Summer Maintenance and Fruits! Lawns: Lawns should be fully greened up by now. Refer back to the May calendar for maintenance recommendations on fertilizer and mowing heights. If you are seeing unhealthy patches in your lawn, there are a couple of things that you can do. First, submit a soil sample from just that area. For the most accurate fertilizer and lime recommendations your sample should be submitted to Clemson’s Agricultural Services Laboratory. You can take your sample to your county Extension office or mail it directly to the lab. In the results that you are sent from the lab will be specific fertilizer and possibly lime recommendations to correct deficiencies of your soil. For more information on taking a soil sample please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/soil-testing/ If you are concerned that a disease, insect or nematodes may be responsible for the decline of your lawn, you can also submit a plant sample to the Clemson Plant Problem Clinic. Cut out a 6 inch square from the area of affected lawn preferably where the unhealthy grass meets up with the healthy looking grass. The sample should contain some of both. Be sure to include at least 1 inch of roots and soil. Place in a sturdy, plastic bag and submit the sample as soon as possible. Do not let the sample dry out or leave it sitting in a hot place like your car. Below are links to the guidelines and the submission form for a plant problem sample. Read the guidelines thoroughly and fill out as much of the form as possible. https://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/plant-problem/pdfs/plantdiagnosticsamplecollection_guidelines.pdf https://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/plant-problem/pdfs/form-plant-problem-2018-pdf.pdf It should take 7-10 days to get results. Part of the process involves trying to culture out a possible pathogen which may take a week. Results should give you ample information on correcting the problem. The Plant Problem Clinic can help diagnose problems with any plants in your landscape so keep that in mind as the summer season progresses. Annuals and Perennials: Summer annuals should be in full bloom by now. Be sure to keep them healthy and blooming for the whole season with adequate water and fertilizer. To avoid diseases drip irrigation or soaker hoses work best. If using overhead irrigation water early in the morning. Hopefully you have had your soil tested in the past three years. If not, consider doing so especially if your plants are not performing up to expectations. Perennials need adequate nutrients to be sure they bloom this year and come back strong the next year. Otherwise use a fertilizer applied in multiple doses over the blooming season. Use a slow release fertilizer such as a 12-6-6, 12-4-8 or 16-4-8 at the rate of 1 to 2 pounds per 100 ft² and repeat every four to six weeks. You can also use one of the Espoma organic fertilizers at a rate of 4-7 pounds per 100 ft². Keep annuals and perennials deadheaded to keep plants looking fresh and healthy and to encourage more flowers. Many flowers are susceptible to botrytis petal blight, so be sure to provide good air circulation through proper plant spacing. Water plants early in the morning so they will dry out quickly in morning sunlight. Remove dead flowers from the area-bag them and throw them away if they look infected. Blueberries and Figs: Two of the easiest fruits to grow in the home garden are the blueberry and the fig. Hopefully you already have some planted in your landscape but if not, you can plant some now. Both may start to fruit this month although it may be July before the fruit ripens. For blueberries you will get the best crop if you have two varieties to cross-pollinate each other. With figs you only need one tree unless you wish to try multiple varieties. Common Rabbiteye blueberry varieties grown successfully for years in the southeast are Brightwell, Climax, Premier, Powderblue and Tifblue. Two of my favorites for flavor and firmness and that will successfully cross-pollinate each other are Vernon and Alapaha. Blueberries are endemic to the sandy soils of the southeast so be careful if your home garden is in some the clay areas of Charleston County. You must provide good drainage for your plants. Blueberries prefer a pH of 5.5 so be sure to have the soil tested in the area where you plan to grow them to be sure the pH is not too low or high. If you add any type of compost, be certain it has not had lime added to it. Also bear in mind that blueberry plants will perform best over the years to come if they are not allowed to fruit for their first two years. Those first two years the plant’s energy should be spent on developing roots and shoots. For more information on growing blueberries, please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/blueberry/ The most common fig found in the southeast is the Brown Turkey. It may produce multiple crops depending upon the weather. Bear in mind that without regular pruning these trees can grow 15-25 feet in height and width. Prune enough that you can reach the fruit from the ground. If you want lots of figs give them plenty of room in full sunlight. Flavorful fruit develops best with lots of light and good air circulation. Be sure to give adequate water during dry spells but do not overwater especially as fruit is ripening. Unfortunately, heavy rains as fruit is ripening may cause cracking and lessen the flavor. For more information on growing figs please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/fig/ Caring for warm-season grasses The first week of