Frost and Freeze damage in Florida

[abrightday]

There's a lot of freeze damage out there now,, What do you tell your customer?? What are you applying to help??

[Ric]

Originally Posted by abrightday

There's a lot of freeze damage out there now,, What do you tell your customer?? What are you applying to help??

Abrightday

The first thing you tell your customer is DON'T CUT BACK FREEZE DAMAGE. My No freeze date in South Florida is March. I am sure your No Freeze Date is later. The layer of dead material protect the rest of the plant from more damage in the next freeze. This is the hardest thing to convince a customer NOT to trim back to early.

Plants are weak because of the freeze and very susceptible to fungus. Palm Trees are particularly susceptible. I find Cooper Sulfate like N count is an excellent preventive product.

The last thing I would advise is to fertilize. My tree & shrub Fert is always scheduled for just before our No Freeze Date.

[abrightday]

Great answer, I tell them them the same thing. Tom McCubbin the local extension service agent tells them,"If it's brown,cut it down, if it's black hack it back. Unbelievable,, I have to keep re-educating people,, the next freeze could really kill your plant, if you hack it back.

[Ric]

Originally Posted by abrightday

Great answer, I tell them them the same thing. Tom McCubbin the local extension service agent tells them,"If it's brown,cut it down, if it's black hack it back. Unbelievable,, I have to keep re-educating people,, the next freeze could really kill your plant, if you hack it back.

Abrightday

County Extension agents vary in quality from one county to the next. Fact is most of them aren't worth the Powder to blow them up. I won't even talk to my local county agent because he is a real Dofus. Instead I either call or travel to Lee County where Excellent agents Steve Brown and Roy Beckford are the Horticulture and Agriculture agents respectively.

[Landscape Poet]

Originally Posted by Ric

Abrightday

County Extension agents vary in quality from one county to the next. Fact is most of them aren't worth the Powder to blow them up. I won't even talk to my local county agent because he is a real Dofus. Instead I either call or travel to Lee County where Excellent agents Steve Brown and Roy Beckford are the Horticulture and Agriculture agents respectively.

I would have to agree with Ric that each county extension has a different quality of agent available. I would what I run into most often with my agents is just repeating data that is available on the web, university research that is outdated. Most have little information on turfgrass, most seem to be more consumed with flowers. Which that data has its place too.

I recently got back from a trip back home to MO Ric. It was very nice to go home and see the turfgrasses up there again especially now that I am studying them in that course from U of G that your recommended to me. While gone on my trip back up there, I took the time to really dig into the book and start really understanding the information available to me. I came back with lots of questions and so I was excited that upon my first day back I would be attending a local pesticide class at the county extension which Dr. Laurie Trenholm from the U of F would be speaking. She was patient and did a good job of answer all the questions I had for her in between breaks. So while not everything I hope for is always answered by my local county extension, nor would I use them as my sole information source, they do have events like this that make them well worth having around.

By the way ric - she has started referring to brown patch as zoysia patch. Do you have many zoysia lawns and is the fungus issue as big as others are saying? Would you say it is worse than fungal issues on SA? Here research has shown that their is most likely a relationship in less N to lower fungal issues on zoysia. Your thoughts?

[gregory]

i am agree with ric i dont cut or trim nothing til it warms and stays that way. i dont cut my grass this time of the year either.


on the ext guys yea mr brown knows his stuff. i called him this week about the testing ric.


ric your year get any better?

[Florida Gardener]

Same here. We had damage in dec as we had 4 freezes and 2 near freezes. Copperleaf, goldmound, and many other tropicals saw damage to one degree or another. Palms such as cocos, adonidia, and hyophorbes saw damage. As long as we don't get another freeze down here we should be fine. I hope we do so the cutting stays down.
Posted via Mobile Device

[gregory]

i got rid of all my palms last year. one got killed and the others just look like crap. i live to far inland to have those in my yard. thats the biggest problem i see people dont know what they can have. we got alot of people moving here form maimi and they think they can have the same trees and plants as they did down there and then you drive around and see there yards burnt to hell...i like the palms and the way they look but everyyear they get burnt up and and it takes almost all year til they look good again then there burnt again.......

[ted putnam]

Originally Posted by Michael Geist Yard Works

I would have to agree with Ric that each county extension has a different quality of agent available. I would what I run into most often with my agents is just repeating data that is available on the web, university research that is outdated. Most have little information on turfgrass, most seem to be more consumed with flowers. Which that data has its place too.

I recently got back from a trip back home to MO Ric. It was very nice to go home and see the turfgrasses up there again especially now that I am studying them in that course from U of G that your recommended to me. While gone on my trip back up there, I took the time to really dig into the book and start really understanding the information available to me. I came back with lots of questions and so I was excited that upon my first day back I would be attending a local pesticide class at the county extension which Dr. Laurie Trenholm from the U of F would be speaking. She was patient and did a good job of answer all the questions I had for her in between breaks. So while not everything I hope for is always answered by my local county extension, nor would I use them as my sole information source, they do have events like this that make them well worth having around.

By the way ric - she has started referring to brown patch as zoysia patch. Do you have many zoysia lawns and is the fungus issue as big as others are saying? Would you say it is worse than fungal issues on SA? Here research has shown that their is most likely a relationship in less N to lower fungal issues on zoysia. Your thoughts?

Funny you say that. They no longer call it brown patch in my area, they refer to it as large patch.

[Ric]

Originally Posted by ted putnam

Funny you say that. They no longer call it brown patch in my area, they refer to it as large patch.

Ted

We are calling it Large Patch here not Zoysia Patch since we have more S.A. Than Zoysia. Micheal is like my corn county buddy when it comes to real facts.