Things to Do in June

There is so much to talk about this Month. More then ever are customers calling, sending e-mails and better bringing in samples of their problems. Everything that is on this months Newsletter has been addressed more then three times already in May.

Get off the couch and get going or your lawn may be a disaster this year.

Thinning Out

I know we have talked about transplanting ill placed plants and overcrowded beds, but I do not remember talking about thinning out. Many people start plants by seeds and will place several seeds in a pot or in a location where they want these to grow. They water and nurture these seed so well sometimes that all seeds do well and start competing for space or sunlight. Several years, months or just a few weeks go by when you must make the decision of thinning out the plants. Crowded crops compete for light and nutrients. Thin so leaves do not overlap. After thinning, crops should be at least four inches apart or more depending on the ultimate size of the plant.

Do this by selecting the plant that is the strongest or best situated. Get a sharp shovel or trowel and jam it into the soil separating the desired plant from the others.. If you have removed enough of the root of the undesirable plant Do not throw it away. Find another location for it either in your yard or garden, a neighbors or friends. Your churches garden may be able to use it. Soak the root system in Kelp or sea weed (same thing) and transplant it ASAP.

Berries

If blackberries, strawberries and raspberries are ready harvest them and bring some to Rohde’s. We will judge the flavors an pick the winners. No prize will be given to growers, but I sure will enjoy the fruit of your labor.

Fertilize

This is a good time to apply a complete fertilizer with a 3-1-2 ratio of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Green Sense fertilizers have this ratio and are a source of many trace minerals. These minerals come from a combination of products uses in blending the final product.

Dairy or poultry manure, feather meal, sul-po-mag, molasses, zeolite and yeast to name a few of the ingredients.

Apply at a rate of 2O pounds per 1,000 square feet of soil if you are fertilizing every three to four months or no less then 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet of soil if like me you are fertilizing once a month.

Remember to apply Super Bio or other Microbes, to help boost your fertilizers activity, after applying your fertilizer.

Flowering Plants

Remember that when a plant is in bloom it is in stress. Help it out by applying regular applications of Foliar Juice or Kelp and Fish Solubles by Green Sense. Apply solid fertilizers like cottonseed meal, rock phosphate and alfalfa meal to the soil around the plants making the soil richer and encouraging more root growth.

Prune back or stake tall flowers to keep them from blowing over in the wind or being weighed down by rainfall. The cardboard on hangers works well and will last one season.

Remove spent blooms from flowers to encourage more blossoms. Cut off faded iris blooms and stalks. By now your winter bulbs stalks have wilted and can also be cut back.

Perennials

This is an ideal time to select and plant the spring, summer and fall flowering varieties of perennials. At Rohde’s we have a very large selection of perennials in stock, over 200, in a matter of fact.

Remember that if the flower that you are about to cut back has seeds in it, you can harvest the seed for next years garden or let the birds eat them.

Insect Control

The best way to avoid pest problems in the garden is to carefully choose what you plant. Purchase native plants and resistant varieties to minimize work later on. Check plants, specially new growth for caterpillars, aphids and white flies.

Caterpillars: Use bacillus thuringiensis. It is safe to use on crops as well as flowers. Use according to label directions. A spreader-sticker is needed to keep BT on the leaves.

Worms: Tricograma Wasp are great predators of worms, they can fly as high as the tallest branch of a pecan tree or go as low as an herb searching for caterpillars. They do reproduce so they are a very good investment.

Aphids and White Flies: These insects are very easy to control by blasting them with water from a garden hose or spraying a solution of soapy water to suffocate these tiny insects Do this early in the morning or after dusk to minimize the chance of burning the leaves. For larger infestations:

Release Lady Bugs. Keep the Lady Bugs in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator until it is dark outside.

Water the infested plants down and if possible apply some molasses or yeast on the plants. Bring out the chilled lady bugs and release a few at the base of the infested plants. Place the remainder of the lady bugs in the crisper and repeat the process the following evening.

Green Lace Wings: These critters are even more aggressive then the lady bug. They will reproduce and help keep the aphids, white fly and other insects at check.

Make white fly traps by spreading a thin coat Tangle Foot or Vaseline on yellow poster board squares. Mount the cardboard traps on sticks and place them around the flower beds or vegetable gardens at blossom height.

Grasshoppers: Use Nolo Bait. Please take time to read more about Nolo Bait by Clicking here.

Suckers

Yaupon Hollies, Wax Myrtle’s, Roughleaf Dogwoods and other native trees sometimes have shallow root systems that will send suckers that can become unsightly in a flower bed or grassy area.

Prune these suckers back. This will not hurt the tree. However remember that if you have an erosion problem, like I do these suckers will help keep the soil in place.

