better withstand damage from late
spring freezes.
Bermuda
1. As the turf begins to green up,
scalp and remove all debris.
2. Be sure to core aerate. Do this at
least one time per year. It is better to
leave the plugs as this helps develop
topsoil over time.
3. Maintain 1” per week watering (irrigation or rainfall).
4. Begin mowing at least one time
per week to maintain 1.5”- 2.5”
mowing height. Reel mowed turf can
be maintained lower during the growing season as long as mowing frequency is increased to a 3-5 day
schedule and then the height is raised
to 3” - 4” in August.
5. Topdressing with sand is NOT recommended. (Use a mix that has a
high soil to sand ratio instead, to prevent further compaction and surface
crust formation.)
Zoysia
1. As the zoysia begins to green up
(which may be as late as May), cut
and remove the old brown grass. Do
not heavily scalp as zoysia does not
tolerate heavy scalping.
2. Core aeration may be needed if the
zoysia is reel mowed or compacted
for any reason.
3. If you have emerald zoysia, then
you may need to dethatch the turf to
thin out the old clogged layers of
dead grass. You can hand dethatch
with a dethatching rake (great exercise!) or use a power rake. Do not be
aggressive with the dethatching. Begin shallow and then increase your
dethatching depth if needed. Be sure
to remove any generated debris.
4. Maintain 1” per week watering (irrigation or rainfall).
5. After green up and growth begins,
mow at least one time per week to
maintain a 2”- 3” mowing height.
Reel mowed turf can be maintained
slightly lower on zoysia, during the
growing season, as long as mowing
frequency is increased to a 3-5 day
schedule and then the height is raised
to 3” - 4” in August.
6. Topdressing with sand is NOT recommended. (Use a mix that has a
high soil to sand ratio instead, to prevent further compaction.)
Scalping and Aerating
Essentials
We find some of you never get
around to scalping and aerating your
warm season turf in the spring.
When you do not scalp, the top layer
of old turf causes a slow down in
green up because it is robbing the
newly emerging turf of essential nutrients at green up time. Our fertilizer applications become less effective, the turf is less green than your
neighbor’s and because the turf is
weaker the potential for disease activity, such as Winter Patch and Dollar Spot, increases dramatically. In
addition, the effectiveness of subsequent applications of fungicide for
disease activity is greatly reduced.
Multiple applications are very expensive and because the problem is
caused by incorrect management
practices and not just natural conditions, we must charge for these extra
applications. If you do not aerate,
your compaction level increases as
does development of a soil crust
layer. Soil crusting develops right at
the soil surface making it impervious
to water, air or nutrient penetration.
In highly compacted soils, pore spaces are reduced and this decreases the
water and oxygen available to the
plant roots. This results in poor root
growth.
Another effect of compacted soils
is that the roots must now spend an
increased amount of energy and resources pushing through compacted
soil. This energy is being taken away
from other growth processes in the
plant, weakening the entire system.
You can see that eventually the plant
becomes severely weakened and is
more susceptible to pests and weather
influences. While yearly core aeration cannot completely reverse compaction and crust development, it can
manage it within tolerable levels.
A-molé!
A-molé is Italian for love your
moles, or it is in some language,
we're sure! Moles are, unfortunately,
a recurring problem in our lawns and
something with which we need to, at
least, accept if not love.
Moles tunnel through yards and
make random patterns throughout
turf areas looking for things to eat or
they are merely traveling from point
to point. Moles dine on many things
including grubs, earthworms, crickets
and various other small delectables.
The presence of moles does not necessarily mean that your lawn has a
grub problem, especially if moles are
noticed in winter or fall as most
grubs have traveled deeper into the
soil to over winter.
While your turf’s roots are not on
the mole’s diet, they are harmed as
the mole tunnels through the soil
leaving the roots to dry out from air
exposure. Air replaces the soil and
the turf’s roots desiccate causing the
plant to weaken and eventually die,
leaving dead grass over the mole’s
tunnels. This desiccation of the roots
tends to be exacerbated by extreme
temperatures as the roots dry out
faster.
Tomcat Mole Killer mole bait
works great in controlling moles. It
is also advisable to tread on the tunnels to close the air pockets and allow the roots to regrow into the soil
before they dry out. At first it may
appear the Tomcat is not working because you see additional tunneling after treatment. It does require a few
days for the mole killer to work and
also if you have multiple moles it
will require multiple treatments.
Browse for more info:
http://www.prestigestt.com/title/M
/17/PestOrProblems/aspx
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