Pesticide Applicator Recertification Training

UGA's Green Team will be in Bartow County in November to offer an educational session that qualifies for recertification credits for Category 24 pesticide applicator licenses.

WHEN: Thursday, November 19, 2015
              9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: Cherokee Recreation and Parks Agency
               7545 Main Street
               Building 200
               Woodstock, GA  30188
WHAT: Classes to qualify for 4 hours of category 24 recertification credit
SPEAKERS: Josh Fuder, Cherokee County ANR Agent; Patrick McCullough, UGA Crop and Soil Sciences; Jean Williams-Woodward, UGA Plant Pathology; Mickey Taylor, UGA Entomology
COST: $45 per person

Please preregister before November 12. Space is limited!

TO REGISTER: online through UGA Marketplace, or call 770-228-7214 or email bhorne@uga.edu for additional information.

Printed materials, break refreshments, and lunch are provided.

Lawn and Garden Tips for July

Cobb County Extension staff member Louise Weyer assembles a list each month of tips for keeping your lawn and landscape in good order. As summer heads into high gear, following Louise's checklist of tasks can  improve the odds of your yard's shining through to fall.

Louise's Tips for Trees and Shrubs for July includes this information:

• Spring-planted trees and shrubs need an inch of water each week. Irrigate in dry weather.
• Mature trees need deep watering; they can lose leaves if they have inadequate water.
• Prune Knock-out roses.
• Remove dry flowers from butterfly bush to encourage more blooms, and remove flowers from shrub roses as they fade.
• Remove suckers from the base of cherry, apple, crape myrtle, dogwood, and crabapple trees.

For annuals and perennials:

Leaves of Three...Poison Ivy in the Landscape

Poison ivy             PHOTO/Amy W.

Greenery is popping up all over our landscapes, and, for anyone who has ever developed a blistery rash following a day of work in the yard, some of that greenery may look like bad news.

One common cause of such a rash is poison ivy, which spreads underground and through seeds that are dropped by birds and small animals that have eaten the berries.

For people who are unsure how to identify poison ivy and are counting numbers-of-leaves to determine which plants to pull or spray, it may be best to take or email a photo of any suspicious plant to your local Extension office for identification.

North Georgia Gardening Symposium, Feb. 26, 2015

The 2015 North Georgia Gardening Symposium is set for Thursday, February 26, at the North Metro Campus of Chattahoochee Technical College.

For landscape professionals, the Symposium provides for 5-hours pesticide re-certification credit for category 24 licenses or 1-hour pesticide re-certification for private applicators. It also has been approved for 5-hours (CEUs) for ISA Arborist and Municipal Specialists.

For everyone who attends, the Symposium offers a great opportunity to enhance garden and landscape knowledge and skills!

This year's offerings will help gardeners and landscapers avoid common mistakes in using broad-leaf herbicides, learn to diagnose common tree disorders in the landscape, and use the best and most innovative sustainable practices in landscape maintenance, and more.

8-8:30 a.m.                    Registration/Check-in 
8:30-9:30 a.m.               Herbicide Effects on Landscape Trees and Shrubs, by Paul Pugliese, Bartow County Extension
9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.      Creating Tough Turf, by Becky Griffin, UGA Extension Urban Ag Associate
10:30-10:45 a.m.            Break
10:45-11:45 a.m.           Tree Scene Investigation, Mary Carol Sheffield, Paulding County Extension
11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.   Break for lunch and vendor visits 
1:15-2:15 p.m.                New Diseases, New Products, What Else is New?, by Dr. Jean Williams-Woodward, UGA Extension Plant Pathologist
2:15-3:15 p.m.               Sustainable Landscape Practices, by Dr. Bodie Pennisi, Extension Landscape Specialist
3:15-3:30 p.m.                Break
3:45-4:15 p.m.                The Latest and Greatest Plant Introductions, by Rex Bishop, Chattahoochee Technical College
4:15-4:30 p.m.                Pesticide re-certification/evaluation

The course fee is $35; lunch and breaks are included in the fee.

