I have seen a lot of dead grass this spring.  Northerners or sophisticated southerners call it lawns but most common people in the south just call it grass.  I hate to say it but most of the problems have been people problems - causing grass problems.  These problems stem from the fact that many people try to make centipede into something it is not a dark green, lush, thick carpet - a more sophisticated grass or like my daddy would say “They try to make a silks purse out of a sow’s ear.”  For example, fertilizing in the fall will cause winter kill and is the “Grim Reaper” for a centipede lawn.            So I am repeating this earlier article to remind folks how to maintain centipede grass.
   Centipede is a low maintenance grass.  It was developed to flourish in situations where it would be ignored or left alone, except when it comes to mowing.  Many homeowners simply over-maintain centipede which leads to its demise.  I have had hundreds of phone calls where they begin by telling me how beautiful, thick, and lush their centipede lawn was for four, five, or maybe six years and now there is nothing but dirt.  Therefore many folks call centipede a poor man’s grass, a lazy man’s grass, a golfer’s grass, or my favorite a redneck grass.

   If you fertilize your grass enough to keep it darker green than your lawn mower but it stills turns bright yellow in the spring (Iron deficiency) then you might have a redneck grass.
   If your lawn is cushiony, soft, and feels like a lush carpet and then it starts to dying then you might have a redneck grass.
   If you plant bag after bag of that expensive seed and water it daily to keep those tiny plants alive but it bears quicker than your balding husband then you might have a redneck grass.
   If your irrigation water bill is higher than your child’s tuition and your lawn still gets bad grades then you might have a redneck grass.
   If your lawn prefers a good long drink once a week to a sip everyday then you might have a redneck grass.
   If your lawn prefers a shower in the wee hours of the morning before sun-up then you might have a redneck grass.
   If your kid loses his football in the tall grass of your front yard and your grass loses the game because it prefers to be cut short (1 to 1.5 inches) you might have a redneck grass.
   If your lawn prefers not to be wakened in the early morning by a lawn mower spreading disease (Large Patch) then you might have a redneck grass.
   If you love to give your lawn a crew-cut with your thousand- horsepower-zero-turn mower faster than a qualifying pole lap and your grass wins the race then you might have a redneck grass.
   If you prefer setting in your porch swing, drinking a cold ice tea, and listening to country music to irrigating or fertilizing your lawn and your grass appreciates the relaxation then you might have a redneck grass.
   Finally, if you spend more time babying your lawn than you do watching Making-it-Grow on ETV and it still dies then you might have a redneck grass.

   Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

   My phone rings off the hook in the spring with people asking me how to control the ugly weeds in their lawn.  I always tell them you missed the best time to control these weeds, last fall.  This year why don’t you get ahead of the weeds and apply a pre-emergent herbicide now to control lawn weeds and you won't have to call me in the spring.  These weeds which most people refer to as spring weeds are actually winter weeds.  Similar to my wife these weeds don’t like our summer heat but they don’t have the luxury my wife has to turn the thermostat to cold (what I call “Hog Killing Temperatures”). These weeds germinate and start to grow in the fall when it cools down, usually in late September or October in our area, and grow all winter long.

   Most people don’t pay any attention to them until they start to flower in the spring and their spouses makes them cut the lawn (weeds) early before the grass starts to grow.  Many times this spurs them into action and they head to the lawn and garden center to buy a Weed-n-Feed. This kills the weeds and gets their spouse off their case for a while; however, controlling the weeds after flowering is a waste of time and money because they have already produced the seed for next year’s crop of weeds and since these weeds hate the heat they will actually die in a few weeks with the heat of the summer.  Some folks get around this by applying the Weed-n-Feed before the weeds flower, get large, and take over their lawn.  However, if applied too early, the fertilizer in those Weed-n-Feeds will be washed away, polluting our environment, and lost before it can be utilized by the grass.  Therefore, now is the best time to control these weeds with a pre-emergent herbicide (make sure it doesn’t have fertilizer added) before they start to emerge and grow.
   Using a pre-emergent herbicide in the fall reminds me of the old adage my mama taught me “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Pre-emergent means before germination and an herbicide is any chemical that injures or kills a plant.  Therefore, when properly applied a pre-emergent herbicide will prevent weed seeds from germinating, keep the weeds from growing, and like my daddy would say, “Nip the problem in the bud.”  However, to be effective these products need to be applied before weed emergence and watered in soon after application so timing and method of application is very important. 
   Many companies make many types of pre-emergent herbicides with all types of active ingredients and brand names, but quite honestly in Florence there is a limited availability of products.  Obtaining the one best for your lawn situation can be difficult.  However, the more you know about your lawn, including the type of grass, soil, and weeds present, will make the selection much easier.  Also, reading and following all label directions will help you make the best herbicide selection and ensure optimum use and results.  You may think getting out your five dollar reading glasses and comprehending a pesticide label is punishment but if you do a poor job of controlling the weeds, leave checkerboard like streaks in your lawn, or worst of all damage your lawn and have nothing but brown grass next summer your spouse and neighbors will never let you hear the end of it.  Products such as Atrazine, Balan, Dimension, Pennant, Triflurlin, Surflan, Team, and XL may be found locally.

