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cactusflinthead

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Posts posted by cactusflinthead

  1. Quote Originally Posted by Rigo84 View Post
    Finally going to start taking care of my lawn. Need some advice for st augustine, on dethatching and aerating. Are both processes necessary or is aerating more important and enough? Best times to do these in Dallas area? Wanted to do some herbicide and fertilizer as per the chart but should I do aerating/dethatching first? Complete newby to yard maintenance so sorry if these are dumb questions.

    Aerate before applying pre-emergent. You can post-emergent spray before. Think of a pre-emergent as like a chemical barrier in the first half inch to inch of soil. Any disruption of that force field will allow the seeds to come up in that spot. You are going to make a lot of spots. If you would like to do some back fill/top dressing of compost that is the time to do it after aeration. Rake off the plugs, compost them and then fling it out with something. Smaller spots it is wheelbarrow, garden rake and a shovel. Big areas, hire it done or rent something. I had a discussion today about the varying qualities of the available top dressing. The compost was a little too chunky to suit me, so we went with the 50/50 compost and sandy loam. If the compost had been a finer grind and a little heavier I would have gone straight compost, but you take what you can get. 

    No fertilizer yet. Wait. Kill shit and make holes in the dirt is all good, but it is too soon to feed unless you are in the valley or something. 30% green up is the general rule. If you tweak it too soon you can over-amp it. I had a prof describe it as a start-up company. A whole lotta out-go and not a lotta income. It is working off last years carbos at the first of the season. Until it is somewhere past a quarter awake, a good solid growing bunch of grass, it is using its savings from last year. Forcing it with nitrogen makes it burn through that carbo store even faster. Waiting is rarely a bad plan on fertilizer.


    Dog gonna dog FC. Is there a spot they like more than others? Sometimes they just wanna make a nest. I have known dogs that like to eat grubs.Sweatergawd, they acted like those fat white grubs were candy. If you think they are eating bugs and not making a nest you can kill off the food source. It's what usually works for armadillos for the same reason. If they are trying to find a spot to stay warm or cool, well...there is the option of laying in a fence panel to deny them. Pain in the ass, but it hardens the target.

  2. Kill the ones that are up. Put down some kind of pre. If you missed some, well you caught others. Check Home Depot too, feed store or other fertilizer type purveyor for larger size pre-emergent. 

    Your choice of tool to apply a post-emergent spray depends on the size of the target area. If you are dealing with multiple acres you want to work with then I really recommend at least the first pass being hired out. If you want to invest in the spray tank set up for a four wheeler or other set up, that's up to you. Most of the commercial guys will charge you by the acre or square foot. The same stuff they use in the pasture is what you use in the yard. It is not that drastically different. They may have to switch products simply to satisfy the feds, but the active ingredients are the same. Call it a quirk of the law. I cannot by federal law spray what is designated for one area on another. That is a serious No No. 

    Allow me to tell an apocryphal tale and wax poetic on this SuperBowly evening. 

    Some years ago there was a school district in Louisiana that had roaches and other bugs in an elementary. 
    Somebody decided it was a good idea to have the custodian do the work. Maybe he even volunteered.
    Hell, Mizzus Lammus I can spray for roaches. I have plenty of stuff at the house I use on stuff in the field. I can handle it. No need to make that call to the bug man. 
    Bad plan coach. 

    Standard procedure on doing a spray for roaches around your place and mine is to work the perimeter. Roaches and other vermin love the baseboards, the corners, and the edges of the space. Therefore we concentrate our efforts there. There is no need to spray the entire area. Hit the perimeter and keep moving. Do each and every room. Put a bead all the way around. Leave the vastness of the open areas alone. 

    That isn't what our friendly denizen of Louisiana did. He soaked down the carpet from one end of the hall to the other. There wasn't one stitch that didn't feel the spray of his tank. Who knows what he used to spray it with. It might have been a cow soaker. Who knows?

    When they opened the doors that Monday morning I don't think they had a cloud of green gas appear. But it was stout enough they called class off for the day. 
    Or was it a couple of months. Had to rip out a lot of shit and replace it. Had to fumigate the place. It might have smelled like malathion a year later. Maybe they even had to demolish the place and start over. 

