Landscape, Ornamentals, Nursery, and Turf Edition

Seasonal updates on ornamental, nursery, and turf pests.
Subscriptions are available via EMAIL and RSS.

 

Companion Website Links:

Rutgers Turf Blog - Articles on turfgrass diseases and cultural practices for the commercial turfgrass industry. Subscription available via RSS.

 

Rutgers Weather Forecasting - Meteorological Information important to commercial agriculture.

Turf Green-up Underway

It has been a long winter and delayed spring this year but yesterday’s rain and that of two weekends ago has “primed the pump” and initiated new growth of many turfgrasses and other plants. Thus, there is no more time to put off yard clean-up. Any leaves, branches and other debris dropped and blown around during the winter should be removed from turfs and other lowing growing landscape plantings. Otherwise early spring growth of plants will be impeded by any debris smothering those plants.

Turf-Green-Up [Read more…]

Goes to Show You Don’t Ever Know

Last week, we saw photographs of cherrylaurel that got pummeled by the winter. Of course, I proved my plant ignorance in the blog post by calling the photos of cherrylaurel, Prunus laurocerasus, mountain laurel, which is Kalmia latifolia. No doubt mountain laurel got hurt in the winter just the same as cherrylaurel did and no doubt I need a better editor!

Winter injured cherrylaurel. Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL

Winter injured cherrylaurel. Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL

[Read more…]

SFMANJ Spring Field Day Apr 22, 2014

The Sports Field Managers of New Jersey (SFMANJ) Spring Field Day covers topics such as the fertilizer law, weed control, irrigation, grasses, and field maintenance.

Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Location: South Delsea Park
152 South Delsea Drive, Glassboro, NJ
Registration Flyer

[Read more…]

Frosty Finally Melted Part 2

Despite a winter that tormented us, most plants did pretty well in the snow. While there was plenty of mechanical damage from several heavy snow storms, the snow accumulation actually protected many plants. Snow cover helped to prevent winter desiccation, particularly in plants lucky enough to have been buried, like turfgrass. It also kept the ground in many locations from a hard freeze, which helped provide much needed moisture to the landscape. [Read more…]

Frosty Finally Melted!

Last week, the cats from John Deere had me up to the northern tier of NY for John Deere University and we had a blizzard! This week I was in Lake Placid with my friends at NYSTA and the morning temperature was something like -7°F. All I could think of was “How do I get winter speaking gigs in Florida instead of upstate NY?!”

A healthy, but winter dormant turf area. Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL

A healthy, but winter dormant turf area.
Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL

[Read more…]

Spring Fever?

Hold your horses, the Spring Equinox is not until March 20th and if the 10-day forecasts hold true, then we are in for another visit from old man winter before the seasons change.

"Skip Laurel" buried in a snow bank. Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL

Skip laurel buried in a snow bank. Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL

[Read more…]