PRE
THE GREEN
INFORMANT
Specialists in Turfgrass
and Landscape Design
Since 1971
Specializing in the following services:
GREEN INFORMANT Specials
Perimeter Pest Control
Grub Control Reminder
Are those pesky ants,
spiders and like insects
invading your home
every year? Lawn Tech
can help by applying a
pesticide to the outside
base of your home. This
barrier application done
four times a year will
eliminate these unwanted
insects from invading
your home. Call today to
get a 20% discount for
new clients! With a 20%
discount applied visits
start at $31.20.
Now is the time to apply
preventative grub controls
to prevent grubs from feeding on your turf this fall.
Watch for Japanese Beetles
as well. If you need information on summer grub,
please call our office or
email us your questions!
Go to www.lawntechiofmi.
com!
Fertilizing • Weed Control • Aerating and
Seeding • Mole Baiting • Fungus/Insect
Control • Landscape Design/Installation •
Lawn Installation and Renovation • Water
Features • Retaining Walls • Concrete
Paver and Flagstone Patios • Outdoor
Lighting • Mowing Service • Tree and
Shrub Care • Vegetation Management •
Mulching/Topressing of Landscape Beds
• Perimeter Pest Control • Snow Removal
and Deicing • Holiday Lighting
Contact us!
Lawn Tech
P.O. Box 190 • Grand Ledge, MI 48837
(517) 627-9669 • (517) 626-2645 FAX
www.lawntechofmi.com
Email:
Dan Boak, President
[email protected]
Curt Boak, Sales
[email protected]
Joe Peters, Weed and Feed
[email protected]
Proud Members Of:
Specialists in Turfgrass and Landscape Design
Commercial and Residential n State Certified Technicians
Since 1971
Summer 2011
A True Michigan Spring
ARE YOU A
WINNER?
Lawn Tech is awarding our
loyal customers by o
­ ffering a
­Customer Loyalty Giveaway. In
each quarterly­­newsletter, look
for your customer n
­ umber in
the prize box. If your c­ ustomer
number is posted you could
win 100 tulip bulbs planted by
Lawn Tech!
If your customer n
­ umber is
l­isted, call our office to c­ onfirm
and your name will be ­entered
into the ­drawing. Each d
­ rawing
will have a deadline to call by,
so be sure to read e­ very i­ ssue.
Congratulations to Don Pung
for w
­ inning the ­spring giveaway
of a Lawn Tech cooler filled with
summer fun!
2011 Customer Giveaways
P.O. Box 190
Grand Ledge, MI 48837
(517) 627-9669 n Fax (517) 626-2645 n www.lawntechofmi.com
Winter 2011
Round #1 Early Spring Service
Spring 2011
Lawn Tech Cooler Packed With Summertime
Enjoyment
Summer 2011
100 Tulip Bulbs Planted by Lawn Tech
Fall 2011
Holiday Decoration Package
IN THIS ISSUE . . .
Red Thread
Seedheads in Lawn
G.I. Specials Board
Turf Tips
A
true Michigan spring was had
this year in 2011. Cold, wet
and damp weather was a daily
occurrence. Even the ants had to find
higher ground to survive. With summer here now, let's hope our warm,
blue sky days are here and plenty.
The staff encountered one of the
most challenging springs that we
have had in quite a few years. Every
turf problem typically seen in the
spring season seemed to have happened in the course of a couple of
weeks.
Red thread was rampant, stemming and seeding occurred quickly,
mowing of the turf was a weekly
challenge, dull mower blade damage
soon followed and then heat stress
set in. For lawn care operators, these
few issues are usually spreadout
through May to August, but spring
of 2011 was much different than
years of past.
Please check out the articles in this
issue that recap some of the happenings in the turf this past spring from
our professors in the turf department at Michigan State University.
These articles may describe some
signs you may have experienced on
your lawn.
Oil prices seem to plague every
aspect of any business. Lawn care
companies are just as susceptible to
the oil prices as any. We obviously
need many commodities that are derived from oil to provide our services to you. Obvious products like oil
and gas to run our equipment and
trucks to the not so obvious products such as fertilizers and pesticides
that are derived from oil. All these
prices have gone up. We please ask
that you check your invoices as we
have added a voluntary fuel surcharge to invoices to help combat
the increase in oil that all Americans
have had to endure. We thank you
in advance for your help!
Don’t forget you can pay your bills
online by going to www.lawntechofmi.com.