    I told you this was apocryphal and we are talking about Louisiana, but this is as I heard it. 
    Anyhow after all this went down and letters to Congresscritters and Governors and Senators and anybody else she had a mind to send a stern letter it was decided we should have rules and shit. You and me have got to have some sort of certification so we don't end up on the nightly news or tomorrow's paper. It mostly works. 



    tl/dr version. Spray standard post-emergent broadleaf, apply pre-emergent and keep feeding and watering in season. Do not be alarmed. You might miss some, but you will catch others. Better late than never.

     

     

  3.  

     

    3lg.jpgHere are a couple plants I know can take the direct blasting sun in Austin AND survive the numerous deer munching in my hood. My rule of thumb for most plant's potential Deer survival, is if it smells, it might survive. My other rule of thumb is how skinny is the plant? Thin does better, thin grasses, thin shrubs, thin stalks seem to fade the heat better. So anyhow here a few I guarantee will last in your Central Texas sun inferno!

    Pride of Barbados is a great summer color spot that attracts butterflies and bees. You cut ti down to ground after freeze(if that ever happens in Austin) and they can grow pretty large. Or you can trim and keep smaller, but once established very hearty,http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/homehort/ar...xas-superstar/
    driveway-lantana-11.jpg                                                                                                                                                     

    Quote

     

     Texas AgriLife Extension - City of Austin Native Adapted Landscape Plants Guide. This is a great guide to see what plants are native to the area and will do well.

    http://www.hcuwcd.org/plantguide.pdf


     

    That's Blain's rec for a guide. it should be required reading

  4. ‘Rose rosette is an epidemic, and North Texas is the epicenter’

    ROSE ROSETTE DISEASE: DEMYSTIFIED

    Quote

    Symptoms of witches broom were described in the 1940s on roses in Manitoba, Canada (Conners, 1941). In the US, rose plants with similar symptoms were described from Wyoming observed in 1942 (Thomas & Scott, 1953) and subsequently found in other states in the US. In Texas, this "disease" was reported by Dr. G. Philley in 1990 (East Texas). It was found in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the mid-1990s and has become more prominent there in the last 2-3 years (2011-2013).

    Quote Originally Posted by TexasEd View Post
    Just take the prickly pear pads and throw them on the ground and they will grow roots from the spots where the spines are or the joints.
    Quote Originally Posted by TexasEd View Post
    I did mine with wire mesh. I like the 1x2" mesh the best, it is not as sharp as the smaller mesh and stands up to being leaned on. You need to use about 6' circumference to get a big enough pile the center stays moist and hot. 

    I put down alternating layers of brown leaves and green grass clippings. When I have vegetable scraps I dig in the center and bury them in the middle. Mine is out by the green belt and I never see rodents in it because the grass and leaves keep them from the kitchen stuff. Large scarab beetles will lay eggs in it and I get grubs out of it the size of my thumb.

    Turn the pile over monthly.
    Weed management in Lawns  UC Davis, good stuff
    The use of corn gluten meal as an herbicide was discovered by accident during turfgrass disease research at Iowa State University. Researchers noticed that it prevented grass seeds from sprouting. Further research at Iowa State showed that it also effectively prevents other seeds from sprouting, including seeds from many weeds such as crabgrass, chickweed, and even dandelions. Components in corn gluten meal called dipeptides are apparently responsible for herbicidal activity.
     
    Researchers at Oregon State University were not able to duplicate research results reported by Iowa State researchers, said OSU turf grass specialist Tom Cook. A former graduate student, Chris Hilgert completed his masters thesis by investigating corn gluten meal use as a pre-emergent herbicide in shrub beds and on lawns.
    In their trials with corn gluten meal, Hilgert and Cook found the following:
    Corn gluten meal did not control any weeds in any trials under any circumstances over a two-year period. They found no evidence of pre- or post-emergence weed control in any of their trials. Because it contains 10 percent nitrogen, corn gluten meal proved to be a very effective fertilizer, causing lush, dense growth of turfgrass and of weeds in shrub beds.
  5. Quote Originally Posted by BatesHorn View Post
    Unless something has changed recently, Fescue is a clumping grass, does not spread on it's own. It's sometimes mixed with a touch of bluegrass to fill in gaps. Whatever took over your back yard isn't fescue unless you seeded/sod it where it's growing. 