Roses

I have found that the best roses for our area is the Antique Rose. They take less care, get fewer insect and disease problems and in many cases get more blooms for a longer period of time then the hybrids. This year, though, we have had a larger number of calls about rose problems. Some of them are fungal related and a lot have been thrips.

The good news is that you can control thrips and fungi on roses with Neem Oil. Neem Oil can be applied with a pressure sprayer over the rose itself forcing the product in between the petals to the area where the thrips are active.

Beneficial Nematodes

We have one customer who has two roses beds in his back yard. One is by his dog run where he constantly releases the Beneficial Nematodes. This rose bed has not had thrips this year. The second rose bed is on the opposite side of the yard where he can view the flowers from his breakfast room.

He has not applied BN’s around this bed and has had thrips attack every rose in this garden. Hmmmmmm. Coincidence? I think not. He has recently applied BN’s to that garden.

When cutting roses to take indoors, cut to an outside facing bud to encourage growth away from the center of the plant. This increases air circulation and discourages mildew.

Fertilize the rose bed regularly. Use a combination of alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal and sul-po-mag at a rate of 2-2-1. Apply one cup a month during blooming period.

Slugs

The cool, wet spring has drawn the slugs out in full force, so it is important to take time to eliminate them. One customer called asking for Bran meal, she read in Sunset Magazine that Bran destroys the digestive track of snails and slugs. Please try this at home and let me know the results.

Weeding

As best as I can remember, this has been the worst year for weeds. The cool, wet weather this spring has encouraged the germination of billions of weed seeds. Flower beds, vegetable gardens and lawns are all infested. Pull, cultivate or eliminated in some form before they have a chance to flower and go to seed again. Otherwise, you will be fighting newly germinated weed seed for the next several years.

I found that mowing every four to five days has helped with the weeds in the lawn. For my flower beds I have applied 20% Vinegar and placed more mulch over the soil to eliminate sunlight from reaching the soil where the dormant seed is.

DO NOT get into the temptation of spraying a chemical herbicide this can screw up everything that you have done correctly in the last few years. Break your back, sweat a little more and stay organic.

Lawn Care

It is a great time to aerate the rains have for the most part past us by. When you aerate this late you will have thousands of holes in the turf that will be able to collect moisture from any additional rains we may be lucky to get or from your unscheduled watering. It would be a good time to fertilize, apply lava sand, humate and a thin layer of compost.

Watering

Do not water every M-W-F! Water when the ground is dry and then water deeply!

Lawn Diseases

Fungus

Year after year people have come in with clumps of grass. They will carry them in bags and boxes, some even bring in just leaves. Many people want to blame their lawn disease on the organic program that they are now trying to follow. After asking questions we usually determine that the problem is not caused by what fertilizer they are applying, but other practices and environmental hardship that the turf is growing in and or around.

Most lawn diseases are preventable by maintaining a healthy vigorous growth during the growing season. We talk about watering a lot, we always recommend a deep watering and infrequently, because too little water plus frequent watering promotes shallow root growth and problems.

We recommend aerating the lawn since this will help the water penetrate easily into soil.

Even the chemical people tell you not to use high levels of nitrogen fertilizers, during periods of stress since too much nitrogen can cause diseases. So, stick with organic fertilizers since they are lower in nitrogen and will be released only as they breakdown in the soil.

If you have large areas of disease problems you may have to check the pH levels in the soil periodically and increase the acidity with sulfur dust or sprays. In some areas outside of our Dallas area you may need to use other methods or products (limestone) to balance your pH check with your Extension Service or your local nursery for advice for your area.

Not all of our customers bring in samples. Some of them try to describe the problem over the phone.

One caller said that she had circular brown spots in the lawn, she went on to say that she had about 12 of these and they just happened to be where her neighbors dog would pee.

Well can you guess what this one is called.

Dog Spots

We now know what caused it, the dog pee burnt the grass. Now we need to control it.

When you see the dog getting ready to pee, run after it with a loud horn or scream at the top of your lungs.

But, be prepared to run back into the house. Some dogs are braver then others and will run towards you barking louder then your scream. This will cause you to scream in freight, possibly pee in your pants, and if you so happen to be standing still you may cause a Human Spot, as the dog tears into your skin…. deeeeeply, with his sharp teeth. The neat thing is that now you will be the talk of your neighborhood for many weeks to come.

Really to Control: Use Microbes or water well and fertilize to promote grass growth.

Another customer called to say that every morning she had mushrooms growing in the yard. Another customer called to say she had mushrooms growing by the garage in an area that was almost a perfect square and was different soil then the rest of the lawn.

On the first caller we found out that there was an old tree stump where her problem was, the second caller found out that the previous owner of the house had a compost pile in that spot causing:.

Mushrooms

This fungus grows in organic matter, such as decaying roots or the old compost pile and the excess organic matter.