To register online, scroll down the list of courses for Continuing Professional Education to choose the North Georgia Gardening Symposium class and register. Also, you may call 770-528-4550 for more information or to register for the Symposium.

Armyworms On the Move

Fall army worm PHOTO/Kris Braman, UGA Entomologist

Armyworms can eat a lot of turfgrass as they march through a lawn.  The idea that "armies march on their stomachs" goes double for these caterpillar pests!

The recent article "Fall Armyworms in Turf," by UGA's Will Hudson, Cherie Abraham, and Kris Braman,  which appeared in UGA's Landscape Alert Newsletter, explains that these pests typically just make the lawn look ragged.

However, it adds that "newly sodded or sprigged areas can be more severely damaged or even killed."

It goes on to explain that some grasses are more susceptible to damage than others:

"At least some cultivars of all warm season grasses are susceptible. Cool season grasses like tall fescue are very favorable for fall armyworm growth and development too, and do not regenerate as readily as the stoloniferous grasses."

 Armyworms tend to be more active late in the day and at night, so they might not be readily apparent when a homeowner is out looking at a damaged lawn during the day.

A 2012 Georgia FACES article by Adam Speir on fall armyworms mentions that an inverted Y-shape on the head of the caterpillar is an identifying feature, and that these caterpillars also can cause considerable damage to agricultural fields.

For lawns as for fields, scouting for the pests if their presence is suspected can prevent a lot of potential damage. For homeowners, this is the recommendation for finding the armyworms: "If there is any doubt about whether worms are present, pouring soapy water on the grass (1/2 oz. dishwashing soap/gallon water) will bring them up very quickly. Heavily infested turf will also have visible greenish-black fecal pellets on the soil surface. Other indicators of armyworm infestations may include birds or even paper wasps that use the fall armyworms as food."

For fuller explanations of the lifecycle or control recommendations for this pest, read the above-linked articles or check with your local extension office. 

Irrigation Basics, Guest Post by Becky Griffin

We tend to take our irrigation systems for granted, setting them up and forgetting about them.  Ideally, irrigation systems should be inspected by a certified irrigation professional once a year.  The underground pipes and delivery systems can be complicated.  Oftentimes, irrigation is set to run after we have left for work.  We could have a problem and not even know it.  March is a great time for a basic homeowner irrigation check.

Basic Irrigation Checklist

 
1.       Check to see if the system is set to run at the appropriate time.  The 2010 Outdoor Water Use Guidelines allow automatic irrigation systems to run between 4 PM and 10 AM.  Ideally, for turfgrass the system should run between 5 AM and 9 AM.  This mimics dew time and allows the turfgrass to dry off before the heat of the day.  It is also the best time to minimize water evaporation.  
 
2.       Turn the system on.  Is there adequate overlap of water?  Notice any dry spots.  You may need to adjust sprinkler heads to achieve equal coverage.

3.       Check sprinkler heads.  Are they all working?  Sprinkler heads are easily damaged by lawn mowers.  These may need to be replaced.

4.       If something is obviously clogged it may be the sprinkler head nozzle or the sprinkler head filter.  Sprinkler head nozzles may become clogged with soil or cut grass.  To run efficiently, these will need to be cleaned.  Inside most sprinkler heads is a filter.  Over time this filter may become clogged, especially if the system runs on well water.  Filters can be cleaned with compressed air or replaced.  
 
5.       Notice the pop-up sprinkler heads.  Are they popping up?  Are they high enough?  Over time the ground may have settled and the heads may not be at the correct level for effective watering.  

No need to water the sidewalk!

      6.       Check that no water is being sprayed on non-target areas such as driveways, streets and building.  Problems here may just require a simple nozzle direction adjustment.

7.   Make note of any run-off. If the water is being delivered too quickly, it might not have time to soak into the soil, and you may be sending hundreds of gallons of water down the street. If run-off is a problem, you may need to adjust the delivery rate.

Remember that turfgrass needs just one inch of water per week.  More turfgrass problems are related to over-watering than to under-watering.

Becky Griffin is a program associate with the  UGA Center for Urban Agriculture.