    It's a cool season grass, grows pretty well here in Maryland, but I find it tends to flag a bit in high summer unless fertilized and heavily watered, which can cause Brown Patch. I tend to let my lawn languish in August, both to save money and reduce the amount of fertilizer I'm eventually sending into the Bay (it will go dormant in the heat, so I just water deeply once a week to keep it alive), then I pick it back up in September as the heat begins to break.
     
    Quote Originally Posted by thunderlounge View Post
    I'm getting ready to do something similar. On the back (north) side of our house, between the patio and shop doors. Pretty much full shade for me though. It has those stupid paver brick fucking things to edge the front of the bed, and they never stay in place so I'm going to do something else.

    As far as plants, I'm going to put in a bunch of shade plants.

    2 Regal Blue Hosta
    4 Red Trinity Plants
    3 Mixed Astilbe
    2 Double Blue Barlow Columbine
    5 Lily of the Valley plants
    2 Cinnamon Ferns

    That should do it up pretty good for a shade spot.
     
    Quote

    Symptoms Take-all is a disease of the roots. Symptoms of take-all root rot usually become apparent from early spring through early summer, suggesting infection may occur during the previous fall. Initially, the affected turf becomes wilted and yellow, followed by the development of thin, bare areas as plants die. These declining areas can be irregular in shape and can vary in size from 1 foot to more than 20 feet in diameter (Figure 1). Turf can usually be pulled from the soil quite easily as a result of infection.

     

    Figuring out how much fert 

     

    Quote

    How you get the magic one pound of N per thousand is to apply it this formula
    Want over got.
    I have 1/.15. That is, a 15-5-10 fertilizer has a fifteen percent by volume of nitrogen. I divide that by how many pounds of nitrogen, phosphorous or potassium that I want. 
    slow math guy says it is 6 and about a zillion other sixes and a 7. My barely functioning synapses remind me that is 2/3rds. Ok so I want about seven pounds per thousand. That means that 25 lb bag I got should do...3.57 thousand square feet. My lot is 120x80 or 9,600 ft sq. Ok gonna need to get at least 4 bags. Guess I can fling the spare stuff in the bushes. I can go a little heavier, but four bags on a little less than a quarter acre is about right.

     

    I am not leaving out this pic courtesy of Armybrat

     

    7a135dc4432cdf9b160dbb510cdfc74205655b0.

    • Like 1
  6.  
    Quote

     

    Quote Originally Posted by lurch View Post
    Keep it as short as possible, prob 1" with a typical walk behind mower. Avoid cutting more than 1/3rd at a time, so mowing when it reaches 1 1/2" down to 1" is good target.

    Water when the blades begin closing up. Typically 1", once a week during summer.

    1 lb nitrogen per 1000 sq ft, once a month during growing season.

    Pre emergent 3 times a year, March/July/Nov

     

     
    Quote

     

    Quote Originally Posted by AUinAustin View Post
    Rented an aerator and man that thing will beat you to death... My front yard is small and the back has a triangle shaped landscape bed in the center (about 20 ft long). The net result was I was stopping and turning it every 30 seconds. You have to pull up the blades to even think about turning and it weighs about 100 lbs. It does not turn like a mower.. I also forgot to mark sprinkler heads and busted at least one... Off to get compost before the rain and try out sprinklers for first time this year

     

     
    Quote

     

    Quote Originally Posted by TexasEd View Post
    Scalping is cutting off the dead tops of the grass that died over the winter when the grass went dormant. I intentionally let my grass get a little longer than usual to go through the winter. When it is longer it helps choke out any winter weeds that want to pop up during the dormancy of the grass and protects the roots. You must bag your clippings or rake them up and remove them. I compost mine.

    When your grass shows signs of emerging from dormancy is when you scalp. If you do it before it is growing you will get the weeds so wait until you can see new growth emerging. 

    For St. Augustine don't go too low, you need to leave the runners and just take off the top. Raking is a good idea for St. A to get the dead thatch between the runners which can help prevent brown spot mildew later.

