Turfday 2020
Attn Landscapers and Contractors or anyone interested in turfgrass,
Our 27th Annual Turfday will be held on Tuesday, February 4th at the West TN Research and Education Center off of Airways in Jackson, TN. This is going to be a great seminar and will allow you to receive re-certification points. Please let us know if you will be able to attend.
Call: 731-692-3515
When the Forsythia is a bloomin’ you better get a movin’.
When you start noticing that beautiful vibrant yellow bush in your grandma’s yard, you need to spray your yard (and probably hers too). Underneath your warm season turf, the soil’s surface is warming up and crabgrass is germinating. Now would be the best time to apply a pre-emergent and nip it in the bud. A pre-emergent herbicide, as its name suggests, prevents the germination of those undesirable weeds. These products can be applied as a liquid or a granular. You can pick up a pre-emergent at most lawn and garden stores or contact your local lawncare crew to spray, if they haven’t already.
Turfday 2017
Attn Landscapers and Contractors,
Our 25th Annual Turfday will be held on Wednesday, February 15th at the West TN Research and Education Center off of Airways in Jackson, TN. This is going to be a great seminar and will allow you to receive recertification points. Please let us know if you will be able to attend.
Call: 731-692-3515
Email: mccurdysodfarms@gmail.com
TOP 10 WINTER TRICKS FOR A HEALTHY LAWN
Don’t leave your yard décor out until June
-We all know that special someone who does this, leaves that inflatable snowman up for half a year and then wonders why they have a dead spot in their yard. TAKE FROSTY DOWN.
Party parking
-Hosting a party this holiday season? Unfortunately, your friends and family will end up parking on part of your grass. Due to moist ground, either from thawing or rain, your yard is sure to get more ruts than a stable full of reindeer! Ruts are fixable though. Roll them out with a lawn roller or squish them flat with your feet.
Minimize foot traffic
-Because we are getting rain this winter and some freezing temps, our yards are going to be a squishy mess. As you are turning off and on your Christmas decorations and lights, please be mindful of your traffic pattern. Those areas that have been heavily traveled will have a harder time recovering in the spring.
No need for fertilizer this time of year
-Your warm season grass (Bermuda and Zoysia) won’t benefit from fertilizer while dormant and brown. Your first fertility treatment shouldn’t be until April.
Winterize your irrigation system
-If you haven’t already, get your irrigation system ready for freezing temperatures. This usually means blowing pressurized air from a high point in your irrigation system. Consult a professional if you’re uncomfortable doing this.
Fireworks
-New Years is just a week away and if you’re lighting fireworks in dry grass, be cautious of starting fires. And don’t forget to pick up your trash!
Weeds
-The weeds you see now germinated back in September and October. In bermudagrass and zoysiagrass, put down a preemergence herbicide every spring (late-March) and every fall (early-September). Examples include Scott’s Crabgrass and Grassy Weed or Barricade. For weed control this winter, Princep 4L (2 qt/Acre) or Trimec 899 (1 qt/Acre) are examples of products commonly available. Round-up (glyphosate) IS NOT recommended. Always read and follow label directions.
Mowing
-Other than weeds, there typically isn’t a lot to mow. Guess you’ll have to find another shirtless past time until warmer weather.
Pets
-Pet waste doesn’t dry and decay quite as fast during the cooler winter months. It fertilizes weeds and causes a stinking mess. ‘Tis the season to use those extra shopping bags to clean up pet waste
Should I paint or dye my lawn?
-The pigments available to artificially enhance your dormant lawn are vastly different than the paints used to cover the guardrail damage on Uncle Jimmy’s 88 Ford pickup. Finding a supplier isn’t easy, but if you do use pigments, make sure to use recommended rates. And wear old shoes.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Preparing Your Fescue for Fall
If you have a cool season yard, such as Fescue, now is a great time to over-seed and apply soil amendments like fertilizer.