One thing that you can do is to gather up all the mushrooms and take them to your nearest fancy French restaurant and sell them by the pound. NO! you should not eat these.

Really to control: Hire some one to come out with a stump grinder and remove the existing stump. However it is more then likely very decayed and will chop easy with an ax.

Add some good top soil to the compost pile to decrease the amount of organic matter or just mow both areas more often.

Ways to help prevent some fungal problems.

1. Water, but deeply and only when needed into the soil to encourage deep roots.
2. Water early in the morning. This lets the leaves dry and prevents the spread of spores.
3. Water when your lawn needs it, but only then. Grass will turn a pale green, almost blue, and footprints won't spring back.
4. Mow higher. This will protect the stem from heavy sunlight. The shorter you mow your grass, the smaller the root system will be.
5. Don't use a dull blade because this shreds the tops of the grass, and exposes the turf's tissue for disease spores to easily enter.
6. DON’T BAG! Keep grass clippings on your lawn, as they break down about 25 percent of the nutrients back to the soil.

Diatomaceous Earth

Way back when, about the same time my mother in law was born, and before the broom she rides on was invented, there were microscopic one-celled plants called diatoms. These diatoms were found in all the waters of the world and, as time went on these diatoms took minerals from the waters and created protective shells for themselves. There were as many diatoms as there were stars in the sky, as many diatoms as all those words that comes out of my mother in laws mouth, telling me how special her daughter is, and how lucky I am to have become a part of her family, blah-blah-blah! Unfortunately for the diatom they died and their shells fell to the bottom of the ocean floor collecting in areas that would later become exposed as the waters receded. As man got smarter he found this product had several benefits.

People found that Diatomaceous Earth (D.E.) changes texture and usefulness depending on where these deposits have settled. Uses like beer making, swimming pool filtering, supplementing trace minerals, keeping food grains insect free, manufacturing agricultural and livestock-related products and many more uses that I do not have time to mention since I have to visit my mother in law on this day her birthday.

On this planet we have two types of water, salt water and fresh water. Therefore, there are two types of Diatoms. The deposits that come from fresh water are the best because they are purer. The fresh water D.E. is labeled as food grade by the Food and Drug Administration, and is considered safe to use in animal foods, at a rate not to exceed two percent of the weight of the total feed ration. When added at this percentage, fossil shell flour prevents "clumping" of feed particles by keeping them separate, so there is improved flow when mixing and handling of the animal feed. This in turn, creates two big advantages to the animals who consume fossil shell flour. First, acting as an anti-caking agent to prevent "clumping" of feed particles, the surface area of feed exposed to the digestive processes—both bacterial and enzymatic—are increased and therefore more feed is actually digested and utilized. Secondly, fossil shell flour contains a small amount of 14 trace minerals. Never exceed the recommended rate of two percent of the dry weight of food.

At Rohde’s we carry Perma-Guard insecticides. These products are made of pure fresh water Diatomaceous Earth and have been tested for many years. Many of these test were under the scrutiny of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Kansas State University, and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Over the years these products have scored dramatic successes in protecting stored grain and seed, growing crops, homes and industrial plants from insect and pest infestations (unfortunately it has not keep my mother in law out of my house, regardless of how much I use.) without the addition of any chlorinated phosphates, systemic poisons or chemical compounds commonly found in almost all commercial insecticides. With environmental and food protection issues a top concern for all of us, the Perma-Guard company has started a revolution in the insecticide field. While other insecticides kill chemically, most insects develop an immunity to the chemical, over time. Perma-Guard insecticides kill bugs physically and insects are incapable of developing an immunity to a physical action, one that actually punctures the insect's exoskeleton, destroying it's soft waxy shell structure, chewing up its digestive organs and causing death in a short time by dehydration. Another great advantage of D.E. , is that it is not toxic to humans and animals. Some Perma-Guard insecticides also contain Pyrethrum, an extract from a variety of Chrysanthemum flower, that is deadly poison to insects and other forms of cold blooded life, but virtually non-toxic to warm-blooded life. Another ingredient used in Perma-Guard is Piperonyl Butoxide, which was first discovered in Sassafras plants. This product increases the potency of the product and increases it’s residual time tremendously. Howard Garrett used to recommend Diatomaceous Earth and Pyrethrin but no longer does. He thinks that a better solution to this combination of products is the Beneficial Nematodes. BN’s are to be used in outdoor areas and can not be used inside. These microscopic predators will seek and destroy larval stages of fleas quickly. Treat the problem area early, keep the treated areas moist throughout the summer and the BN’s can survive the heat. Groom your pet regularly, three times a day if necessary. Use a Shampoo that contains citrus oil on your dog but not on the more tender skin of your cat. Vacuum the entire house more often and make sure you discard the bag each time.