth and flowering potential

Leaf Spot

Leaf spot is one of the most common turfgrass diseases. It occurs most frequently during cool, moist weather and causes yellowing and severe thinning if it's not controlled. Leaf spot begins as small, dark spots on the leaves and leaf sheaths. As the spots enlarge, they turn purple with a tan center. If the disease persists, the spots may cause a collapse of the plant, leading to a thinning or "melting out" of the turf. While the problem is active in the spring, the thinning may not occur until summer.

Winterkill and Snow Mold

Winterkill is a general term used to described injury of turf in the winter. Winterkill can be caused by many things, including low-temperature injury, winter dehydration and fungal diseases. Low-temperature injury occurs when grasses, which have not hardened-off, are exposed to below-freezing temperatures. Warm-season grasses are more susceptible to low-temperature injury than cool-season grasses. Freezing and thawing in late winter accompanied by high soil moisture is a common cause of low-temperature kill. Winter dehydration occurs primarily in Northern regions under prolonged periods of cold and windy conditions with little or no snow cover.

Snow mold is a disease that also occurs mostly in Northern regions. It is caused by several different fungi and affects many turfgrasses. The symptoms are irregular to circular patches of water-soaked, yellowed, or bleached turf. They sometimes bear a whitish, gray or pinkish cast. Snow mold commonly becomes noticeable after a period of snow cover over unfrozen soil.

Helping Your Plants Survive Winter

Winter drying can be a problem on many evergreens, causing brown leaf edges or brown needles. These browning symptoms may not be noticed until spring or early summer. Watering during the fall or winter will help to counteract winter drying.

Frost damage results in sudden death of foliage, buds and/or flowers. Curling, browning, or blackening of leaves and twigs may be caused by frost. Hardy plants will generally recover.

Freezing injury may result in splitting or loosening of bark on twigs, branches, or trunks. Roots may also be damaged by low temperatures. As a result, plants may be killed totally or partially.

Watering Your Lawn

Proper Watering Techniques

The most neglected area of landscape maintenance is proper watering of trees and shrubs. Many ants are more prone to insect and disease attacks if they are stressed by lack of water. Watering your lawn is no assurance that adequate water is reaching the roots of your trees. Turf roots are shallow and thick, making it difficult for water penetration deep within the soil.

Trickle Irrigation

To water trees and shrubs properly, you need to use the trickle irrigation technique. Place a hose near the base of the tree or shrub and let the water run at a trickle for a few minutes. This method allows water to penetrate the soil more efficiently.

Well-Groomed Lawns

Your lawn can have an effect on your family's health.

Acting like a gigantic sponge, lawns absorb all types of airborne pollutants such as soot, dust and carbon dioxide, as well as noise. Less weeds mean less weed pollen, a relief of those with allergies.

Lawns help to improve water quality. Water quality gets a boost from a common plant we see everyday-the grass plant. According to experts, a well-managed lawn helps prevent runoff and is a natural water fiber. A healthy turf can help prevent runoff and soil erosion. In fact, turf promotes high populations of microorganisms in the thatch layer and topsoil. These microorganisms break down impurities making turf an excellent water filter.

A healthy lawn has a cooling effect on your whole neighborhood.

The front lawns of a block of eight average houses have the cooling effect of about 70 tons of air conditioning-enough to cool 16 average houses. On a hot summer day, grass can be 10-14 degrees cooler than exposed soil and as much as 30 degrees cooler than concrete or asphalt. And it also provides oxygen. A 50' x 50' well-maintained grass area will create enough oxygen to meet the needs of a family of four every day.

A good lawn increases property value.

A great lawn has more than just health value. Appraisers estimate that a well-landscaped and maintained lawn adds 7% to the value of residential property. A recent Gallup Survey concluded that a 15% increase in selling price can be realized when the home is nicely landscaped.

Shade Grass

Growing Grass in Shade

Growing grass in shady sites can be a challenge because shade weakens grass. All plants require sunlight to make their food. Most grasses will grow under light shade, but in heavy shade, grass may become so weak that it begins to thin out. Thus weakened grass growing in shade is prone to certain diseases, such as powdery mildew.

Keeping Shade Grass Healthy

Root systems of nearby trees compete for water and nutrients. Heavy shade reduces grass tolerance to temperature extremes and foot traffic. Since grass growing in heavy shade is at a disadvantage, here are some things you can do to keep it as healthy as possible.

Mow at the proper height and frequency for the type of grass.
Water the grass deeply.
Prune or thin nearby trees to permit more sunlight to the grass.
Consider mulch or shade-tolerant ground covers for densely shaded areas.
If you have heavily shaded areas in your lawn where the grass is thin, consult your lawn care specialist for recommendations on improving the lawn.

All About Fertilizers

Why Fertilize Lawns?

Properly timed fertilizer applications help maintain healthy lawns and landscapes. Many landscapes are growing in poor quality soil because of construction activities during installation of streets and driveways as well as during excavation for the house's foundation walls. Under these growing conditions, fertilizing lawns and trees and shrubs is essential to meet their basic nutrient requirements.

Fertilization rates and application frequency directly influence color, growth rate, and density of a lawn. Lawns fertilized infrequently are thin and are prone to weed invasion. Insect or disease damage will be slow to recover and fill-in. Our experience has taught us that fertilizing lawns during the growing season helps them maintain uniform color and develop a dense carpet-like appearance. This also enables them to withstand stress and invasion by weeds. Frequent fertilization rather than every other month helps maintain a more uniform color without increasing the annual fertilization rate.

Would Organic Fertilizer Be Better For My Lawn?

Plants absorb nutrients in the same way, whether the source be organic or a conventional fertilizer. Turfgrass roots will only absorb dissolved nutrients found in the soil water. Organic fertilizers do not offer any advantages to the care of your lawn. The choice is strictly personal preference.

Complete vs. Balanced Fertilizers

Fertilizer is any material supplying one or more essential plant nutrients. Most common turfgrass fertilizers include nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, but they may also include other essential mineral elements for turfgrass growth.

Complete fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, but they may also include other essential minerals elements for turfgrass growth.
Complete fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium in the same product. If a fertilizer contains less than all three elements it is referred to as an incomplete fertilizer. If urea, a 46-0-0 incomplete fertilizer, is used for every application through the season, lower turf quality may result if other essential elements are not being supplied by the soil.
Balanced fertilizers provide nutrients in a predetermined ratio that best meets he plant's requirements for those elements. Turfgrasses require nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium in the approximate ratio of 3-1-2, 4-1-2, or 8-1-3.
Remember that the right balanced fertilizer ratio will differ with grass type, and is also influenced by soil levels of certain elements.