It’s getting close to that time of year again! You may be the giver or receiver of a wonderful holiday plant soon. Dish gardens, potted flowering plants (such as azalea, begonia, poinsettia, or chrysanthemum), plants with attractive foliage, and even patio citrus make great gifts. However, special care is needed to keep them healthy throughout the holiday season and beyond!
For plants intended to be “house plants”, over watering, over fertilizing and poor placement are the most common problems encountered by caretakers. The first thing you need to keep in mind about gift plants is that most of them have been growing in a carefully controlled greenhouse environment for some time. These types of plants are acclimated to a specific temperature & humidity level. Therefore, they’re sensitive. When they’re moved into your home atmosphere, they typically go into a level of shock. If you received a gift plant, you’ll have to help it overcome this shock by paying careful attention to the important factors- light, temperature, water, and fertilization.
House Plants & Indoor Garden Examples Credit: UF/lFAS Communications
Indoor areas often restrict light and provide very low humidity. Plants with dense foliage prefer light, but not continuous direct light all day. Placing a plant near a window or near light fixtures should suffice for photosynthesis requirements. However, flowering plants such as mums and poinsettias will stand more light than most foliage plants and should be placed in very bright areas. Most indoor plants grow well in temperatures of 60 to 70 degrees. Be careful to not place plants in drafty locations where sudden changes in temperature occur. Also, don’t place plants close to radiators or air conditioner vents/returns. These areas typically dry soil excessively and could cause plants to wilt.
Watering is one of the major causes of failure with plants in the home, especially for containers which don’t have drainage holes. Most house plants will require a thorough soaking once a week. Water only when necessary and don’t let the pots stand in saucers of water unless the plants are very tolerant to excess water. Overwatering can kill plant roots, increase chances of disease, and eventually kill the entire plant.
Proper fertilization is another important part of growing healthy plants. Fertilizer labeled for house plants or 10-10-10 are good, general-purpose, complete fertilizers to use. Always follow all the directions on the bag or container, so that you don’t over fertilize, causing the plant’s demise.
Following these basic practices to keep house plants healthy should keep your gift plant looking attractive for the remainder of the holiday season and beyond.
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So far, our fall has been unusually dry with warmer temperatures. Even though our average annual rainfall is around sixty-two inches per year, we don’t always receive rain exactly when we need it. There are times when we need to apply additional water. During dry weather, employ the following water management practices to improve the water efficiency of your lawn and landscape.
Mulching helps conserve water. On bare ground, about sixty percent of the water can be lost through evaporation. A two to three-inch layer of mulch will help hold onto the water so the plants can use it. Try to mulch the entire root zone when possible or at least apply mulch all the way around the plants out to the end of the branches.
Irrigate on as needed basis during dry periods. Credit: Larry Williams
When watering, a thorough soaking to wet the soil to a depth of six to eight inches is much better for plants than light, frequent watering. Three to five gallons of water applied to one spot under the canopy of trees or shrubs should thoroughly saturate the root zone in that location. During dry periods, as a general rule), twenty-five percent of the root system, when watered thoroughly, can absorb all the water a plant requires at any given time.
When watering lawns, apply one inch of water per week when we are not getting rain. Although many sprinklers have irrigation rates of ¼ inch per hour, some may apply up to one inch per hour. Measure your irrigation rate and uniformity by placing several open-top containers of the same size under the sprinkler and see how long it takes to apply a known amount of water such as ½ inch.
An efficient irrigation program on turf should not begin until the lawn grass shows signs of moisture stress. Symptoms include a dull and bluish-green color and leaf blades folding. The most efficient time to irrigate is between sunset and sunrise because of less evaporation, less wind and lower temperatures. Early morning is the next most effective time to irrigate while midday is the least efficient.
Avoid fertilizing drought-stressed plants. Fertilizers are chemical salts and will dehydrate roots when water is in short supply. If you need to apply a pesticide, make certain the plant is not wilted at the time and spray during early morning or late afternoon. You should also avoid unnecessary pruning of plants during drought. Pruning encourages new growth, which has a high demand for water.
