A Few Thoughts on Water Conservation

Kris Horvath

Let’s all pray for rain in the valley and abundant snow in the Sierras in the upcoming weeks. Water is a precious commodity that we can’t afford to waste and can’t live without. I don’t claim to be fount of all knowledge on irrigation, but I can recommend a few things one can do to be more efficient in the use of their irrigation water in the landscape. I love lawns and so I am not inclined to always jump at the idea of removing turf from the family landscape. Actually, I would be looking for ways to keep my lawn and landscape healthy with the properamount of water at the proper interval to encourage deep irrigation and deep healthy roots.

Three areas come to mind and one of them is planting the correct plant material for the right soil, exposure, climate, etc. Beyond that, I think one is crazy not to look into smart clocks (irrigation controllers) and more precision delivery from the newer emitters. You can make your controllers “smarter” with these clocks that take into account the soil texture, zip code, daily temperature, rainfall, slope, plant material and so on. The addition of a local mini weather station or internet-based weather input will allow the amount of time needed to run each valve to be adjusted up or down each cycle. This will go a long way to increasing efficiency (possibly 30-40%) over the common method of turning the clock on in March and turning it off in late October with no regard as to the actual needs of the plants.

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Finally, there is the choice of irrigation emitters themselves. There are nozzles like the MP Rotators and Precision Series Nozzles that are much more efficient in both their uniformity of coverage and the rate of delivery. With a larger droplet size and slower rate of delivery one can greatly increase the uniformity and significantly reduce the chance of runoff.  

Check with your local irrigation supply house and see what advances have been made in the past few years or call Aqua Man Irrigation Solutions at 559-475-7777. Upgrades will pay for themselves in your water bill, your plant’s health, and conserve water. It’s the smart thing to do.

You are always welcome to call our Weed Man office at 559-266-1624 or check out our website at Fresno.WeedManUSA.com if you have further lawn questions.

Crabgrass Prevention Now!

I really r..e..a..l..y don’t like crabgrass. Crabgrass is a pesky annual grassy weed that loves irrigated lawns here in the Central Valley. It gets really large and very apparent in lawns by mid-summer, but by then it is much more difficult to control. Left unchecked, crabgrass can rapidly take over a nice lawn in a matter of a few years.

Here’s the problem. You will not find an effective product for controlling existing crabgrass or dallisgrass on your store or nursery shelf. MSMA, found in Weed Hoe and Trimec Plus, is no longer available to homeowners and was the only product that actually worked on the removal of unwanted crabgrass unlike the products offered now. There are several products now on the market for homeowners for post-control of crabgrass and all contain quinclorac. I have not had good success at all in the Central Valley of California getting any significant control using these. Maybe you will be lucky and make one of them work, but my guess is that they won’t and you will be out both the time and expense you have invested.

Prevention is the key to crabgrass management especially without a reliable product for managing actively growing crabgrass plants. Ideally, a pre emergent herbicide should be applied at the proper rate prior to Valentine’s Day. There are a number of products out there (some better), but unless they are applied before seed germination at the right rate and uniformly the results could be less than desirable. Weed Man actually applies three applications to ensure better results.

What is the future for crabgrass control? There are some products in development for professional use only. As of today, there are very limited options even for the professional. New products are not as user-friendly as they are specific for warm or cool season grasses and not both. A sharp knife works well, too unless you have hundreds or thousands of plants.

Why risk your lawn to crabgrass invasion when the cheapest and most effective solution is prevention with pre emergent herbicides. A pre emergent must be applied before seeds start to germinate. Correct timing and rates of a quality pre emergent ensure great results. Have your lawn treated either by yourself or a professional before Valentine’s Day. 

For more information about crabgrass or a free lawn analysis and quote call Weed Man at 559-266-1624 or visit our website at Fresno.WeedManUSA.com. Ask us about our referral program!

Please Turn Down the Water

We are settling in to our cool, damp days of winter here in the Central Valley. This means that plants will not require much if any supplemental watering from our irrigation system. Our demand for water is in the 5-10% range of what is needed to hydrate our lawns and other plantings in the peak summer months. With a normal rain shower here and there the sprinklers could even be turned off until February or March. The exceptions may be the newly planted annuals, and even they won’t need much water in winter months.

