Date: Wed, February 22, 2006

In this email look for the following:  Winter Maintenance Question - ELetter

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I had an interesting and instructive question recently and thought if was worthy of sharing with you. Here it is:

Question: I have a question regarding lawn care; I have had a company in the past doing the spraying and adding the fertilizer to lawn. They have been bugging me about coming through the winter months to spray the lawn, and shrubs as well as add fertilizer. The question is, are they doing this to generate revenue or is it really important to do this now?

Answer: There are several "ifs, ands, and buts" to answer your questions. First, what kind of lawn? Fescue should be fertilized in September, November, and February and specifically should not be fertilized from mid-March on till next September. Spring and summer fertilizer makes it more susceptible to disease pressure, specifically "brown patch." If you have bermuda, centipede, or zoysia grass, those should NOT be fertilized until after green up is complete in May. For complete lawn management schedules, see my web page at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/homehort/homelawn.html

Late fall to late winter is a traditional time to fertilize trees and shrubs IF they need it. Those that need it are usually recent plantings that have not yet reached their desired size. As woody trees and shrubs approach optimal size, fertilizing should be backed off to once every 3-4 years unless there are specific deficiencies that need to be addressed. Trees and shrubs adjacent to turf areas often get all the fertilizer they ever need from lawn applications.

There are very few if any lawn pests that I can think of that should be sprayed during the winter with the exception of weeds. There may be some insects or diseases but none come to mind. Now is about the right time to be monitoring winter weeds and treating on an as needed basis and/or to be applying pre-emergence herbicides for weeds that will show up in late spring - such as crabgrass.

There are a few insect pests that may need to be sprayed at this time of year if there IS a problem with them - not just because there MAY be a problem. Scale insects are a good example. They will be there year round and are very difficult to control because the microscopic insect lives under a protective shell that is large enough to see. Insecticides in general will not penetrate this shell. Horticultural oils are often applied at this time of year because it's easy to penetrate to the stems and there is less likelihood of plant injury. The oil has some capacity from surface tension to work its way under the protective shell. However, research has shown that routine or "cover" sprays applied by some companies on a calendar basis tend to increase the problems with scale insects. It is thought that these routine sprays reduce populations of beneficial insect predators and parasites.

So, there are some of the issues you could need addressed. My suggestion would be to look at your maintenance agreement and/or talk with your company representative to see what specifically is being done and why. If the agreement says to spray shrubs in February, I would ask why. If the agreement says to monitor for scale and spray as needed, that's a more solid approach.

Your landscape company may be just doing it to "generate revenue" or there may be a good reason for what they do. Their biggest fault may be inadequately communicating to you what they are doing and why. Or they may have given you a complete program that you have not read carefully. Or any number of other possibilities.

I realize I'm rambling now, but it's on the assumption that more communication is needed. I hope that you will ask some informed questions now and get back to me if you need help with the answers you're getting. You've got good questions, and I hope you get some good answers.

alcooke

Al Cooke
Extension Agent
Horticulture
North Carolina State University
North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Chatham County Center
P.O. Box 279
Pittsboro, NC 27312
E-mail: al_cooke@ncsu.edu
Home page: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/staff/acooke/home.html
Phone: 919.542.8202 FAX: 919.542.8246