Sorry we’ve been negligent in posting updates on the website.  But, as our members know, by signing up for free newsletters, you get weekly (at least!) updates regarding our turf and ornamental issues.  We’ve nailed that this year.  Still, we need to work harder to keep the posts current.  It’s actually best to scroll to the very bottom of each category (pages on the lower left side of the website), because that’s where the meat of each topic resides.

FUNGAL DISEASES:  this is easily the worst year for brown patch out of the last four summers, and it’s ONLY JUNE!  Let’s hope for normal weather, not 10F above normal,the rest of the summer.  Brown patch is a hot weather-high humidity problem.  Excessive nitrogen makes it worse, so hopefully followers of THE Turf Plan have better yards than those utilizing the national 4-step program.  If you’ve got some great pictures, please send them to us.  If you’re irrigating your turf, apply your organic nitrogen product NOW!  If you’re not irrigating your turf, you should just ride it out.  Aerate and reseed in the fall (around Labor Day) to repair the sward.

Fungicides are expensive and they’re not guaranteed to work.  If you’re not pinched for cash, try one treatment, but the only way you’re going to know for sure if the fungicide is effective in your situation is to literally leave an “untreated strip,” or check plot.  Brown patch severity comes in and out, depending upon growing conditions.  Fungicides need to be applied every 14 to 28 days, depending upon the product and the severity of the infestation.  It’s gonna get uglier!

NUTSEDGE:  Nutsedge and brown patch actually go hand in hand.  When brown patch is bad, so is nutsedge.  It’s time to treat your nutsedge.  The forecast for the entire week is excellent…cooler weather, lower humidity.  Get ‘er done!  Remember, we provide you the NIS surfactant for free, when you buy Sedgehammer® from us.

MOWING:  Max your mower deck height…mowing at a height of 3.5 to 4.0″ inches is a good idea when the misery index is above 95F.  Sharpen your damn blade!  Mow in different directions.

CRABGRASS SPROUTS ALONG THE SIDEWALK:  Our customers have reported small crabgrass sprouting along sidewalks, streets and driveways.  This week is perfect to hose it down with some of the same Bayer® Broadleaf + Crabgrass hose-end product.  Clean up your broadleaf weeds this week, while you’re at it.  If you’re trying to kill wild violets, you need to talk to us, because you need an extra ingredient that you need to add to the sprayer.

IRRIGATION TIPS:  Now that we’re into the heat of the summer, it’s harder to over-water than it was during the cooler spring weather.  Therefore, those of you with irrigation systems should plan on providing supplemental irrigation on a regular basis.  Work with nature to provide at least an inch of water per week, maybe two. 

Set your irrigation timer to come on between 3 AM and 5 AM, so that you wash the dew off the grass blades.  Dew contains sugars, which provide nutrients to the fungal pathogens. By irrigating early in the morning, you’re effectively washing the sugar off the leaves.  It’s not as effective as a fungicide, but every little bit helps.

IRRIGATION MINUTIA

We’ve had a lot of questions about watering, such as “Should I?” “When should I?” and “How much should I?”Here are our opinions on the subject.

MUST I WATER?

No, you don’t need to water your turf, because it can survive without additional irrigation. But, if you aspire for fabulous turf, you should irrigate, and you should invest in an irrigation system. If Mother Nature decides to ignore us, in the way of a true drought, your turf will go dormant on its own, and commence growth again in the fall, as soon as the temperature cools down and fall rains come. However, most of us “burbanites” can’t tolerate the peer pressure of neighborhood “standards”, so we irrigate. Warning: once you start providing supplement irrigation during the heat of the summer, you really shouldn’t stop. So if the quarterly bill comes in too high for your budget, an abrupt stop can actually kill your turf, because you prevented its natural progression into dormancy. If you’re managing your household budget tightly then don’t be silly…don’t irrigate.

Most everyone agrees that turf requires a minimum of an inch of water per week. If it’s hot and dry and we don’t get rain, you have to supply that inch. If we catch a half-inch rain, you only have to supply the second half-inch. We think this rule is a good guideline but you’ll have to apply it to your specific situation. Your lawn may not look like the fairways at Bellerieve Country Club, but it’ll be mostly green. Most fabulous lawns are watered every other day during hot and dry weather.

WHEN SHOULD I WATER?

The best time of day to water is in the early morning. For those of us with an irrigation system, program the clock to start at 4:00 to 5:00 A.M. In general, water every second to every third morning. It’s hard to tell you how much to apply, but try to water sufficiently long to get the top inch or two of soil moist. Let the soil surface dry between your water cycles. The most accurate advice we can give you requires you to make a decision every evening at dusk…if the soil surface is damp, don’t water the next day. All you have to do is turn the timer clock to the “off position”.

Watering in the late evening will typically make diseases worse because the turf stays wet through the night.Fungal spores require moisture to grow and spread and watering late does exactly this. Those fun-guys (get it?) will party at your expense.