Water is precious and we certainly don’t need to waste it. Too much water can increase disease incidence on the lawn and accelerate root rots in trees and shrubs. Saturated lawns also get rutted up with heavy mowers crossing it. Weeds, of course, will love the abundance of water. A bermudagrass lawn will certainly do fine with no irrigation until you water in your preemergent crabgrass control products in February.

Here is the bottom line. Only water as needed. If you are willing to turn off your water, do so and then watch for dry spots following long periods of no rain and above normal temperatures.  If you don’t do that, then please reduce your water to one day a week and cut that to 50% or less than normal.

Let’s pray for a wet winter and tons of snow in the mountains. 

For more information about watering or lawns, contact Weed Man at 266-1624 or visit our website at Fresno.WeedManUSA.com.

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To Seed, or Not to Overseed, That is the Question

It’s hard to believe, but cold weather and dormant bermuda lawns are right around the corner. The lawn will lose its color and turn a light tan color as the frost kicks in. Is that good or bad?

The real question is whether or not to overseed the lawn to mask this brown look. Obviously if you hate the look of a dormant lawn you would lean towards overseeding to have a green lawn year-round, but here are a few reasons not to overseed. It’s nice to have a few months off from mowing. Secondly, bermuda will not have to compete next spring and early summer with an aggressive ryegrass lawn for space. Bermuda will green up faster and fill in quicker without ryegrass. The use of pre-emergents will help reduce invasion of winter annual weeds to help keep a uniformly clean, brown lawn and need to go down September-October.

Overseeding your lawn in early October can give you a beautiful, green lawn this winter. It is especially a smart option when facing a mixed stand lawn or patch stand of grasses. This will help hide and even the uniformity of the lawn. As the trees grow larger and produce more shade, the bermuda lawns start thinning out and the ryegrass can provide some much needed cover in those areas. On the negative side, overseeding results in mowing the lawn for 3-4 months a year that could have been avoided had you not seeded. Once you start the overseeding process it is difficult to stop in future years as portions of the ryegrass will remain from the previous season through seed or just persistence. The non-overseeded year will often be a mostly brown lawn with numerous clumps of rye. Also, as stated above, the bermuda stand itself may be thinned somewhat due to the persistent and aggressive nature of ryegrass.

If the scales tip in favor of overseeding your lawn, you must then choose the right seed. Without going into all the various improved varieties and their features I will sum it all up by saying DO NOT OVERSEED WITH ANNUAL RYEGRASS. It is a low quality grass used in erosion control and pastures. It grows quickly, its coarse textured, yellow-green in color, and prone to winter diseases. Perennial ryegrass vastly excels annual rye in all categories. Be sure to buy a clean, high quality seed without weedy grass contaminants. Please check the seed bag tags. 

As for me, I overseed my common bermuda front lawn for the neighbors, but I also love that clean, dormant hybrid bermuda in the back that gives me a break for 4 months.

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30 Days to a Better Lawn in 2014

Step outside and take a good look at your lawn. Do you see bare spots or patches of undesirable looking grasses and weeds? Maybe your kids’ activities, your dog’s constant pacing in the same path day after day, or your parking the car on the front lawn has caused the lawn to thin out due to wear and compaction. It’s true that the 19 straight days of temperatures exceeding 100 degrees certainly did not help our cool-season lawns either. The lawns are beat and just looking for some tender care.

Cooler temperatures are just around the corner. What is left of the lawn will perk up and appreciate the cool nights and shorter, milder days. Crabgrass will stop germinating by mid to late September. Thirty days from now life will be great!

What needs to be done in the next 30 days to have a better lawn for next year? Get ready because this is where you come into the mix. Check for unwanted grasses. Patches of Bermuda or dallisgrass are hard to kill and should be sprayed 2-3 times in the starting early September. Dense sections of crabgrass or bentgrass are fairly easy to kill and could wait until the middle of September to spray. If you think the lawn looks bad now just wait to see what it looks like in a few weeks!

Here’s the good news. Oct 1-10 is a great time to reseed all those problem areas. I would strongly recommend scalping down the areas to be reseeded prior to seeding followed by a fall lawn aeration to loosen the soil and encourage better root development. Areas could then be raked or dethatched mechanically to make a proper seed bed. Select a quality grass to match your existing lawn and follow suggested seeding directions. Generally tall fescue and ryegrass go down around 7-10 lbs/1000 sq ft. Next apply a ¼ inch of clean humus or compost to cover the seed to keep in the warmth and moisture to insure good germination. Apply a starter fertilizer like 10-20-10 at 10 lbs/1000. Water 2-3 times a day lightly to keep the mulch and seed moist for the first 7-14 days.

