Chewing The Cud:

  The Cahaba Tractor Corner 
 
 

       Preparing and Pre-Treating Your Lawn 
               for Spring Weeds and Pests 
  

Planning on a great lawn this year? Make sure you take the necessary steps now to help your lawn grow healthy and pest-free. The acidic clay soil that is predominant in the Birmingham and surrounding areas provides few nutrients to plant life, which results in poor root development and an increase in weeds and pests. 

There is nothing more frustrating than putting all the time, effort and money into a beautiful lawn than to have those unsightly weeds pop up. Crabgrass anyone? To help in your battle against the seemingly indestructible weed, plan now to choose the right fertilizer and pre-emergent weed control. Weed prevention is a much easier fight than weed control. The best defense against weeds is a healthy lawn. So, a few months before attacking those weeds with chemical herbicides or organic weed killer techniques, fertilize your grass and give it a chance to develop a healthy root system. Grow your lawn in areas that grass can easily grow. A smaller, healthy lawn is far better than a larger, thinly-grown lawn overrun with weeds.

Begin with a compost fertilizer to develop healthy root growth. A good balance of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorous are necessary to promote good plant growth. check that the fertilizer you use has a combination of all three.

Liming the soil (see Testing and Liming Your Soil December 2010 eNewsletter) is an important technique in raising the soil's ph level and making it more workable. If you are seeding your lawn, use only good quality seeds. For soil amendments, try mixing your own made from only the best ingredients. The pre-mixed topsoil sold by retailers often contain weed seeds.

In choosing weed prevention and control products, first identify the weeds in your lawn. Are they grassy or broadleaf? The next step is to understand the product you need to prevent and control the weeds. Knowing the ingresients of these manufactured products can help you choose the right one for your lawn. Here are some types of weed control products on the market:

Pre-Emergent herbicides - prevent seed germination. Use these during winter or summer dormant seasons as a preventative.

Post-Emergent herbicides - kill growing plants. Use when the plant is actively growing or in the fall when it is storing up nutrients.

Selective herbicides - target only certain types of plants.

Non-Selective herbicides - kill any plant it contacts. Use only for spot treatment.

Total Vegetation herbicides - kill all plants and will sterilize the ground for a specific amount of time. Use very carefully. 

Many herbicides have a combination of the above ingredients, so read the labels carefully and only use when necessary. These products can negatively affect surrounding plants and pollute ground water when used incorrectly.

Finally, as with herbicides, choose the right pesticide to control bugs and use only when necessary. If used incorrectly, pesticides can also affect your population of beneficial bugs, as well as the health of your plant. Sometimes, manually removing pests (like tomato hornworms) is the best technique for control. Whatever you choose, know the pest you're dealing with and read the label carefully.

Doing your homework now can save you a lot of extra work in the future. Relaxing on your porch this summer, sipping a cool glass of lemonade, you'll be glad you did.