Fescue loses its density or its “Stand” during the summer months. This is what causes “stooling” or clumping of the surviving plants. I suggest adding 6 to 8 pounds per 1000 square feet of new seed each fall. A blended mixture of seed seems to work best because you get the benefit of various traits, such as drought tolerance, color, endurance, etc. We sell a blend that works well here on the farm, but your landscape supplier will also have seed available.
Aggressive raking or aerification is usually enough to get these seed in contact with the soil. Afterward, it is important to keep the site moist for at least two weeks.
It is also a good idea to start your fall fertility program. Most of our life long fescue growers will tell you to apply fertilizer in any month with an “R” in it. Examples would be SeptembeR, NovembeR, MaRch, etc. (ARgust does not qualify).
I like to apply a complete fertilizer like 13-13-13 at 7 pounds per 1000 square feet in mid September and mid March. The other R months might only get Nitrogen. I like the slow release form of 20-04-0.
Continue to mow these cool season grasses at a taller level. I like fescue at about 3 inches because it stripes up nicely.
Beautiful Fescue in spring begins with some preparation this fall.
Good Growing to you,
Bob McCurdy
HELP!!! WORMS ARE EATING MY HOUSE
HELP!!WORMS ARE EATING MY HOUSE
That’s what the lady said over the phone when she came home from vacation and found millions of fall armyworms (Spodoptera Frugiperda) looking for a new buffet. They had already eaten all the new grass around her pool.
As the name indicates, fall armyworms are most numerous in late summer or early fall. Usually, during late July or early August. There are three or more generations of fall armyworms each year. Occasionally, severe outbreaks occur as early as mid-April. Fall armyworms are susceptible to cold, and are unable to survive even the mildest winters.
You get these little critters every year, but conditions have to be just right to become a problem. They do well in hot dry weather. We get blamed for sending them out on sod all the time. This can happen, but usually they are already in place, waiting for some new, freshly installed bermuda grass to chew on. For some reason they don’t much like the zoysia grasses. (Low standards I guess.)
The adult is a small (1 inch) gray moth that arrives in our area after a southern vacation in the tropics. (Maybe we should build a WALL.) She lives about 2 weeks and deposits hundreds of eggs on the light colored surfaces of trees, fences, and even your car. In two to four days these tiny larvae spin down to the ground and boy are they hungry. A mature armyworm is a little over an inch long and he is light green to black. In a week or so, the worm will mature and burrow into the ground to form a pupae that soon emerges as a moth again. The whole process starts over again and only takes about 30 days for a full cycle.
One way you can control this population explosion is by neutering the female moth. But it’s going to take a long time and some really good eyes. A slightly faster control is by using two brick bats to smash the worms. But the most effective way is to call your lawn care service guy/gal to come and apply some sort of insecticide.If you suspect that you have armyworms you can determine how bad the problem is by pouring some soapy water on the ground. In about five minutes everything living down there will come to the top looking for oxygen. (Kinda like when you used to go to the pool room after school.) If you find 3 or more worms per square foot, you probably need to spray.
It is seldom that there is enough damage to your lawn to cause any long term problems. By the time you see injury and realize that it is not caused by dry weather, the damage is already done. But look on the bright side, you probably won’t have to mow for a while.
Is It Time To Water??
How can I tell when it is time to water my lawn? We get asked this question almost every day. A Bermuda or Zoysia lawn needs an inch to an inch and a half of water every week during the growing season. You can measure this by using a rain gauge or something as simple as a tuna can that can be measured each day.
But a simple spot test that anyone can do involves a screwdriver. Push the tool into the soil. If it goes in easily to a depth of 6 inches, there is probably plenty of moisture. Or, just pry into the soil and look at what lies underneath. If the soil is dry, you need to increase your water. Moist is ideal, but muddy would tell you to back off for a few days and try again. Remember that the best time to water your lawn is early in the morning. This helps to avoid disease pressure from plants that are wet all night. We prefer deep watering one or two times a week over shallow daily watering that does not promote root growth.