Garden Coach 7/30/2020

Garden Coach with Jennifer Brennan

July 30, 2020

Overview:

• The extreme heat last 6 weeks has been close to torture for all our landscape plants and lawns (AND us people)! I was reading the soil temperature reports from last week – on Friday the SOIL temperature was 85! That is high enough to cause cool season turf grass roots to die! It dropped down significantly (back into the low 70’s over the weekend).

• Keep planting as long as you are committed to watering the root balls of the plants by hand. We have seen many “failures” due to the reliance on sprinkler systems.

• This weekend will seem like a “break” for us AND our plants with the reduced humidity. But do not get tricked into complacency.
  1. Even though it feels like we have had a lot of rainfall events this season, the total rainfall is not up to the required amounts for healthy, happy plants. – the roots take 6-8 weeks to move from the “root ball” into the surrounding soil. This last Tuesday evening only rendered 2/10ths of an inch (= nothing in my book)!
  2. Be sure and water the plants at least once a day when the temperatures are over 85.

• Things to watch out for in your gardens: (All of these have shown up at the Plant Information windows, since we last talked):
  1. Lawns are really starting to show the stress of the extreme heat – they are cool season turf grasses. The lack of rainfall has also impacted them as well. One can always water with sprinkler systems but cannot lower the temperature outside. The diseases that I have seen under the microscope:
     1. Brown Patch – Rhizoctonia fungus occurs in temps over 85 with high humidity
     2. Summer Patch – Magnaporte fungus

• Pythium – is still “hanging” around in humid and heavy soils

1. Dollar Spot -

1. The grassy weed, Creeping Bent Grass has started to brown out, showing large areas of dead looking grass. Bring a sample into the Plant Information Center for a confirmed ID. Be prepared to lightly rake the dead layer off the dormant bluegrass lawn and water and apply the Labor Day fertilizer application 2-3 weeks early. (Product to use – Scott’s Step One for Seeding with Mesotrione)
2. There are many insects and fungal diseases in the vegetable gardens (Products to use – Bonide Fungonil with chlorothalanil and Bonide Tomato and Vegetable spray RTU or Bonide Orchard spray Ready to Spray Hose End with sulfur and pyrethrin)
3. Japanese beetles have awakened and emerged. I have a sample to show, Watch your roses, grapes, Lindens, Birches, Japanese Maples, Crabapples, raspberries and Hollyhocks. (Products to use – BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Spray RTU or Ready to Spray hose end.)
4. There are still many of the fungal leaf spot diseases are showing up now – The “star” again this week is the “rusts” on apples, crabapples, hawthorns and roses. Unfortunately, once the spots show up there is nothing to do except keeping the plants out of stress by watering and fertilizing. (Products to use next spring – Immunox concentrate)
5. Apple Scab on all of the rose family of plants. (Products to use – BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Spray RTU or Ready to Spray hose end.)
6. Now is the time for boxwood Volutella stem canker to spread. I got a great sample showing what happens to the plant as a result. The bark “pops” off the stem. (Products to use – BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Spray RTU or Ready to Spray hose end.)
7. Lots of slugs are leaving holes in Hosta leaves. Use Sluggo at the rate of 1 teaspoon per square feet every 2 weeks for 3 applications.
8. Animals are eating the tomatoes and peppers before the people can harvest them. (Product to use – Bonide Rat Magic granules as barrier treatment around entire garden)
9. Baby rabbits are eating Hostas, heucheras and many other plants in the gardens. They do not have a sense of smell or taste until they are adolescents, so they eat through most effective repellents. (Product to use – Liquid Fence Dual Action Rabbit Repellent)

• What to do –
  1. Get one more fertilizer application under the plants on top of the soil. It is especially important for plants that flower in the Spring – now is when they are forming the buds – give them the “building blocks” that fertilizer provides.
  2. Spread Sluggo slug bait.
  3. Protect the plants that the insects want to eat. Use insecticides in an “Earth friendly” manner – using them late in the afternoon or early evening, when the pollinators are back at their hives. The next morning it will be dry and will not kill them.
  4. Drench roses, crabapples, grapes and other members of the Rose family with preventative BioAdvanced All-In-One Rose & Flower Care
  5. Spray Vegetable garden weekly to control diseases and insects
  6. Keep applying animal repellents – weekly for best control