By Jim Murphy

Many people are aware that tree root competition is part of the challenge of maintaining turf within the drip line of trees. But the canopy of trees also contributes to the challenge by capturing and retaining much, and in some cases all, of a rain.

Rain shadows have been evident for some time now but the damage from the soil dryness has reached moderate to severe levels over the last couple weeks. Many of the lighter rainfalls over the last month haven’t wet the grass let alone the soil under large trees at Hort Farm No. 2 in North Brunswick.

Source: Read More on the Rutgers Turf Blog

By Jim Murphy

Use crabgrass rake to remove
crabgrass infestations in small areas.

If you’ve experience the number of rains that we have in New Brunswick, you are probably seeing plenty of crabgrass. Weather conditions have been ideal for crabgrass in many areas of the state.

You may be asking what can be done to clean-up this weed problem and reduce the impact on renovation practices that you may want to implement at this time of the year. [Read more…]

By Jim Murphy

Uh-oh! We now have green kyllinga at Hort Farm No. 2 in North Brunswick. Joe Clark found it in a field that was sprayed with glyphosate. Most everything died but the kyllinga! Carrie Mansue has made some collections of kyllinga and will be doing some herbicide tests in the greenhouse this winter to determine which materials have the best activity on the this very difficult to control weed.

Keep a lookout for this weed, if left alone it will spread by rhizomes. Carrie has visited lawns that were essentially overrun by kyllinga. Once kyllinga achieves that level of dominance, control is nearly impossible without complete renovation. See previous post on the topic.

Source: Read More on the Rutgers Turf Blog