Community Paper
copyright ©2007 by Community Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
JUNE
IN THE GARDENby Nick Francisco, Blodgett Gardens
3821 Edgewater Drive, 407-295-2363
JUNE - WEEDS!
dollar weed Summer rains bring on the wet season... as well as weed species such as dollar weed, torpedo grass, and the sedges. It is difficult to turn off that big spigot in the sky to reduce water to our landscapes to an inch a week. Too much water really activates these weeds. Dollar weed is controlled by the broadleaf weed killers like Hi Yield Atrazine. Be careful as Atrazine applied with temperatures over 90° F may slightly damage St. Augustine turf and will kill Bahia Turf. Torpedo Grass invading flower beds may be controlled with Fertilome Over the Top. This material is death to Torpedo Grass and Bermuda Grass in your shrubs where it is impossible to hand weed. It is NOT for use on turf. Sedges are in a class by themselves. They would make a nice turf except they go dormant in the winter, won©ˆt take any traffic, and are a yucky yellowish green. There are 2 classes of sedges - the yellows and the purples. Most of the Yellow Sedges will have soft sandspur-like seed heads. Their foliage is yellowish green with soft thin leaves. Control with 2 applications of Hi Yield Basagran. First mow your actively growing turf, wait 3 days, apply the Hi Yield Basagran, wait 5 days, then mow the turf wait 3 days, apply the second dose, wait 5 days before mowing. By now the sedge should be yellowing and dying out Sound complicated? Not really. The Hi Yield Basagran is only absorbed through actively growing foliage. Mow too soon and you will remove the sprayed foliage. Spray too soon and not enough actively growing leaf surface is available to capture the spray. This is a good regimen to follow when applying any herbicide. Purple nut sedges are a dark thin leaf with a seed head like a miniature Bahia grass seed head. It will take repeated applications of Image to control this one. The rhizome (the wiry underground stem) has from 1 to 3 nuts produced at each node (where the leaves are). Each of these nuts is capable of producing a new plantlet. Consequently hand removal is out of the question as you multiply these guys - not remove them.
Blodgett Gardens is now channel 9's local garden expert.
Channel 9 has a forum through their website where individuals may ask specific
questions to their problems and we (the experts) will answer their specific
questions rather than having to come into the store. Of course visual ID is
required for some solutions but many may be answered without seeing a sample.