    For Bermuda take it as low as your mower will go. I have TIF419 which likes to be fairway length. I don't have the time or equipment to keep my yard looking like a golf course so it gets longer as the summer progresses but I take it almost to the soil the first time. I will have to mow it 4 times to get it low enough because the old dead grass is so thick it fills the bag and stops the blade in a few feet.

    My dormant Bermuda

     

    is even thicker than the pictures you (Spur08) posted above. Yours looks like Common Bermuda. I recommend you take it almost to the ground. This is what mine looks like starting in mid April
    Quote Originally Posted by BatesHorn View Post
    Unless something has changed recently, Fescue is a clumping grass, does not spread on it's own. It's sometimes mixed with a touch of bluegrass to fill in gaps. Whatever took over your back yard isn't fescue unless you seeded/sod it where it's growing. 

    It's a cool season grass, grows pretty well here in Maryland, but I find it tends to flag a bit in high summer unless fertilized and heavily watered, which can cause Brown Patch. I tend to let my lawn languish in August, both to save money and reduce the amount of fertilizer I'm eventually sending into the Bay (it will go dormant in the heat, so I just water deeply once a week to keep it alive), then I pick it back up in September as the heat begins to break.
    35e835a5.jpg
  7. about to start putting stuff from the old place here. gonna spam the hell out of the thread until I get sick of it

    Randy Lemmon's Fert and Pre calendar

    Quote

     

    When should a pre-emergent be applied?
    Before the weed seeds start to sprout. It’s better to be a week too early than a day too late. The old axiom is, “With pre-emergent weedkillers, if you can see the weed growing, you’ve blown it for another whole year.”

     For summer weeds such as grassburs (sandburs) and crabgrass: 2 to 3 weeks before the average date of the last killing freeze for your area. In South Texas that would be late February. In Central and North Central Texas it would be the first two weeks of March. In North Texas it would be the middle two weeks of March. In the Panhandle it would be late March.

     Because these granules are effective for about 100 days you will need to reapply three months later as a “booster shot.” Mark the calendar so you won’t forget. Without this second application the weeds will still germinate later in the season. That second application should be late May in South Texas, early June in Central and North Central Texas, mid-June in North Texas and into the Panhandle.

     

    Neil Sperry, Pre-emergent weedkillers and schedule

     

    Vocabulary. 

    Post-emergent: kills what has already germinated and emerged from the soil
    Pre-emergent: kills at some stage of development shortly after or during the germination process
    selective herbicide: targets one or more species of plants
    non-selective:kills everything

    common herbicides

    Y'all are just gonna just gonna have to put up with some science. I am going to use some fifty cent words and sometimes you are going to have to copy and go look. That's jsut how it is. Get over it. Most of the time I am going to give you at least one or more brand names. I might even include a link to some place to buy it. But eventually you are going to need to look at the label and understand what it means. It is no fucking joke when it says DANGER on the label. Do not fuck around. follow the gotdamn rules. 

    Glyphosate: This is Round-Up. It's also sold as a bazillion other names. Ranger Pro, Eliminator!, Eraser!, Cornerstone!
    all the same damn stuff. Am I going to pay twice as much for the same thing? Nope, I don't think so. 

    2,4-D, dicamba, mecoprop: post-emergent herbicide Trimec, Triple Action, Three Way, Weed-B-Gone and a host of other spins on the idea that it is a combo product of three different things. This is your go to for broadleafed weeds. (Broadleaf weeds are ones like dandelions, clover, chickweed, henbit, essentially the ones that aren't grass or sedge.) 

    Pendimethalin: pre-emergent herbicide, granular or liquid(though I am not sure the non-licensed can get the liquid) Halts, Pre-M

    Permethrin, pyrethrum, halozetaspasmatronicmethrin. All the children of the pyrethrum daisy

     
    Sprays[edit]
    Pyrethrum has been used for centuries as an insecticide,[1] and as a lice remedy in the Middle East (Persian powder, also known as "Persian pellitory"). It was sold worldwide under the brand Zacherlin by Austrian industrialist J. Zacherl.[2] It is one of the most commonly used allowed non-synthetic insecticides in certified organic agriculture.[3]

    The flowers should be dried and then crushed and mixed with water.

