Rutgers Cooperative Extension
Seasonal updates on ornamental, nursery, and turf pests.
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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
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…]
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
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
Last autumn I was blogging about the drought conditions that we were experiencing. Thankfully, this winter’s precipitation, albeit lots of snow, has changed our water status in the region. The U.S. Drought Monitor no longer lists New Jersey as having abnormally dry or moderate drought. You can view more details at http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/page_drought.html
Expect I will have to post about snow mold disease and flooding, once we get a thaw.
By Jim Murphy
I mentioned in my previous post that dormancy has been apparent in many non-irrigated turfs. These conditions still persist throughout the central and northern NJ.
Drought induced dormancy in non-irrigated turf areas on Cook Campus of Rutgers University during early November.
Drought induced dormancy under trees where the root competition and rain shadow effects have resulted in very dry soil conditions.
I want to share a some observations and ideas that have come up while discussing this topic with turf managers.
Let’s hope that precipitation becomes more typical where it is currently dry.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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