Blog
PRE-EMERGENT NONSENSE!!!
Tired of hearing those stupid Scotts commercials about time to pre-emerge for crabgrass? I am! They start about mid January and get people all stressed out about something that in TN I have personally have NOT seen happen before April 1st in the last 16 years! Get your turf pre-emerged by the end of March […]
Organic Fertilizer time in TN!
After 16 years in business, the time has come for “The Turf Doctor” to convert the core of our turfgrass fertilization program to organic based fertilization. The main reasons are as follows: 1. Turfgrass Quality 2. Healthy soils 3. Government Regulation 4.Economically feasible Turfgrass Quality: We have relied on a core synthetic fertilizers over time […]
Watering and Mowing for fall seeding only!
Once your lawn has been aerated, overseeded, and fertilized, the goal is to keep the soil surface (seed) damp for about 2 weeks. Seed swells when it get wet and shrinks when it dries. Therefore, keeping the seed damp keeps it swollen and encourages it to germinate. Watering lightly and frequently during the daylight hours […]
Soil temps over 90!!!!!!!!!
The accumulation of heat during the summer has brought our soil temps over the 90 degree mark. What does this mean for your lawn? It means if you do not allow the soil surface to dry between waterings, nutsedge and dallisgrass will take over!! You can get away with hap- hazard irrigation all sumer UNTIL […]
Whats with all this Oxalis???????
Weed of Spring 2011 Oxalis – AKA Yellow Woodsorrel, is more prolific this spring than I have ever seen it. It germinates in late March or early April and is quite resistant to most weed controls. We have found that Fluroxpyr or Triclopyr are the best herbicides to control it. It has a small […]
Grubs,Grubs, and more Grubs.
We noticed a tremendous amount of grub damage and large grub populations during fall aeration and seeding 2010. I don’t know if the flood contributed to the large population, but is was the most grub activity I have seen in 15 years! The grubs feed on the turfgrass roots leaving an area the appearance of […]
Pre-emergent time!
I am glad to put 2010 in the rear view mirror. We are back in our home after the flood and ready to get the lawns “clean and green”. Pre-emergent for crabgrass has begun. The snow should be out of Nashville by Monday! Pre-emergent must be activated by rain (or snow) to complete the barrier. […]
“BROWN PATCH” HITS EARLY!
The early May flood triggered an early outbreak of fungus. We are seeing everything from melting out fungus to brown patch. If you are on “preventative disease control”, know that we are applying a curative rate of fungicide which will stop any fungus already present and prevent it from returning for 21-28 days. This product […]
Flood Much???
This past weekend, the rain seemed to never stop!!! What will this do to my lawn??? It will probably totally wipe out the pre-emergent’s we applied for crabgrass control. Pre-emergents are very resistant to dilution from rainfall, but over a foot of rain will break down any pre-emergent!!!!!!!It will definitely spawn early fungus and nutsedge […]
Freeze Damage on Magnolias
Many of our customers Magnolia Trees have suffered severe damage or total kill on SOME of their Magnolias. It was observed in early spring during our first lawn treatment round. In most cases, we saw totally healthy Magnolia trees right next to severely damaged or dead trees. Most of the dead trees are in the […]