April was rainy and then sunny skies for the rest of the month with very warm temperatures. The National Weather Service 3-4 week forecast for May suggest that rainfall will be above normal. (Check here). So hopefully we will get some relief. Otherwise, be sure to keep irrigation systems running especially on new plantings and anywhere fertilizer is applied. Lawns: All of the different warm-season turf grasses have a pH and fertilizer preference. Turf grass should be actively growing before fertilizing so wait until you have had to mow your lawn a couple of times before making a fertilizer application. For the most accurate fertilizer recommendations a soil sample should be submitted to Clemson’s Agricultural Services Laboratory. You can either take your sample to your county Extension office, bring it by the nursery or mail it directly to the lab. Specific fertilizer recommendations will be in the results as well as liming recommendations. For more information on taking a soil sample please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/soil-testing/ If you don’t soil test, use a complete fertilizer such as a 16-4-8 or 12-4-8 formulation for Bermuda, zoysia or St. Augustine. For centipede lawns a better choice is a 15-0-15 formulation, since this grass is not tolerant of high phosphorous levels. For the sandy soils of the coastal area slow-release fertilizers work best. Clemson recommends that most of the turfgrasses receive 1 to 4 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet applied during the growing season. Centipede and carpet grass are the exceptions; recommendations are for 1/2 to 2 pounds of actual nitrogen. Too much nitrogen on centipede may lead to disease issues. Split applications work well so apply half of the recommendation now and the rest in late summer. Be sure to water in the fertilizer.
For formulas to calculate actual needed amounts of fertilizer please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/fertilizing-lawns/ Each different turf type has an ideal mowing height also. For Bermuda, centipede, and zoysia the height is approximately 1-2 inches; for St. Augustine 2-4 inches is recommended. In shade or during drought, all grasses should be allowed to grow higher. In general, never cut more than a third of the leaf blade at a time. If you cut too much at one time your lawn is likely to look brown as you have removed all of the green tissue. For those of you wanting more of a putting green, bear in mind that your lawn will need higher maintenance not just in more frequent mowing but also more water and fertilizer. Such conditions may increase the possibility of disease issues so be sure to water early in the day and do not over fertilize. Clemson’s HGIC website has maintenance calendars for all of the warm season grasses, so for more information please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/ and do a search for your specific turfgrass. Get ready for the Growing season! Ornamental Trees, Shrubs and Hardy Perennials: Now is the time to fertilize trees, shrubs and hardy perennials (if they are not surrounded by turf). For the most accurate fertilizer recommendations a soil sample should be submitted to Clemson’s Agricultural Services Laboratory. You can either take your sample to your county Extension office, bring it by the nursery or mail it directly to the lab. Spring is the busiest time of the year for the lab so expect delays on getting your results. The best time to submit samples is during fall and early winter months. Specific fertilizer recommendations will be in the results as well as liming recommendations. For more information on taking a soil sample please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/soil-testing/ If you don’t soil test, use a complete fertilizer such as a 16-4-8, 12-6-6 or 12-4-8 formulation. For the sandy soils of the coastal area slow-release fertilizers work best. Clemson recommends that shrubs and trees receive 2 to 4 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of root spread area per year. Split applications work well so apply half of the recommendation now and the rest in early summer. Apply the fertilizer over the whole root spread area underneath the crown of the shrub or tree and out beyond the crown at ½ of the crown radius. For perennials, spread fertilizer away from the base of the plants over the root zone. Be sure to water fertilizer in well and off of any plants. If applying fertilizer over mulch more water may be needed to get the fertilizer into the soil under the mulch. For formulas to calculate actual needed amounts of fertilizer please visit: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/fertilizing-trees-shrubs/ Annuals: Now is the time to decide on and purchase the summer annuals you want to plant in your garden and/or decorative pots. Winter flowering annuals may still look good if you have been keeping them watered, fertilized and dead-headed. By the end of this month though they may be struggling with the warmer temperatures. Replacing these with summer annuals now will give the summer annuals the opportunity to get established before temperatures soar. As always, be sure to try a new plant or new color combination to help jazz up your landscape. Vegetable Garden: It should be safe to start planting transplants or direct seed some vegetables. For exact dates for transplanting and seeding consult the planting chart in Table 3 of Clemson’s HGIC factsheet, Planning a Garden: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/planning-a-garden/ |
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