   Thank goodness for the rain!  It saved a lot of crops.  I recently heard a County Agent from Utah talk about water use.  First, he said, "What drought? You have green forests and lawns."   In Utah, without irrigation, nothing grows except desert plants.  I guess even drought is relative. Next, he said that even though the water is very expensive the folks out west waste water just like many of us do here.  Finally, he said they could grow excellent turf, which is a very high water user, in the desert with only 25 inches of water a year.  We average 43 inches of rainfall a year in Florence.  When it comes to growing plants, the total amount of water is not usually our problem in S.C.; it's that the rain doesn't come regularly enough in the summer.  The message of all this is that in S.C. irrigation should only be used as a supplement to rainfall. I've irrigated my entire lawn only once this year; the rest of the time I pulled hoses to water annuals and newly-planted plants.

   The bottom-line is that we need to conserve water.  There is only so much water and the demand for good, clean water is rising.  If you lived in my home town of McBee just a few miles up the road from Florence, where much of the groundwater is contaminated with chemicals, you would appreciate your drinking water more.  The drought and humongous amount of groundwater pumped out and sold to cities  has lowered the water table and caused a concentration of chemicals already present in the soil.

   Many folks are not only wasting water, they are also hurting their lawns by over-watering.  I have seen hundreds of yards where the plants aredrowned, damaged or disease ridden by over-irrigation.  In fact, I tell folks that one of the major reasons Florence county lawns die is the improper use of irrigations systems.  I call it the "I paid big bucks for this irrigation system and I'm going to use it" syndrome.

   In one incidence, the irrigation system broke for two weeks and the
entire yard died -- the trees, the shrubs, and the grass.  The lawn was
irrigated twice daily and all shrub and tree roots that were alive were
located on top of the weed barrier cloth.  All the roots in the soil were drowned, brown, and rotted.  Unable to get water from the soil and without daily surface moisture, everything died.  At another home,
certain plants naturally wilted during the hottest part of the day, but
the owners panicked and continued to increase the irrigation,. The
situation only got worse.  We figured out that once again the plants had only extremely shallow roots.  They had to slowly decrease their
irrigation over a period of several years until the plants could develop
new roots that extended deeply into the soil.

   During the growing season plants need an average of one inch of water a week, from irrigation or rainfall.  Use rain gages, cans, rulers, or math to determine how much water you are applying. Remember, don't wet leaves if you avoid it to keep down diseases, never water in the evening (water at night between 1:00 a.m. and sun-up), and never water an established landscape more than twice a week. 
    Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or
family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

   Everything and everyone in the Pee Dee is dying, mostly of old age.  I'm sorry, but no matter what the all-knowing-TV-talk-show-hosts say we need to face the facts that everything has a lifespan.  Trees, shrubs, lawns, pets, and people have a typical number of years on this earth.  People are always coming up to me and asking what is causing all the people to die.  What they want is for me to blame it on the farmers, ranchers, and the chemicals in our food, and they're  disappointed when I say "Old Age."  The fact is we are living longer than ever before, averaging somewhere around 78 years of age in the United States, but this doesn't make exciting TV shows. Maybe farmers are killing us by producing the best, safest, and most abundant food supply in the world which allows us to eat ourselves to death through obesity. We are a spoiled nation.

