CULTURAL PRACTICES FOR A BEAUTIFUL LAWN

Provided you have a lawn with good grasses, soil and sunlight, you can greatly improve your lawn by properly mowing and  irrigating. Results are a joint effort between you and Abbeyshire.

IRRIGATION: Lawns need about an inch a week. This allows water to drain deep into the root zone. If you need to water, get a small dish and place it in the path of the sprinkler. Let the water run until you get 1 inch in the dish. Check the amount of time the water runs. This will tell you how long you need to water to get enough. You can water in one or two heavy soakings to get the inch. This allows water to get to the root zone and allows drying time to prevent the spread of disease spores. Watering lightly and frequently will cause the roots to grow towards the surface and will cause plant stress. It will also allow disease spores to multply and infect leaf tissue. The drying time kills off spores.

MOWING: Improper mowing is the #1cause of lawn problems. Lawns should be 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches high AFTER the cut. Taller plants will produce deeper root systems and better stress resistance. It also creates a canopy to shade the soil reducing heat, and choking out weeds. Mowing too short will cause damage to grass plants. It will inhibit good color and expose the soil. When the soil heats up, it allows weeds to germinate easily. It also excites micobial activity which breaks down pre emergent weed controls allowing grassy weeds to emerge. You can pre maturely lose the effectiveness of your weed control treatments by mowing too short. The only time this is acceptable is on the first and last cut of the year. Then it removes dead winter debris and helps prevent snow mold in the winter.

The lawns color can suffer if you have a dull blade. It will appear to have a "whitish" cast to it. Look at the grass tips after mowing. If there is a good, clean cut, it is OK. But if the tips are frayed and stringy, you need to sharpen the blade. When the grass tips are frayed from a dull blade, disease spores can easily penetrate the leaf and you end up with discolored grass. It also allows moisture to escape and drying occurs.You may need to sharpen the blade several times in a year depending on the size of the lawn. Have a professional do it.

                         HOW WEATHER AFFECTS YOUR LAWN

Lawns can change their appearance with the changes of weather. Most grass types we find in Ohio are cool season grasses. They tend to be healthy and look better in cool, wet weather. Ryegrasses and fine fescues are a good examples. They will have nice color when properly fertilized and irrigated in the spring and fall. But when hot weather arrives, they are the first lawns to decline. Lawns begin to lose color and stop growing. It is the perfect time for weeds to get established, as their growth is excellerated by the heat and humidity. This will happen even if the lawn has had a weed control application. The best defense is high mowing and watering. Diseases and many insects also become active during hot, humid weather. Sand and clay soils will add to the effects. Even lawns that were beautiful in the spring can become thin with dead areas caused by these problems. Bentgrasses  will usually begin to go into dormancy. Some varieties of Ryegrass will actually drop their leaves and appear as thin stalks of hard grass. Once cool, wet weather return, they will usually recover quickly.Bluegrasses tend to just turn brown or yellow. Tall fescues will stay green overall.

                                              Fertilization

Proper fertilization promotes good color, growth and density. I use many types of fertilizers to achieve the best results. I will always apply  granular fertilizers to get the best results. Liquid fertilizers have to be applied in lower rates to avoid "burning" the grasses.  I only use granular fertilizers to get the best results and to avoid "burning" the lawn.  Sometimes, lawns have a need for extra Potassium and Phosphorous. When needed, I will apply the amount needed for correction. I apply fertilizers at specific rates at specific times of the year when it is the best time to do so. There may be times where I do not apply fertilizer to a lawn. Applying nitrogen in the hot summer on some grass varieties can cause decline of the turf, especially in shaded areas. As a general rule, 60 to 75% of the yearly nitrogen should be applied from LATE summer to the LATE  fall. This is the time that the turf promotes dense root systems which provide a healthier lawn in the following year. Too much fertilizer in the spring can weaken the grass plants by thinning the cell walls which can allow disease spores to enter the plant and cause discoloration. Often it looks as if it needs more fertilizer, and a grave mistake is made when more is applied.

                                                            WEED CONTROL

Weeds are the most common and most aggravating problem to the average person. But it is not as simple as just spraying some weed killer on it. There are specific times when weed control is most effective. Too early and you will get minimal results due to the cold soil. Too hot or dry and you will get poor results with damage to the surrounding grass. Too much and the soil will become unhealthy. The soil is always full of active microbes that seek to destroy foreign matter. When you spray too often, your soil can actually become immune to the product over time. The best approach is to apply weed control when the temperatures are over 60 and under 85 degrees. Most weed controls work by absorbing into openings in leaf tissues called STOMATA. This is why granular weed controls do not work well on small leaf weeds. The product simply rolls off. I also add special products called ADJUVANTS to help the weed control to stick to the weeds and get better control.

Some weeds are easy to control and some are more difficult. The most difficult to control weeds are Oxalis, Ground Ivy and Violets. These are very hardy weeds that do not absorb liquids easily into the tissues. They often require special products and repeat applications.

The weed control I use is a very LOW VOLUME mixture. This allows me to get excellent results without soaking the soil with products. I use 3 way weed controls with a non-oinic surfactant to make the product stick to the weed and get maximum results.

                                            PRE-EMERGENTS

Pre-emergents are products applied in the spring that are designed to prevent grassy weeds and a few broadleaf weeds from growing. They can be applied as a granular or liquid formulation. Once applied, they form a thin barrier on the soil surface. Once the weed seeds germinate, they die. Pre-emergents can be broken down by a few factors. Soil disturbance. Digging, tilling, heavy foot traffic, and animal activity will break the barrier allowing weed seeds to germinate. Heat, sunlight, and too much water can also break them down. This is what happened in 2006. We had a cool, wet spring and much rain into the summer. Then in late July, we began to see crabgrass emerge. The excessive water and heat/humidity broke down the crabgrass control product and it began to grow. Even lawns that had not had crabgrass in many years saw a large crop.

                                                                                      INSECT CONTROL

There are many insects out there that can damage and even kill entire lawns. Control are specific to each insect and its life stage. I can make a determination of the potential problems and cures. Chinch bugs, for instance, have several stages of growth and require early treatment. The same goes with Billbugs. Worms can be tricky to detect and treat. Grubworms are the most likely insect to attack your lawn. They are the larvae stage of beetles. Each year, beetles emerge in the summer and feed on trees and shrubs. They mate and plant eggs in the soil, most always in the full sun and on slopes or near the concrete. They need extra heat to hatch.They are best controlled with a preventative treatment in the early summer. They can be treated after they emerge, but by then, some damage has probably occurred. Grub damaged lawns need lot of water to re-establish root systems.

Grub are present in most every lawn, even in treated lawns. The issue is the population. If there are too many grubs present in the lawn, damage will occur. Grub controls are designed to reduce that population to avoid damage. You may have skunks or moles causing damage as well.

                                                   SKUNK DAMAGE.

Skunks eat grubs in the late summer and fall. Skunks look for brown spots and dig for them. Their damage looks like small, circular holes. If they find grubs, they will return nightly to feed. If they don't, they will usually move on.

                                                           MOLES

Moles can be active all year. They cause extensive damage in many areas. When you see small piles of soil and raised tunnels, then they are actively excavating new tunnels. Moles do eat grubs, but also eat worms and other insects. Having a grub control treatment will not always control moles. For control of moles, you need to try several control methods. 1.Baits, like mole pellets offer minimal results. Using mole "worms" offer the best control. 2.Mechanical traps are somewhat effective and should also be used.