We are currently applying our Early Summer Step 3 Weed-Control/Fertilization Treatment. This treatment consists of a granular 31-0-9, with 40% slow-release nitrogen. The fertilizer needs to be watered into the soil with about 1/2" of moisture if no rainfall occurs within 4 days. We also treat any existing broadleaf weeds with Trimec broadleaf herbicide and Dismiss herbicide for Nutgrass. As we get into late June and July, grassy weeds and Nutgrass come into play, so MSMA grassy weed herbicide and Dismiss nutgrass herbicide are applied also. If existing weeds were treated, irrigation needs to be delayed at least 2-3 hours in order for the products to be fully absorbed by the weeds.
Aeration on Warm-Season Turf
Early summer is a great time to aerate warm-season turf. Our new Super Soil Treatment is also being applied in June and July. See the page on Optional Services for more information, or schedule this service on our website.
Primo Turf Grass Regulator
We’ll begin Primo applications in June for warm-season turf. If you are tired of mowing your lawn too often, Primo is a turfgrass growth regulator that does a great job of slowing down the growth of the grass by about 50% over a 5-6 week period. Call our office for more information, or schedule this service on our website.
Lookout for Turf Diseases
Be on the lookout for Brown Patch disease in fescue lawns during mid-summer. Irregular brown patches with sometimes wilted turf can be a sign that disease is present. Adjust your watering so that your turf is irrigated only in the mornings, about 2 times per week on average. DO NOT water in the evenings, allowing the turf to stay damp all night. This will increase your chance for getting turf disease. See our website on turf disease for more information.
Tree & Shrub
If your lawn or garden’s beauty is marred by a bright yellow-green grass-like weed, chances are you’re in a battle with nutsedge. Also commonly called yellow nutgrass or water grass, this vigorous plant produces wide triangular stalks in threes from a center point at ground level. Other similar sedges are purple nutsedge and green kylinga, which are very difficult to control. Being a sedge, it thrives in damp soil conditions, which we obviously have had with the excessive rain for the past several months.
Nutsedge is a perennial weed that is hard to get rid of because it reproduces itself from tubers or nutlets beneath the soil. These tubers can survive even the coldest winter. Each nutgrass plant can produce thousands of nutlets, which can then sprout more weeds as each season progresses if left un-checked. It’s often seen in patches, with one plant leading to hundreds more in the same area.
Conventional pre-emergent herbicides do not work on nutgrass, so it just needs to be sprayed as it comes up. It grows more rapidly in low, wet soil, and we have sure had our share of wet soil this spring in Tulsa. It is easy to pull up, but when doing so, you’ll leave the nutlets in the ground, which will lead to even more plants sprouting up soon.
There is a new product we are using named Dismiss, which does a better job of controlling nutgrass and other sedges after they come up. We are one of the few companies that uses this product (it’s very expensive) to control Nutgrass and other summer weeds. We are using this product in conjunction with Echelon, another new product, during Step 3 of our 7-Step Showcase Care Program. If you want to upgrade your service level to Showcase care, now is the time to do it, as we can apply this special weed-treatment during May, June, and early July. Click here to upgrade to our BEST Showcase Care Program.
Nutgrass is one of the most difficult weeds we battle during the summer months. I’ve been in the lawncare business for 25 years in the Tulsa area, and it seems to be getting worse every year. It’s mainly an environmental factor—record rains leading to wet, saturated soil. As the soil dries out, hopefully, on into the summer and early fall, nutgrass growth should slow down.
Visit our website at www.LawnAmerica.com for more information on nutgrass, and our best Showcase Care Program with superior Nutgrass control.
It’s important to be “green” these days isn’t it (whatever that means to you)? In our business of caring for lawns, we’ve always been green. In fact, my previous company I owned for ten years up until 1993 was aptly named Green-Up! That’s what we do—make lawns green.
There are those that would lead you to believe that what we do for lawns in the urban environment is bad for the environment. Applying all those fertilizers and nasty pesticides does harm to the environment, compared to organic and natural methods some would claim. How can a business such as ours be “green” (meaning good for the environment), while applying fertilizers to make lawns green? It just doesn’t make sense does it?
I’ll leave the argument as to the real positive environmental benefits of professional lawncare for another day. Suffice it to say that what we do and how we do it helps our urban environment tremendously in many ways, including environmentally. Research and experience have proven this. But when it comes to applying fertilizer to help make a lawn green, thick, and healthy, how green is green? In other words, is the greenest lawn on the block necessarily the healthiest and environmentally sound lawn on the block? In a word—probably not.
We in the lawncare business face a dilemma. Most customers demand a green lawn—consistently. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard over the past 25 years a homeowner tell me that their neighbors lawn is greener than theirs, and they don’t do anything with their lawn. Now it may be green because it’s full of weeds, the homeowner may have applied twice the amount of nitrogen fertilizer than what is needed, or it may have just been fertilized 10 days ago by someone, and their own lawn has gone eight weeks since fertilization. They don’t care—they just want it not only green, but greener than any other lawn within eyesight!
At the same time, we have environmentalists telling us that synthetic fertilizers can be bad for the environment. Some claim organic fertilizers are safer and do not harm the environment, which is a topic for another day. Turfgrass science tells us that for bermudagrass, apply one pound of nitrogen per 1,000’ per month during the growing season in Oklahoma. That equates to about 5 to 5.5 pounds of nitrogen per season. That’s about what we provide to our 6 and 7-step customers at LawnAmerica, spread out over four granular fertilizer treatments. Other than in early fall, we apply more than one pound of nitrogen per 1,000’, since some of our nitrogen is in the slow-release form. Even with this though, many customers want their lawns greener. They demand higher rates of nitrogen, to make their lawns greener.
Now we can make them green with more nitrogen, but that’s not a practice that is good for the environment or your turf. Over-fertilization will lead to turf health problems, can be bad for the environment, and is a waste of resources. In other words, making a lawn super green is not really “being green” and the best thing to do. But this is a competitive business, and many homeowners are very demanding of a green lawn. With the threat of canceling service if we can’t make their lawn greener, versus doing the right thing, what would you do?
Turf scientists will tell you that having a lawn that is a little on the lean side, especially in late summer and early fall, is really better for the health of the turf. We will continue to do what’s right for the turf in an environmentally sound way. We’ll apply about 5.2 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1000’, plus other nutrients. It’s the nitrogen mainly that makes it green. We’ll apply less nitrogen to cool-season fescue turf, along with organic nitrogen during the summer months. We also want to please our customers. What we ask is to have reasonable expectations on the color of your turf. While green is good, having the greenest, darkest green may not be the best goal in many respects.