  Believe it or not, centipede lawns have a lifespan, too, and in my travels around the Pee Dee I see many dead lawns.  When a centipede lawn that is 20 to 30 years old experiences a very stressful period like drought, excessive heat, or a sudden cold snap, many times it just gives up the ghost and dies.  Our scientific term for this is centipede decline.
   I can't take the stresses I easily withstood in my youth. It's the same with plants -- when they reach the end of their typical lifespan, little things that were just annoying in their youth are now life threatening situations.  However, you can extend the lifespan of many plants with some preventative maintenance. For instance, if it's needed, dethatching centipede (which removes thatch and old runners and encourages new runners) may extend the life of your lawn many years.  Also, you can shorten the lifespan of centipede by what I call spoiling  it. Over-fertilization, over-irrigation, too much shade, mowing too high, and scalping will slowly kill centipede.

   Also, trees, shrubs, and perennials have a typical lifespan,
too. Bradford pear trees usually live about 25 years and then fall apart, Laurel (Darlington) oaks do the same at about 30 years, and
sections of limbs die in redbuds after about 25 years.  Azaleas need
rejuvenating pruning every few years, and aucuba has a lot of stem
dieback that requires pruning. I consider gerbera daisies, one of our
favorite perennials, a short lived perennial.  The moral of the story is
when something dies try to find the cause and correct it if possible,
but if it's natural mortality,  plant something else and keep-on-gardening.

   The best way I know to extend your lifespan is simply
getting outside enjoying nature and gardening.  This works better than any apple at keeping the doctors away, but works most efficiently when it starts in your youth and continues all throughout your life.  A great
  for a youngster is the 4-H20 Water Quality/Outdoor Summer Adventure Camp for youth ages 8 to 14, offered by Clemson Extension and Kalmia Gardens of Coker College.  The cost is $14, and call Mrs. Harris at (843) 992-9620 or Mr. Hill at (843) 383-8145 for more information. Also, we are now taking applications for the 2008 Master Gardener Class at Kalmia Gardens in Hartsville.  Classes will be held Tuesday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., July 15 through September 30.  The cost is $150.  Again call (843) 383-8145 to register or for more information. 
  

   Warning! There is a new devastating disease of centipede, which I have coined Squirt Bottle Blight (the Blight), rampant in the Pee Dee.  The Blight shows up this time of year, coincides with a high number of TV commercials advertising weed killers, increases with neighbor watching (mimicking), and results in dead areas in lawns.  As the result of a squirt bottle application of an herbicide, the centers of these spots usually are totally void of anything green and have varying levels of green growth outward.  Believe me it took quite awhile asking questions of many homeowners to diagnose this problem because no one wants to take the heat or responsibility for killing his own lawn.  Also, I don’t like being the bearer of bad news or serving as the referee for angry spouses.

    The weed killers responsible for the Blight are usually one of two different types -- broad spectrum or broadleaf herbicides.  First, the broad spectrum materials kill anything green or growing, usually are systemic (move in the plant), and usually would not be applied to grass in the growing season (late spring or summertime).  The main cause of the damage is the false belief that centipede grass goes totally dormant in the winter which rarely happens because under the surface green material can be found.  Therefore, when these materials are applied they leach downward to the green leaves and stems, move into the centipede plants systemically, and kill a large area of the grass. Also, if these materials are applied to weeds in the lawn during the growing season, again they move systemically through the centipede runners (rhizomes), and kill large areas of the lawn even if they are only applied to one single weed.   The second cause of the Blight, the broadleaf killers, is an even more deceptive cause of the disease.  Most broadleaf herbicides labeled for centipede usually are safe if they are applied at the proper time. TV commercials falsely spread the word that that these products can safely be used anytime on any grass, when actually, if these materials are applied during centipede green-up, the Blight will occur.  The bottom line is to never apply any weed killer to centipede during green-up.  Also, an additional problem with the application of these types of weed killers is that they can travel through the air.  Because most of the products contain 2,4-D they are volatile and even without the presence of  wind they can turn into a gas and move across your yard, your neighbor’s yard, and down the street causing all types of damage as they contact untargeted foliage. Lately I have been swamped with samples of deformed, curled, strap- like leaves of ornamentals, fruit trees, and vegetables which are typical symptoms of 2,4-D injury.

   The perpetuators, carriers, or transmitters of The Blight are usually non-suspecting, non-questioning, believers of TV commercials who do not read the entire label of these weed killer products.  I know labels are long and boring but they are the law, and that small print usually contains all the information to keep you from making devastating mistakes.

   Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer. If you enjoy gardening and using flowers and plants in decorations, please watch Down Home with Tony and Amanda on Thursday nights at 8:00 pm on the SC Channel (ETV's digital station)