Weeds & Bugs & Fungus

ECO-LAWN-SYSTEM

PIN-POINT WEED CONTROL

Weed control in lawns is an ongoing process just as it is in agricultural crops. Worldwide herbicide use for all crops is approaching 8 billion dollars annually and is expected to keep increasing. This tells us that it is a never-ending problem. The good news for lawns is that with diligence, weeds can be sprayed before they produce seed. The idea is to continually reduce existing populations in your lawn and prevent them from producing new seed stock. Weeds such as crabgrass can produce thousands of seeds that are deposited in the soil and can possibly germinate for years to come. Broadleaf weeds all have the same capability whether annual, bi-annual or perennial weeds. With sound management, you will see less and less weeds in your lawn.

At Bluegrass Buddha we have developed a strategy that is says, “we don’t leave a property until all the weed problems have been located and sprayed”. We spray weeds based on visual inspection of the lawn and use herbicides in a pin-point manner targeted just to weeds. You might ask yourself, why we don’t spray the entire lawn with herbicides every time you treat the lawn?

  1. It is illegal to do this. The most common herbicide used in lawns can only be blanket sprayed twice per season according to EPA rules.
  2. Herbicides are great tools for helping to beautify lawns but they have to be used with caution for the environment. They have some toxicity properties and should only be used on target plants such as weeds.
  3. They have considerable cost. We strive to apply the most concentrated nutrition possible in lawncare. This is where most of our product costs are being focused. To keep the price reasonable, we can’t waste product. Only visible weeds are spot sprayed upon inspection during the application.
  4. We are trying to grow a healthy microbial community in the soil that lives in a symbiotic environment with the grass plant. Herbicides can damage this interaction.

Our strategy is ever evolving based on science and information reported to me by Dr David Gardner at The Ohio State University. We are always incorporating new strategies into our applications. Newer chemistries have been developed with lower toxicities pinpointing difficult weed problems for one. Weed control strategies are very complicated depending on the species we are targeting. An herbicide that kills a dandelion won’t kill crabgrass. Herbicides that kill certain broadleaf weeds won’t kill other broadleaf weeds. The key is to have many options with us and use what is needed for what weed species. That can get complicated, and time consuming. Other service providers will only do use a basic strategy leaving many weed species to continue to thrive and populate. We have developed equipment that allows us to carry specific chemistries on our machines during specific seasonal patterns so that we can target those specific species of weeds with both your satisfaction in mind and time saving efficiencies for us. There are certain species of weeds that are extremely difficult to completely kill but it is our goal to eventually eliminate them from your lawn.

Certain weeds can germinate and grow very quickly, especially after a heavy rain or constant irrigation. This can happen in the days and weeks after the application. On our next visit, we will find them and spray them. We ask for your patience during those periods. You have not failed in your decision making to hire us and we have not failed in our service to you. This is simply nature at work. Remember, weeds happen, they happen in nature worldwide at a huge cost annually, but we are highly focused to eliminate these unwanted guests off your lawn. Your contribution to this effort is to keep your lawn mowed as high as possible. This blocks sunlight from germinating weeds and helps choke out newly germinated weeds.

EXAMPLES OF DIFFICULT TO CONTROL WEEDS THAT REQUIRE SPECIALIZED CHEMISTRIES AND REPEAT APPLICATIONS

WILD VIOLET

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

PURPLE OXALIS

YELLOW NUTSEDGE

CRABGRASS

GROUND IVY (CREEPING CHARLIE)

INSECT AND DISEASE CONTROL

While the Bluegrass Buddha Revolutionary Nutrition system is slowly building disease and insect suppression into the lawn there are some preventative steps we take to ensure success.

INSECTS

Grub prevention is applied to every lawn during the season. You don’t want to worry or take a chance with grubs attacking your lawn nor do we. A slight surcharge is added to your bill during the mid-summer application to cover the cost of the treatment. Grub prevention acts as a systemic bio-control inside the grass plant that will make grubs sick if that try to take a big bite out of your grass roots. They just stop feeding on your grass. Sometimes there will be grubs in the soil but they won’t be a problem for your lawn.

Surface insects such as Chinch Bugs and Webworms are scouted during the summer treatments. These require and non-systemic control treatment. In most cases, it is rare to find these pests doing damage to most grass types. In certain years and with certain grass types we will make the treatment at a nominal cost. The chemistry used is not very expensive. We just need to cover the cost of the chemical and our time to make the application.

DISEASE CONTROL

In many cases, certain grasses can become susceptible to diseases throughout the midsummer growing period. A lawn that has a high population of fine fescues can find itself struggling with mild diseases because the fine fescue is actually more of a shade grass that has been planted in full sun. It can try to go dormant and become slightly prone to mild disease.

Another concern are more serious diseases that can attack the lawn very quickly during more extreme weather conditions in mid-summer. High humidity, high soil temperatures but, more importantly, elevated overnight temperatures and humidity combined with wet grass blades can attract certain diseases to attack grass roots causing more severe damage very quickly.

Depending on the level of concern you may have, you may want to have us apply preventative fungicide treatments for the utmost in disease prevention. We use one fungicide product that covers a huge spectrum of diseases in our seasonal program. This chemistry is the most advanced selection available in that it not only prevents a broad spectrum of diseases, it also triggers Stress Acquired Resistance in the plant. SAR is a natural defense mechanism that grass plants can trigger for themselves to elevate their natural defenses. Grass plants treated with our fungicide are more drought resistant and can tolerate higher levels of summer stress. The fungicide does more than prevent disease.

LAWN DISEASE 1 PHOTO

LAWN DISEASE 2 PHOTO