Many homeowners and industry professionals alike are confusing environmental stress symptoms with insects and/or disease. How certain are you??? 90 % of all samples coming into Kansas State's diagnostic lab are environmentally stressed related to the drought not symptomatic from other pathogens.
Here is a good article from Missouri Department of Conservation about keeping shade trees watered in this drought. Many homeowners who have irrigation feel that there is no need to water their trees...which is untrue. Irrigation system water is beneficial to turf because it is shallow rooted. Trees are deeply rooted therefore needing deeper watering to get benefit. Please see recommendations below.
Aerification is one of the single most important things you can do for your yard after a year like we have had. Some of the benefits of aeration are listed below.
The summer of 2012 will be remembered for two things...record heat/drought and record amount of dead grass!! Our Turf Managers and Account Managers will be evaluating lawns through the month of August and providing recommendation on what should happen in your lawn this fall as it relates to Lawn renovation. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need recommendations about if you're lawn is dead or will recover. 99% of lawns in the area should expect to have something done this fall as every lawn has dead spots after this record setting HOT, DRY
Coalition for Urban Ash Tree Conservation
- Emerald Ash Borer Management Statement -
www.emeraldashborer.info/files/conserve_ash.pdf
signed 06 Jan 2011
Lawn Renovations are just around the corner. Our Turf Managers are hard at work getting bids out. With the extreme conditions we have had this year most everyone will need some sort of work done on their lawn. The most important thing you can do is Aerate your lawn. There is a blog that was done on aeration under Turf & Ornamental Maintenance. In Short it talks about getting a good aeration to move nutrients, air and water to the root system and break up the compacted ground. With the heat and drought the clay is rock hard and needs to be broken up.
So far this season, we've seen quite a bit of problems with trees caused from environmental stress being confused with disease or insects. "Scorch is not a fungus disease but rather a physiological problem associated with damaged roots, limited soil area, or hot, dry winds. Moisture is lost so quickly from the leaves that the roots can't absorb and transfer water quickly enough to replace what is lost.
Found my first bagworms of the season last night on a Blue Spruce and also some apple trees and even sumac at my home. They were about 1/8" long and were feeding like crazy! Sprayed them with an insecticide and they're dead today. Please call us immediately if you notice anything hanging from your trees...they are small right now, so you have to look close. With the upcoming heat wave, they are going to be very destructive to trees. I've seen a tree die within 1-2 days in this heat under bagworm stress.
Keep a close eye on your lawn over the next few days and weeks. Fungal diseases are rampant in turfgrasses right now and there is no sign that they will slow down anytime soon. Disease pressure is through the roof right now with the high temperatures, humidity, extra moisture (irrigation) and soaring nightime temperatures of over 75 degrees. All of these factors combine make for a "perfect storm" for disease development in turf. Brown patch and summer patch is what we are seeing mostly, with occasional dollar spot. Curative treatments of fungicide
I've had some interesting conversation this week about whether or not it is beneficial to try and keep up with watering during this heat wave. The answer is yes and no.
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