Here is what you don’t want to do. 1). Nothing. Your lawn will be no better next year and likely worse. 2). Sprinkle some seed over the bare spots and hope for the best. This is not much better than option 1. 3). Buy the cheapest seed you can find like annual ryegrass. This will result in the ugliest lawn on your block. Annual rye never really greens up, it grows very fast and often clumpy, and it does not match any grasses in your lawn. and it often gets riddled with disease in the winter months.

The window of opportunity is here. Now get outside and take the actions needed for a better lawn in 2014!

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Three Steps to a Better Fescue Lawn

You have had a chance to watch your lawn evolve over the years to where it is today. It may have bare spots or unwanted grassy or broadleaf weeds that detract from its appearance. Unless you take some action I can pretty well guarantee that the lawn will not evolve back to the lush green uniform lawn that you once had at the start (assuming it was nice at one time).

First you want to identify the short comings and the causal agents. Bare spots could be the result of pets, poor sprinkler coverage, fertilizer burn, excessive shade, annual weed pressure, poor soils, etc.  As the landscape matures and trees cast a more shade the lawn may thin or nearly disappear. Weeds are easier to control when you have properly identified them and know their life cycle. Crabgrass and bermuda grass are not the same by any stretch.

Secondly, you will want to correct the things that you are able to.  I would definitely address the sprinklers as they are a key element in having a thick, healthy lawn. Sprinklers should be checked regularly throughout the season and adjusted as needed for time and coverage. Poor soils could be amended or replaced. Tough perennial weeds like dallisgrass and bermuda should be sprayed out a few times in August and September to help eliminate them. There are no guarantees on totally killing bermuda, but one can definitely hurt it badly.

The third step is to get the lawn thickened up with the desirable grasses, but only after one has worked on the sprinklers and perennial weeds. Preparation of the site is very important. Aeration and dethatching assure that the seed will make good soil contact and increase your chances of good germination. The area should be smooth and open up enough to allow the seed to drop down to the soil below. In thin spots or areas where one is essentially reestablishing a lawn, the use of a ¼ inch of humus to cover the seed will help hold onto moisture and heat to establish the new seedlings. Finally, the addition of a starter fertilizer high in phosphorus (the middle number on the bag) will assist the seedlings to grow faster and with a healthier root system going into the winter months.

That’s basically it. It is not rocket science, but it is important not to cut corners. If you would like a free evaluation of your lawn and some free advice you can call Weed Man at 559-266-1624 or check out our website at Fresno.WeedManUSA.com.

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Effective Crabgrass Tools Absent From Store Shelves...A Follow Up

You may be looking for an effective way to get rid of crabgrass from your lawn.  Many products prior to 2012 contain MSMA in products like Weed Hoe, or Trimec Plus.  Well you won’t find it on the nursery or garden center shelves now and probably never again.  As a professional lawn care operator, we have until the end of 2013 to use MSMA and then we must find some alternatives.  There are several products now on the market for homeowners for post-control of crabgrass and they all contain quinclorac.  I have not had good success at all in the Central Valley of California getting any significant control using this or Drive as the trade name.  Maybe you will be lucky and make it work, but my guess is that it won’t and you will be out the time and expense you have invested. 

What are your alternatives?  1. Cutting it out. 2. Ignoring it and letting the frost take it out in November. 3. Hiring a lawn care company that still has some on hand to selectively remove the crabgrass out.

What is the future?  There are some products in development and a few that could be useful in certain cases.  There is a product called Tenacity that has some decent post emergent control on crabgrass, but it will only be recommended for cool season turf as Bermuda will turn temporarily white following application. 

My hope is that EPA will be open-minded and see that our industry has no great alternative to MSMA for crabgrass and even more so for dallisgrass control and that MSMA registration for use on turf grass would be reinstated.  I have heard it suggested that the data supporting a ban on MSMA was flawed, but I can’t say for certain. 

For a free consultation on your lawn call Weed Man at 266-1624 or visit our website at Fresno.WeedManUSA.com.  We would be happy to come out and show you the proper way to cut out crabgrass and not damage your lawn if you want to care for your lawn on your own!