If you have a sprinkler and a hose, consider buying a decent water timer. Set the hose up the night before. If you’ve programmed the timer correctly, the hose will kick on in the early hours, and off again, and you’ll be able to water properly in the morning. You can rotate a good sprinkler through a typical yard several times in a week with this method.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t water in the middle of the afternoon! Some water is better than none at all, especially if your sward is under drought stress. Should that be the case, water it, no matter what time of day! How can you tell your turf is under stress? It takes on a bluish tint, because of the way the leaves roll up. Also, it’s really easy to see footprints in a droughty lawn.

Watering frequently and lightly at daybreak can actually minimize disease pressure, because spores that gain entry into the leaf are knocked down into the thatch, thus removing them. Plus, “water of guttation”, that drop of sugary water is exuded out the cut surface of the leaf tip, sitting atop the leaf blade, is a literal nutrient broth for disease spores (no kidding here). That’s an early morning phenomenon, and thus, irrigation will “wash” the sugar solution away. In the dog days of summer, program each zone to come on for 2 to 3 minutes, starting at 4:00 AM, just to wash the guttation away.

CHANGING THE TIPS ON YOUR SPRAY HEAD

Don’t just assume each zone needs the same “time” or amount. It’s very common for your irrigation company to simply program every zone for 20 minutes of water, every other day. When you have an irrigation system installed, that’s what the company typically sets up for you…their “default setting”.Depending upon the exposure to sun or shade, sloped vs. flat ground, etc., those zones may not necessarily need 20 minutes. The shady side of the house will be sloppy wet, compared to the zones in full sun. Walk around in the morning–scout it out. If you have water draining in an area, you’re wasting it. If the turf still looks stressed in the heat of the day, or you can see definite footprints, increase the time on that zone.

The sprinkler head has different-sized tips, and they aren’t hard to change! Ask your irrigation company for a few extra spray tips. Plus each manufacturer has a slightly different tool that you use to pull the spray head out of the body, which is required to change the tip. You can fine-tune each zone on your irrigation system. Many of you don’t realize how easy this is to do. In each of those heads is a small, plastic orifice, which controls how much water shoots through the head. It’s quite easy to go from a standard #7 tip to a #10 tip for a particularly dry area. For example, Jeff has a zone with four heads, three of which are situated along a sunny slope, with one head in a shady area. The solution? Put a smaller #3 tip on the shady head. If this stuff is new to you, have your irrigation contractor come out and explain it to you, and get an assortment of tips from them. If they want a service charge, then go down to their shop instead. They should have showed you how to adjust the spray pattern and set the clock, etc. If they didn’t, call a different company.

HOW MUCH SHOULD I WATER?

That’s a good question. The answer? It depends. To support a fall or spring re-seeding effort you need to make frequent, shallow irrigations, when the turf is developing. A seedling has a poorly developed root system and hence, benefits from frequent irrigation. As it grows and begins to require mowing, start watering more deeply and less frequently. It’s so damned annoying when we hear or read garden columnists and so-called experts tell us…”water deeply so that your soil is moist at a depth of 6 inches.” Who are they kidding? The tight clay soils of St. Louis would be pure slop on the surface if we could do that. Plus, our clay soils have a percolation rate (the rate at which they’ll take water) of a meager 1/16th inch per hour. Do the math. In actuality, light, frequent watering is the only real way to water a typical St. Louis lawn, because of tight, clayey soils.

Every other day is a good start for most irrigation systems. 20 minutes per zone is a good start, but if you’ve been paying attention to this point, you should already understand that adjustments are necessary!

SYSTEM OVERRIDES

How can you invest a couple of grand into an irrigation system and not get a rainfall over-ride switch? Come on folks. Nothing looks as stupid to everyone else in the neighborhood as having your irrigation system running during a soaking rainfall, or the day after a soaking rainfall. There are various designs available, and they cost $150 to $250. Worse than looking stupid, you can over-water your sward. Wet yards are hard to mow and quite a few of you have rutted your yards.

FINAL WORDS

It’s hard to communicate all the tricks of the trade over what would appear to be an easy turf topic (watering). It’s not rocket science, but a beautiful turf sward in August darn near requires as much schooling. Now, when we really get into the famous St. Louis heat and humidity, in June, July and August, many professionals have observed that the “fools” who water their turf daily in the early morning have less of the dreaded brown patch and summer patch – the nastiest of all turf diseases. Evidently, frequent irrigation in the summer can reduce the severity of patch diseases. If this is the case, guess we can’t call them fools!

We recommend Hortsmann Brothers, Inc. (Olivette, MO) for your irrigation design, installation and service. Call them at 314-432-0880, and ask for Tim Radcliffe, their Irrigation Manager.  Please be sure to tell them that you learned about them from THE Turf Plan.