Pre-Emergent Herbicides

Just some quick reminders to help you keep your California and Arizona lawns their best.  As you go out to the store this week don’t forget to pick up a bag of pre-emergent herbicide for your lawn and get it ready for the spring season.  The winter weeds are starting to take off now that the weather is warming up and we have been saturated with rain.  This is a perfect time for the warmer areas such as Phoenix, Tucson, So Cal, and Palm Desert to get the pre-emergent down so those weeds don’t start to appear throughout your lawn.  I wrote a blog a couple weeks ago on the different types of herbicides that are effective so take a look back and make sure you go out and purchase one and get it down before it is too late.  Here is the link:  http://www.westernsod.com/sodblog/234

Watering

The temperature outside has started to rise a little bit and we are starting to see the soils gradually warm, up but it’s not a quick process coming off the winter.  There is still no need to get extremely aggressive with the watering, it’s best to keep a close eye on the weather and the growth pattern of your lawn.  If you’re starting to see wilt and you are watering every five days, try going every four days and see what happens.  As we have said many times before grass doesn’t waste water, people do. 

You should be running about 30-40 minutes total of water per week at this time of the year depending upon your sprinklers.  If you have rotary sprinkler heads you may need to run slightly more so you get the right amount of water down.  Don’t be afraid to take a soil probe or even just stick a screwdriver in the ground to make sure you are watering to the correct depth.  If water doesn’t seem to be penetrating your soil it is time to aerify your lawn and give it a chance to breath and allow for better water percolation.

Fertilizer

The most common question is can I put down a granular fertilizer now that it is warmer outside.  You can, but the soil is still too cold to get the kind of reaction you are looking for from a granular.  I suggest waiting till early March for a nice granular fertilizer application in case we get another cold spell and your lawn starts to lose its color.  It’s a great time to put another application of “Seasonal Booster 7-7-7” down and watch your ryegrass take off in preparation for the months ahead.  If you have been fertilizing with granular throughout the winter months you are likely to see a lot of growth in the months ahead as the soils warm up and the fertilizers start to release.  This is not an ideal situation as the ryegrass serves as a shade to the bermudagrass and paspalum and makes the spring transition process a little more difficult.  If you are in this situation a good aerification or light verticut will help aide the transition process in late March/early April. 

Spring Greenup on Dormant Grass

If you are the owner of dormant paspalum you are probably amazed right now as your lawn is about 60-70 percent in color and is moving quickly towards a full spring recovery.  If you have paspalum early next month is an ideal time to put down an organic fertilizer application such as Milorganite to keep the heat in the plant and get it to green up faster.

If you are a bermudagrass grower your spring green up is about 4 weeks behind in color to the paspalum but will start to show signs of spring revival very soon.  As the temperatures warm up go ahead and put an application of Milorganite or Ironite on the lawn to trap any heat loss in the plant.  Since these are dark fertilizers they will keep the heat in.  Now you won’t see any growth for a few months but you will start to see some color emerge soon.

Dormant turf should be watered once per week for 15-20 minutes until soil temperatures start to warm up or grass starts to show signs of stress.

Keep sending me in your questions and I will answer them as I receive them.  If you are in the cooler climates and are looking for fescue and rye/blue it is now available in all of our markets.  Give us a call and we will get you set up with some.  Don’t waste a good opportunity to keep your lawn weed free this summer and get it going early.

Jay