It’s hard to have a great yard full of Centipedegrass isn’t it? All the fertilizer, watering, aerating, weed spraying, fungicide spraying, insect spraying, the list is never-ending and wallet draining. Except, it’s not hard and doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s easy. In fact, it’s so easy that people even make it hard because they think it should be. The list of basic tips to achieve a great yard of Centipedegrass is very short, let’s get into it.
FertilizingProperly – Keep it to a minimum! Centipedegrass has a very low Nitrogen (N) requirement for optimum growth and development (0.4 lbs – 2 lbs/1000 ft 2 per year). Centipede is naturally light green in color and trying to force the deep green of Kentucky Bluegrass upon it will almost certainly do it harm. There are many excellent quality Centipedegrass lawns in the Panhandle that have never received a single prill of fertilizer. Don’t take my word for it though, the UF/IFAS publication Centipedegrass for Florida Lawns says, “Established centipedegrass lawns require about 50% less nitrogen fertilizer than other lawn grasses grown in Florida. Centipedegrass is a low maintenance turfgrass and does not respond well to excessive use of fertilizer, especially nitrogen.”
Centipedegrass lawn that has never been fertilized and mowed regularly when it reaches 3″ to achieve a 2.5″ cut height. Photo courtesy Daniel Leonard.
Timely Mowing – Other than overfertilizing, the next easiest way to cause significant damage to a Centipedegrass lawn is to mow it incorrectly. Centipede prefers a mowing height of around 2.5” and actively growing grass should be mowed every 7-14 days, removing no more than 1/3 of the grass blade. In my experience, this is much higher and often less frequent than many people mow their lawns. All too often, I see Centipede lawns that are allowed to grow tall and unkempt and then mowed to near golf course fairway height with the occasional bare “scalped” spot where the mower ran across an unlevel area of lawn. Mowing short and infrequently is harmful because mowing is inherently a major stress to the grass. You’re asking a lot of a plant by removing a large chunk of photosynthetic leaf tissue and then repeatedly asking the plant to regrow. Be kind to your grass and mow correctly. *Additionally, try to not mow your lawn in droughty conditions as this can exacerbate mowing stress and cause serious lawn issues.
Right Plant, Right Place – Much of the bad rap turfgrass receives comes from people trying to force it to grow where it shouldn’t be. If your yard has areas of significant shade or receives significant foot or vehicle traffic, Centipedegrass (or most any grass for that matter) may not be for you, in those areas at least. Like all turfgrasses (though some are more shade and traffic tolerant than others), Centipedegrass does best in full sun and detests having the soil its roots are going in repeatedly trampled and compacted. In areas with those conditions, maybe having a mulched landscaped bed with shade tolerant plants or a rocked walking path would be more appropriate. You and the grass will certainly be happier working with those options than fighting against your site conditions.
Though maintaining a Centipedegrass lawn is simple, that isn’t to say that if you follow all these tips that your yard will be perfect all the time. There will still be the occasional dieback, weed ingression, mole cricket infestation and the like, however, following the above tips will make your grass much more resilient and equipped to handle those stresses. For more information about Centipedegrass or other horticultural topics, contact your local UF/IFAS Extension office. Happy gardening!
I remember going into a neighborhood to diagnose a lawn problem in Crestview during spring a number of years ago. The centipedegrass lawn was in a state of decline. This was the front yard of the original model home for the neighborhood. The original owner sold the house and moved. The new owner, not familiar with North Florida lawns, was dissatisfied with the condition of his front yard.
All of the residents in this neighborhood were new to Florida.
At the time of my visit, the neighborhood was approximately ten-years-old. The original owner of the home was new to Florida, as well. He had only lived in the home for about two years before selling the house and moving to another state.
The original homeowner purchased the model home when the neighborhood was new and became the neighborhood lawn guru.
Imagine this situation… the entire neighborhood was new, everyone living in the neighborhood was new to Florida, not having a clue how to correctly maintain their new centipedegrass lawns.
