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Doveweed Doveweed is one of our newest problematic and prolific summer annual broadleaf weed invading lawns throughout our area. Doveweed is a very aggressive and rapidly spreading weed with narrow soft low growing leaves that resembles grass. Doveweed is spreading rapidly in individual lawns and geographically. It has become one of the most problematic weeds… Read more »
Doveweed with Purple Flowers
Doveweed is one of our newest problematic and prolific summer annual broadleaf weed invading lawns throughout our area. Doveweed is a very aggressive and rapidly spreading weed with narrow soft low growing leaves that resembles grass. Doveweed is spreading rapidly in individual lawns and geographically. It has become one of the most problematic weeds to manage for turf managers and property owners. Small blue to purple flowers can be seen throughout the summer. Doveweed is a vegetative type broadleaf weed that spreads by stem nodes and by seed. Doveweed will overtake all turf types leaving bare areas in late fall/early winter when the weed ends its life cycle for the year.
Controlling Doveweed is very difficult. At this time, we do not have a proven post or pre-emergent herbicide available to effectively control Doveweed in Fescue turf. There are some pre and post-emergent herbicides available for Bermuda and Zoysia. However, these products are proving to offer limited success in most cases. Researchers at NC State University have been working with pre and post-emergent herbicides for a few years trying to find effective and reliable control options. Turf managers and property owners dealing with this prolific weed hope control options are found soon. Fairway Green has been using several different combinations to find the best control. We have heard some turf managers calling Doveweed the worst weed they have ever seen.
Fescue Lawn Seed
Fall is the time to seed your fescue lawn in the Transitional Zone, not the spring. Seeding tall fescue in the fall allows the seedlings and young plants time to develop before the warmer air and ground temperatures start in May. Fairway Green will begin fall seeding around the last week of August and complete seeding around the last week of October.
We offer either slit-seeding or aeration seeding based on the condition of your lawn. Our seed is handpicked for high performing varieties that are Brown Patch resistant as well as heat and drought tolerant. This special mixture is made for use in our transitional zone. Fairway Green’s seed mixture, “Southern Perfection”, has 0% weed and 0% other crop contamination. Southern Perfection is now WaterStar® qualified through the Turfgrass Water Conservation Alliance (TWCA).
Grass Seedlings
There is probably nothing wrong with your seed, as long as you used a quality turf type fescue. Fescue seed germination has been very slow this fall due to the extremely dry periods we have been experiencing. This has been exacerbated by dry breezy warmer days that increase the drying rate of the soil and surrounding turf. Most seed, including grass seed, require a certain amount of constant moisture to start the germinating process. If the sufficient moisture level is not reached, germination will not occur. Quality grass seed can lay on the ground for a very long time and not germinate but still be viable and germinate when rain starts to fall.
It will take much longer for your seed to germinate and develop with these conditions so it is best to be patient and understand this is normal and applying additional seed is often not required. In most cases it is wasting seed by putting new seed on top of seed that is perfectly fine. Even if you have irrigation, please be patient.
Northern Chafer
We are still seeing grub activity and turf damage. White grubs are the larva of Scarab beetles. There are several beetles that produce the grubs we see while digging in our lawns and natural areas. Grubs in North Carolina are Southern and Northern Chafer, Japanese, Asiatic, Green June and the May beetle. Grubs are identified by their cream, off-white colored, body and off brown color hind part and head. Grubs have six legs and are from ¼ to 1½ inches. They are often seen in their C-shaped position in the soil.
White grubs create damage in turf by eating the root system of the host plant. Turf damage is usuallyobserved in late spring through fall with an off-color, wilting appearance. Many times it is misdiagnosed as disease or heat or drought stress. The lawn may have a spongy almost loose feel to the soil under the turf. In severe cases, the turf may roll up when tugged on from the lack of roots holding it to the soil. Activity from birds, raccoons, skunks and moles could indicate a grub infestation. To determine the extent of grub activity and the need for control, you will need to use a spade to remove the upper 3 inches of soil in a 12” x 12” area. Cut back the turf sample to count the number of grubs and inspect root damage. If nine or more grubs are observed, take immediate action utilizing proper products for situation. All turf types are susceptible to grub feeding and damage.
Damaged Lawn
Many cool season (Fescue and Bluegrass) lawns throughout North Carolina and Virginia have experienced major damage from several diseases. We have seen active Brown Patch, Grey Leaf Spot and Pythium up to this writing on October 8th. Typically, climatic conditions are not conducive for some of these diseases this late into the fall. However, above normal temperatures and humidity have made a destructive set of circumstances on cool season turf and even more so on young seedlings. We never got out of July/August climatic conditions in September and early October.
Another possible cause could be Fall Armyworms. Armyworms have been very active in the Triangle this fall causing damage to both cool season and warm season lawns.
This has been one of the more challenging falls for cool season turf.
Leaves will be falling soon, please keep leaves off the lawn as much as possible. They will kill all turf types if they stay on the turf for long.
In our continued effort to improve and deliver the best possible turf and ornamental management service, we will be moving to a more efficient method of communication. Fairway Green will be implementing an email/text notification system in the coming months. The notification will be used for invoicing after service, important alerts pertaining to your lawn and contact before service for customers. This new notification system will help us service your lawn in the most efficient and effective way possible.
Please help make this transition as smooth as possible and update/correct your cell number and email addresses in our system.