    Pyrethroids are synthetic insecticides based on natural pyrethrum (pyrethrins); one common example is permethrin. A common formulation of pyrethrin is in preparations containing the synthetic chemical piperonyl butoxide: this has the effect of enhancing the toxicity to insects and speeding the effects when compared with pyrethrins used alone. These formulations are known as synergized pyrethrins.

    Carbamate/Carbaryl: Sevin

    Organoposphate insecticides: Malathion, Dursban, Diazinion, Orthene

    Fungicide: kinda self explanatory
    Miticide: Odds are long that you would need it, but it's for spider mites. 

    Enough of that bullshit. Time to go find some more links.

    • Like 2
  8. Yeah that's earthworms. 

    The Randy Lemmon calendar is a good start. I have to go salvage stuff from the old place this weekend. That's on the list. 

    aggy has a website on nothing but turf.

    Aggieturf.tamu.edu no www cuz they're special 

  9. Yeah. It's probably ok. It doesn't take long for it to be rainfast. Some stuff is as short as 30 min.

    A couple of days and you can tell if the Trimec took hold. It will make the leaves and flower stalks contort. 

    • Like 1
  10. 31 minutes ago, Randolph Duke said:

    Come on. You know me. I’d never shut up. 

    Let BL help them pick guests if they want help w content.

    There are too many other stories to be told by far more eloquent people than myself. If they ever need historical or factual info, I will do my part, but after today, BL can certainly deliver content far better than I. 

    No. The world needs to experience a Randolph Duke twist off. 

  11. 18 minutes ago, miguelito said:

    Anyone have little worms/caterpillars on collards or other greens?  I've read that BT works, or soap sprays.

    Yes. I didn't know about the pollination. Yay. I get to track down more of them.

    5 hours ago, midtown said:

    I planted a Texas Red Oak last fall here in SA.  Root stimulator, good water, and it looked to be doing great.   Winter game and all the leaves turned brown but not may dropped at all.    Everything in my yard is green.  Grass, 4 yr old Monterrey, 2 yr old Bradford pair, all 6 Crape Myrtles but the red oaks is doing nothing.   Are red oaks late bloomers or do I need to drag this sucker out and over to the nursery for a replacement?

    It's not terribly unusual to see a tree hang onto its leaves in the oak fam. If you have doubts about a tree that is still in dormancy scratch the bark on a stem on the smaller branches. If you see some green under there it's still kicking. If you work back to the trunk and it's brown it's dead Jim. That layer underneath the bark is where all the action happens. Cambium(I think, so tired) dies, plant dies 

  12. Where to begin?

    Beans do not belong in chili.

    Bbq and many other things are serious bidness. 

    You get to learn an entirely new jargon.

    If you have to go into the politics section I recommend changing your mind. No, really. We're a bunch of political junkies that fling shit at each other and occasionally have something pertinent to the OP. Pics that give you diabeetus are the antidote.

     

    Yeah PM Derka 

  13. The dogs are are the toughest part. I would sod it and hope for the best. Some well placed sod staples might help in a corner where they turn sharply. Zoysia is another option in the shade. Or give up the turf, mulch it all, and make a shade garden. Liriope and ophiopogon/monkey grass are pretty damn sturdy against the thundering herd. Cast iron plants, ferns, all sorts of stuff likes shade. 

  14. 2 hours ago, Chilly Water said:

    Usually do fall treatment right after Labor Day. Too early I guess

    The late winter early spring app is best done before Valentine's day. 

    ~Sept 5 to Feb 14 is a long stretch to get full control. If you are seeing stuff popping up in Jan get after it then. 

  15. 2 hours ago, Dances with Dachshunds said:

    Admitting you cant handle what is happening to you and taking that first visit is the toughest.

    Yep. For all of us. It's easy to look at the gash on your arm and know that you should probably go get that stitched up. The wound in your being takes a bit more to admit, especially when to the rest of the world you seem fine and dandy.

    You have nothing to lose by going to talk to somebody. It might even make things better. 

     

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