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Spring Items – Ready to Grow
By John Fulton

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[March 24, 2015]  LINCOLN - A day with temperatures reaching 70 degrees really gets everyone thinking about shaking off those winter blahs, and going a little digging in the dirt.

Of course, there are still places with frost in the ground. You can tell since the thawed portion is really soft. Anyway, this list will cover some of the items to be working on this year.

Let’s start with lawns.

There is ample work to be done in the early spring and the appearance of green in the lawn has many excited, and a few dreading the upcoming mowing season.

If you have to do some seeding, March 15 to April 1 is the recommended spring period in our area. It’s a very narrow window, but with purpose. New grass seed needs time to germinate and develop a strong root system before hot weather arrives. The right type of seed to use varies. Sunny locations do well with Kentucky bluegrass, while shaded areas tend to do better with red or chewings fescue. Perennial ryegrass provides quicker germination and cover. Blending all three is a recommended practice, and you can even purchase blends already made up. The blends help with conditions, diseases, and insects. When one type struggles, the others can tolerate and help fill in areas in the lawn. The recommended seeding rates are four pounds per 1000 square feet in new seedings, and two pounds per 1000 in overseeding existing turf to thicken it up or help fill small bare areas.
 


Continuing on with lawns, crabgrass control is always a popular topic. Use of a crabgrass preventer is very effective, and the most common way to attack the problem. There are a few products out there, and they are often combined with fertilizer. They all basically kill small seeds as they germinate. They will also do the same with grass seed you have sown, so the two operations do not work together. If you sow seed, you live with the crabgrass for the year. Timing is critical for crabgrass control. Material needs to be applied, and rained in or watered in, before the crabgrass seed starts germinating. April 1 is an average guess, but this can vary widely from year-to-year. Forsythia in bloom usually is the very beginning of the crabgrass germination process. Many products only last four to six weeks, so mark your calendars for at least a second application if you don’t want crabgrass to appear later in the season.

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Shifting gears, starting your own transplants can still be done for the warm loving plants such as tomatoes and peppers. We usually figure about six weeks from the transplant date for starting the seeds. The recommended outdoor transplanting time for these is going to be in May, after the frost-free date.

You should use a sterile growing medium to start seeds in. There are several kinds of soilless germinating mixes, potting soils, peat cubes, and compressed peat pellets that are available. These media are generally free from insects, diseases, and weeds. Enough fertilizer is generally present in these to allow for three or four weeks of plant growth.

Lastly for this week, many calls have been coming in about pruning roses. At this time of year, it is easy to see where winterkill has happened. Most recommend waiting until forsythia blooms to do your pruning. That way you are fairly certain you know what you are dealing with. The modern shrub roses, such as the knockouts, have been the most prevalent type planted lately.

The rules for the modern shrub roses are: remove a third of the very oldest canes, identify and leave a third of the newest canes, remove remaining canes, cut back beyond the dead areas from winterkill using a 45 degree cut, and size according to your needs or desires.

More information on pruning all types of roses is available at: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/roses/ prune.cfm 

[By JOHN FULTON, COUNTY EXTENSION DIRECTOR SERVING LOGAN, MENARD, AND SANGAMON COUNTIES]

 

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