As we push through another year
filled with challenges, both personal
and business-related, the staff and I
truly appreciate your patronage and
we continually strive to meet your
expectations with the services we
offer. We have had to adapt to many
economic road blocks the past few
years but have always tried our best
to keep you, our valued customer,
at the top of the decision-making
process. If you ever have a question,
concern or compliment, we would
love to hear from you.
See you on the turf!
Dan Boak
Dan Boak
President
Turf Tips
Aerator vs Slit Seeder: What's Best for Your Lawn?
When establishing, maintaining, or improving your
lawn, do you understand the differences between, and
the purposes of, the lawn aerator and the slit-seeder?
What do these machines do, why do we need to use
them, and when should we use one or the other or
both? Let’s take a look at what your lawn needs in order
to flourish, and then find out what these lawn maintenance machines do to help you help your lawn!
Grass seeds need direct contact with a good growing
medium (the soil), as well as sufficient moisture in order
to germinate. But this is only the beginning—once the
seeds germinate, the plant roots need continued feeding
from the soil nutrients and other supplements in order
to thrive. Ongoing moisture delivered to the growing
root zone is also necessary.
Many people think the purpose of the aerator is to simply poke holes into the surface of the ground over which
you will then broadcast grass seeds. The seeds, they
assume, will fall into the holes and later emerge as grass
plants, sort of like digging a hole and inserting a bean
seed into it in order to grow a bean plant. With lawns,
this is not exactly how it works.
Running over your lawn with an aerator actually serves
multiple purposes. The most obvious ones are to help alleviate compaction of the soil, to allow moisture (either
from rainfall or from irrigation sources) to better enter
the soil, and to allow fertilizers and other plant supplements such as lime to better infiltrate and mix with the
soil, and to feed the grass roots at a deeper level in order
to encourage stronger and deeper development of the
root system.
Another purpose of aeration is to allow air to enter the
soil to help carry out proper workings of bacteria that
help break down organic matter on and in the soil. In
this way, the grass clippings and the dead and dying
grass plants or weeds and their roots will decompose
and turn to humus which will actually feed the roots of
the healthy lawn grasses. A sufficient amount of air is
also necessary in order for the minerals in the soil to be
transformed into forms that are usable by the grass
plants.
Now, what does a slit-seeder do? Well, we don’t want
to make this more complicated than it really is, so,
here’s the answer—a slit-seeder slits the soil and drops
seeds into the slits it makes! The machine has a series
of rotating knives that operate in the same fashion
as a reel-type lawnmower. These knives cut into the
soil forming narrow grooves, the depth of which is
determined by adjusting the machine. The hardness
of the soil, usually related to the moisture content, is
also a factor in how deeply the knives will cut. A small
hopper mounted on the machine is filled with grass
seed that is dispersed onto the soil at a rate that is
determined and adjusted by the machine’s user.
So, that’s it—an aerator pokes holes into the soil to
alleviate compaction, and to allow air, fertilizer, and
moisture into the soil closer to the roots of the grass.
A slit-seeder slices the surface of the soil and distributes seeds onto and into the soil. Okay, then, when
should we use what?!
If you have a pretty good thick stand of desirable lawn
grass already growing, use the aerator and follow up
with a good program of lawn fertilizers. As your lawn
continues to thrive, aerate every year or two.
If your lawn is spotty, with some areas of desirable
grass growing but other areas of thin or no grass, then
use the slit-seeder. If your spotty lawn is also compacted or hasn’t been attended to in awhile, you might
want to use both machines.
And, in the most severe case of all, that being a very
poor lawn which has mostly weeds or very little desirable grasses on it, the best advice might be to just till
up the whole thing and re-seed from scratch. That
way, you can establish a nice lawn, and then keep it
healthy with periodic uses of either the lawn aerator
or the slit-seeder. Stay green!.
CALL NOW TO SCHEDULE YOUR FALL AERATION OR SLIT SEED APPLICATION!
Lawn Tech Prize Box
If your customer number is posted, call our office by August 31, 2011 to be ­entered
into the drawing for 100 tulip bulbs planted by Lawn Tech! Customer ­numbers:
113651057 5671 1598 11411 1023 4208 2135 154711438195417242
1005171684739452829264969 419343063274595254192595
52901467 2441204955044086 61546467444611434
551617131
3877 5439 4843 3412 5483 4333 1120 17089115224101 4113 4174
46936182 1506 3132 4368 3620 2136 385217181226062544260
30472054 53324484 4130 2852 3244428913525497113993398
40576337 3415 2753 4190 4683 43741393477655531140511329
Red Thread in Turf
Published June 2, 2011
Kevin Frank, MSU Extension, Dept. of Crop and Soil S
­ ciences
Red thread is a disease of turfgrass that is often ­associated
with under-fertilized turf and one of the simplest recommendations to alleviate disease ­pressure is to fertilize.
