Certified Turfgrass Professional Short Course

CTP Short Course

Registration is now open for the 12th annual Certified Turfgrass Professional Short Course.  The link to the course is included here:  2016 CTP Short Course.   Please note this year's location in Haywood County.  We try to rotate the course throughout the region to allow more access to the training.  

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Excessive Rainfall Affects Preemergent Herbicides

by Travis Gannon, Matt Jeffries, and Fred Yelverton

November 5, 2015

A preemergent herbicide application is an effective, commonly performed practice for annual weed control in many established turfgrass systems.  As the name suggests, a preemergent application should be made prior to germination, which in North Carolina is no later than mid-September for winter annual weed control.  While preemergent herbicide labels typically state irrigation/rainfall is required for herbicide activation, they probably did not mean quite as much as our state received in late September through early October.  The State Climate Office of North Carolina reported September 28, 2015 to October 4, 2015 was the seventh wettest (i.e. most accumulated rain) seven-day period in North Carolina dating back to 1895.  So what effect, if any, did the cumulative rain have on a preemergent application made prior to the rain setting in?  That depends on numerous factors that are covered in the following paragraph, but ultimately scenarios may unfold where preemergent herbicides move laterally across, or downward in the soil which may compromise weed control later during the season. 

The potential for adverse impacts on your preemergent application prior to prolonged periods of saturated soils caused by heavy rainfalls can be broken into three camps:

1. Site specific information
• Preemergent herbicide movement potential increases as:
• Soil texture coarseness increases (i.e. increasing sand content)
• Soil organic matter decreases
• Slope increases
• Turfgrass cover decreases
2. Herbicide applied
• Most notable properties pertain to soil/organic matter binding affinity.  Herbicides with lower binding affinities are more prone to move from the intended site.
• General binding affinity ranking for common PREs is (from least to highest):

Simazine = Atrazine < Indaziflam < Dithiopyr < Oxadiazon < Pendimethalin = Prodiamine

1. Time between application and excessive rainfall onset
• This is not so much from a calendar day-count perspective, but the number of soil wet-dry cycles.  The more cycles that occur between preemergent application and excessive rainfall, the more likely the herbicide is to be bound to the soil, which should reduce its potential to move laterally or downward via water flow.

So you think you may have a problem, but not sure?  Unfortunately, only time will tell as the season progresses but if breaks occur, additional weed control measures can be taken to compensate.  Monitoring historically weedy areas, as well as areas with conditions conducive for preemergence herbicide movement and weed encroachment (ex. upper portion of a south facing slope with marginal turfgrass coverage) should provide an early indicate for an herbicide break; however, a postemergent herbicide will be required at this point.  Further, depending on when the break occurs, tank-mixing a preemergent herbicide (at a reduced rate) with your postemergent herbicide may be needed to maintain adequate control until spring preemergence applications are made.  Another option to assess preemergence remaining and being able to potentially avoid applying a postemergent herbicide is pulling a few soil cores over time from both areas you expect your preemergent moved from, and moved to (i.e. upslope areas where movement may have occurred and downslope areas where products may have concentrated) and complete a bioassay. Once pulled, pot the plugs up and seed a sensitive plant species such as perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) on the surface.  If germination varies between areas cores were pulled, this MAY be an indication to expect reduced preemergent efficacy and one should consider an additional application at a reduced rate in the areas with anticipated weed control concerns.  Always read and follow product label directions.

http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/alerts/weeds/excessive-rainfall-affects-preemergent-herbicides

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

IPM Symposium at the NC Arboretum

TODAY

is the last day for early-bird registration for the 

IPM Symposium 

Get registered today, and join us on 

October 1st, 2015 at the NC Arboretum.

Pesticide credits for NC, SC, and TN are available.

For all the information and to register, click HERE!

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

2016 WNC AgOptions grant application cycle!

WNC AgOptions will be offering $3000 and $6000 cost-share grants to individual farm businesses, this includes green industry operations!

The application is now available for download on the WNC AgOptions website. 

Click Here

Here are some important dates to keep in mind:

September  2015: Outreach to farmers 
WNC AgOptions has scheduled regional application workshops throughout the West District to reach as many potential applicants as possible. We find that applicants who attend these sessions have an easier time completing the application and submit higher quality applications. Please encourage any farmer who is interested in applying for an AgOptions grant to attend one of these meetings. More details on the sessions will be available soon on the AgOptions website. So far, here are the workshops:

Jackson County Extension Center (Sylva): Thursday, September 10th (time TBD)

Watauga County Extension Center (Boone): Tuesday, September 22nd (time TBD)

Caldwell County Extension Center (Lenoir): Tuesday, September 29th (5:30-7:00 p.m.)

Cherokee County Extension Center (Murphy): Date TBD

Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center (Mills River): Date TBD

October 16, 2015: Intent to apply deadline 
Interested applicants should contact their County Ag Agent by this date to set up an appointment to discuss their project.

November 13, 2015: Applications due (must be post-marked by this date)

November 30/December 01, 2015: Application review days. 
Review locations will be in Asheville and Marshall.