Centipedegrass decline. Credit: Larry Williams
A sure way to kill a centipedegrass lawn is to be a little heavy handed with nitrogen. The natural color of a healthy centipedegrass lawn is light green, almost a crabapple green. The original homeowner was fertilizing his lawn as if it were a bermudagrass or fescuegrass lawn. Centipedegrass will not put up with this. As a result of “overdosing” his lawn with nitrogen, the lawn took on an unnatural dark green color. Short-term (two to three years), centipedegrass will appear to respond nicely to too much nitrogen. But after several years, irregular areas within a centipedegrass lawn will turn bright yellow in spring, followed by turning brown and dying back to bare ground as a result of too much nitrogen. The condition is called centipedegrass decline.
Healthy centipedegrass lawn with correct light green color. Credit: Dr. Bryan Unruh
I heard a minister ask the question, “Does the person you’re following know where he is going?” This was in reference to a parable found in the Bible in Matthew 15:14 where Jesus stated, “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” This expression has many implications but basically is a caution about the dangers of following a leader who is clueless.
Unfortunately, this self-appointed lawn guru was clueless as to how to correctly manage a centipedegrass lawn. A few years following his overdoing it with fertilizer and then moving, his former lawn began to die in patches, progressively followed by other neighborhood lawns doing the same, almost like a domino effect. Who you choose to follow is important.
In case you missed it, you can watch our last session of Gardening in the Panhandle LIVE! that aired on October 12th by visiting our YouTube Playlist with all the past episodes of our gardening webinars.
We had a great conversation about herbs and cool season edible plants last month and this article compiles the links shared by the expert panel in the episode. Thanks for watching!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s been hot outside. Like really, scorching, hellacious, dog days hot. In this weather pattern we’ve been in, it’s hard to make yourself do non-essential stuff outside that doesn’t involve swimming and so our gardens go by the wayside. In my opinion, that’s totally okay! Give yourself a rest from the garden and landscape chores for the next couple of weeks and get your fall gameplan ready. The following are some things to think about over the next few weeks to prepare yourself for the coming cooler weather!
Soil testing in centipedegrass. Photo courtesy of Daniel Leonard.
Get your soil tested. If you’re an in-ground vegetable gardener or just like to have an attractive lawn/landscape, performing a simple soil test can offer either peace of mind that your soil’s pH and fertility is good or give you a nudge to schedule some needed amendments. Though I don’t recommend fertilizing lawn grass this late and there’s no need to fertilize the garden before it gets planted in mid-late September, you can certainly begin to source and price fertilizer for the appropriate time based on your test results. However, now IS the perfect time to get lime out in a vegetable garden if your pH has sunk beneath the recommended 6.5. Lime takes weeks to months to begin to alter soil chemistry so the sooner the better if it is needed!
Order seeds. While I love to support local farm stores and plant nurseries, you are limited with the vegetable and flower varieties you can plant by what they have in stock. I enjoy trying new/improved and heirloom plant varieties each year and, most of the time, these can only be found by ordering online. For the latest in vegetable and cut flower varieties with a nice mix of heirloom cultivars thrown in also, I can recommend Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, and other similar purveyors – all of these are great places to look. Continue to purchase your more common standbys through local outlets but, this year get different and try new things by ordering online!
Develop a garden/landscape plan. I doubt there’s a gardener amongst us who wouldn’t like to rearrange things a bit outside. Maybe you planted your lettuce a little too closely together last year, you’ve been dreaming of installing a new flower bed, or you really want to do a full garden/landscape renovation. The best way to be successful at any of these things is to get outside (or at least look out from behind a window in the A/C), take stock of what is already there, the space that is or might be available, research what plants or varieties might do well in your yard/garden (your local UF/IFAS Extension office is a great resource for this), and begin to sketch your ideas out. This planning step WILL save you time and money by ensuring you don’t purchase too many plants, by picking plants that will do well, and ensuring you install everything at the correct time.
So, take advantage of the heat, stay inside, and work up your garden gameplan together this August – fall is just around the corner. For help with soil testing, recommendations on plant varieties to purchase, or working up a garden/landscape plan tailored to you, contact your local UF/IFAS County Extension Office. Stay cool and happy gardening!