The excessive rainfall this spring has not only resulted in
mowing challenges, but has also resulted in some turf
areas in need of nutrition. Not surprisingly, reports of
red thread (Laetisaria fuciformison) on lawns and landscape turf areas have been rolling in throughout the state.
It seems that every year we observe red thread on lawns
and often the outbreak follows the seedhead production
period when the plant is probably looking for a little
extra food. The common lawn-mix turfgrasses, Kentucky
bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and fine fescue, are all susceptible.
Red thread is typically active during wet, moist periods
when temperatures range from 55 to about 80 degrees.
Red thread can be identified by the pinkish-red strands
(slerotia) that extend from the leaf blade tip. If you observe the turf early in the morning when it is still moist,
you might find what I describe as miniature balls of pink
cotton candy. The areas infected by red thread will die
and the turf may appear wilted.
Red thread can be mistaken for dollar spot in turf as the
patchy type kill is very similar. This is one of those diseases you need to get on your hands and knees to check
out to make sure you know that it is red thread. Fungicide applications are usually not necessary in dealing
with red thread; a fertilizer application will often help the
turf outgrow the damage.
Seedheads in Lawns
Published May 19, 2011
Kevin Frank, MSU Extension, Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences
Seedheads in lawns are a natural process that can’t be
avoided, but keeping your mower blade sharp and applying
fertilizer will help the lawn be healthy and good looking.
Turfgrass producing seedheads is an annual rite of spring.
The cool spring temperatures have delayed seedhead production, but currently I’m observing seedheads popping
up in many lawns. The common lawn grasses, Kentucky
bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and tall fescue all produce
seedheads, as do some grassy weeds like annual bluegrass
(Poa annua).
Seedhead production requires energy from the plant, so
it is likely the turf will not only look stemmy due to the
seed stalks, but the turfgrass may even thin out. Consider
a fertilizer application following the seedhead flush to
help the turf recover, especially if you haven’t fertilized yet
this spring. Keep the mower blade sharp and don’t lower
the mowing height to try and remove seedheads. Annual
bluegrass produces seedheads below the 1/8-inch mowing height on golf course putting greens, so lowering the
mowing height is not recommended.
For those that think the lawn is going to be reseeded by
the natural seedhead production, think again. Even if
the seed was allowed to reach maturity – which would
take about four months, time allowed to dry, and then
harvested – you’d still need to make sure that seed would
find a home in the soil in order to germinate. If you need
to fill in some areas in your lawn, it’ll be easier to go buy
some seed.
Dandelions Flowering in Turf
Published May 6, 2011 — Kevin Frank, MSU Extension, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
Now that spring has finally sprung and the rains have been replaced with a couple days of sunshine, one of the most predictable of all weeds is flowering in turf: dandelions. The dandelion flower is a rite of spring and perspective on them varies from
utter disdain to a nice yellow flower for a Mother’s Day bouquet.
If you’re of the former persuasion, resist the urge to go out and try to eliminate them with a broadleaf herbicide during this
initial flower flush. Wait until the bright yellow flowers transition to the puff ball stage and then treat with a broadleaf herbicide. Keep in mind that weeds are always trying to tell a story and in the case of turfgrass, many weeds are indicators of voids
or poor turf density. Dense, healthy turf is more resistant to weed invasion, so if you can promote a healthy lawn with mowing
high, mulching clippings back onto the turf and proper fertilization, you’ll likely have fewer weeds to control.
In addition to dandelions lighting up the landscape, there are many winter annual weeds that are currently very active. For
many of these weeds this spring, flowering is a sign that their life is about over. Proper identification of what weed you are
dealing with can save you time and money. Currently, common chickweed, henbit, shepherd’s purse, yellow rocket and corn
speedwell are all flowering. Without understanding their life cycle, some might think this is a great time to control these weeds.
However, these weeds are all winter annuals; they germinate in the fall, overwinter, and then flower and produce seed in the
spring. If you apply herbicide now they will be dead and gone in two to three weeks. If you do nothing, they will be dead and
gone in three weeks. If that didn’t register the first time you read it, read it again as you can save some time and money and go
back inside and sit down instead of worrying about killing these winter annuals.
If you have any questions about weed identification in turf areas, make sure to visit the MSU Turf Weeds web site.