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Horticulture IPM Symposium

Horticulture IPM Symposium 2015

Mark you calendars for October 1 and plan to attend the areas premier Horticulture Symposium.  Pesticide Credits are available for licensees in both Carolina's and Tennessee.   Landscape Contractor CEUs have been applied for and a short press release will be shared as soon as they have been approved.   Please read the attached links:

IPM Symposium Press Release

Registration Form and Agenda




For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Landscape Contractor Continuing Education Credits

CEUs for Landscape Contractors

A question keeps coming up regarding classes to get the 7 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or hours to keep your NC Landscape Contractor's License.   I have been in contact with the Executive Director of the NCLCLB to address this issue and here's the answer:

" The continuing education committee is diligently working on the process to approve courses that will qualify for credits toward the Landscape Contractors’ License.  While that process is still being finalized, I do expect we will have something, hopefully by the end of this month."

What is the time frame for credits to be received: 

"To be eligible to renew, licensed landscape contractors will need to have obtained seven (7) credit hours from August 1, 2015 through July 31, 2016.  .......  the renewal period relative to continuing education is an Anniversary date relative to the license valid date."

So anyone acquiring a new license now that the grandfathering period is over (and it was entirely over on August 1st 2015, 11 days ago)  will have a year until their Anniversary date to obtain the 7 hours. 

While we are still unsure about the process of getting classes qualified for credits, it does not appear that it will be long before that has been resolved and I don't personally expect there to be a problem with most of our existing classes qualifying for CEUs  so don't panic you will have several opportunities between now and next July 31st to get your credits.

One opportunity that did not get proper publicity as the credits were granted literally at the last minute will be the Summer Green Road Show starting tomorrow in Hickory.  I'm not clear on the actual number of hours granted for each event but it appears that attendance on both days could get you most of the required hours.  Got to the bottom of this page and click on Brochure to get more information.  https://ncnla.memberclicks.net/summer-green-road-show-attendee-information

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Wrong Plant, Wrong Place

About a month ago, I was at the local Verizon store in Hendersonville and watch a crew with a local Landscape Contracting company unload and install this hedge of Leyland Cypress.  The soil (if I dare to even call the substrate that) was hard, compacted and likely sterile.  The plants were in 5-6' tall in 7 gallon containers.  The crew had been instructed by someone (I chose to mind my own business and not ask) to plant them on 5' centers 3' from the wall and 2' from the side walk. 90% of this area is under an overhanging canopy.  This is what the hedge looks like today.  There's no evidence of any follow-up watering or other care.  Honestly, Leyland Cypress is  the wrong plant for this wrong site and my observation, unfortunately, was that the crew were not trained to properly prepare the site and install the plants.   I don't expect to get a call from the Verizon store wanting to know why their plants are dying but I regularly do for similar installations.   While Leyland Cypress are known to get a "grocery list" of pathogens, managing for these pathogens is pointless if the plants are in the wrong location.  Unfortunately, none of the diseases are manageable; post infection and the one or two pathogens  that could be prevented with fungicides aren't likely to be managed by sprays on the average clients budget.    They need extra helpings of most of the resources that plants need to survive:  Light- Too much shade is death to a Leyland Cypress even from adjacent plants in a hedge;  Water- Leyland Cypress aren't reliably drought tolerant so they need to be monitored to keep their roots moist but not saturated and their foliage slightly on the dry side; Nutrients- Maintain an evenly balance fertilizer program, with adequate micro-nutrients and a pH of 6.5; Space-  Leyland Cypress need around 20' of spacing on all sides to avoid overcrowding and over competition from other plants.   Keep in mind these trees came from parent plants that originate in rugged areas of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.  The climate there is quite different than that found here in the Southeast and while they can perform fairly well here if they are pampered, their lifespan is typically shortened by  climatic stress particularly when used in the wrong place.

This kind of work reflects negatively on the business that installed the trees as well as the landscape industry as a whole.  We can and must rise above the practices involved with this poor quality work and work together to improve all of our levels of understanding about Right Plant for the Right Place!

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Bio-energy Field Da

Bio-energy Field Day Registration

Check out and consider attending this educational field day:

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2015-bioenergy-field-day-tickets-17304013771


For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Commercial Pesticide Licenses/Schools

Pesticide License 

In the last few months I have encountered quite a number of new landscapers that needed information about controlling pests in the landscapes that they manage.  Unfortunately,  many of them lacked the commercial pesticide license required to spray the products that I recommended.  This note is just a reminder that a NC Pesticide License in one or more category is required if you are going to apply any kind of pest management tool for compensation to the property of another.  This means that if you apply products including Roundup (Glyphosate),  Insecticidal Soap,  Hot Pepper Spray, or Restricted Use Products, as part of your day to day activities as a landscaper/gardener that you must be licensed by the state of NC to do so.  (There are NO Exceptions!. We have 2 opportunities coming up this summer for classes to prepare you or your employees to take the exams that are required.  These two dates are:

August 4th and 5th at the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Center- Waynesville

September  9th and 10th at the Mountain Horticulture Research and Extension Center-Mills River 

For additional information and registration see the red colored links on this website:

http://www.ncagr.gov/SPCAP/pesticides/license.htm

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Pesticide Training for the Green Industry

Thursday, July 23, 2013, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Henderson County Cooperative Extension Office

100 Jackson Park Rd, Hendersonville, NC 28792

Pesticide Safety in the Nursery & Landscape

&

Top 10 Reasons to Use PPE

This class is geared toward green industry professionals seeking education hours for their North Carolina Pesticide Applicator’s License.

***Two hours credit will be offered for subclasses L, N, O, D & X. ***

Please bring your current NC Pesticide license.

There will be a $5 materials fee collected at the door.

Please call 697-4891 or e-mail Ivy_Olson@ncsu.edu to register or for more information.