Buy quality lawn seed
By ROBERT KESSLER Penn State Cooperative Extension Franklin County office

COMING EVENTS

Sept. 8 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Turfgrass Establishment, Lawn Care & Renovation, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Chambersburg, Call 263-9226.

Sept. 15 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Backyard Habitat Workshop, Horticulture Gardens, Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg.

Sept. 22 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Preparing Yard for new year, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Chambersburg

Oct. 2 through Nov. 13 - 7 to 9:30 p.m., Principles of Landscape Design Classes, Franklin County Master Gardners, Franklin County Human Service Building, Call 263- 9226 for information.

Oct. 6 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., House Plants and Propagation, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg.

Oct. 13 - 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fall Bus Trip, Bartram's Fardens and Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, Call 263-9226 for information.

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BUY QUALITY LAWN

SEED

Many lawns will need some seeding this fall because of the drought damage or maybe you are putting in a new lawn. Too often people do not pay enough attention to what they are buying for grass seed when seeding a lawn. Not all grass seed is the same. There is a reason why one seed costs twice as much for a pound as another. It is called quality.

One problem with cheap seed is you can be buying undesirable crop seeds as well as the grass seed. You could be buying grasses that have tall growth patterns, coarse stems, poor color or grasses that will only last a year or two. When you buy a grass seed, look at the package. There will always be a seed label on it. If not, do not buy it no matter how great it sounds (Also never buy those miracle grasses advertised in Sunday papers or special catalogs unless you know what you are buying).

The seed label tells you several things about the seed in the package. It will tell you what the good grasses are. If you are buying a bluegrass blend for instance, you should see at least three different varieties of bluegrass. Do not buy a cheap mix that just states Kentucky bluegrass with no variety name. You want three or more in case a disease hits. Some varieties may have resistance to the disease so you don't lose your lawn.

The next thing to look for is the amount of "other crop" seed. This should be very low. Zero percent would be ideal. Keep in mind that if you buy a bluegrass blend and it has .5% other crop seed, that if that other crop was a grass like orchard grass, which is agricultural grass, not a turf grass that you could be planting around 15 other crop weed seeds per square foot of your lawn. This would not make an attractive looking lawn for you. Try to get as close to zero as you can.

The seed label will also tell you what percent of your seeds are weed seed. Again we want this to be zero or as close to zero as you can. Weeds can be enough of a problem to homeowners seeding a new lawn, without planting some more.

Other things on the label are figures like the percent germination. Obviously you want this to be high or at least in the 90% range. The percent of inert matter is the last thing you will see on the seed label. This means things like dirt, plant particles or anything else that won't grow. You don't want very much of this in a package you buy. You want your money to purchase seeds, not dirt particles.

Remember you want to use high quality lawn seed that has been proven by research to be disease resistant, have good plant vigor and that will make you a quality lawn that will have few diseases or weed problems. Also keep in mind that you will look at your grass every day. You want to be pleased with what you see. Visit local garden centers and purchase one of their blends, which were developed to do well in our area.

SPOTTED SPURGE

We all know that when it is really dry, we still have weeds that stay green. I guess that is why they are weeds. They can find a way to get the moisture needed to continue to grow. One weed that I noticed doing well this summer was the spotted spurge. It is a weed that grows very low to the ground from a central stem. It has small leaves that are dark green in color with a reddish spot or blotch in the center of the leaf. If you break off a stem, it will have a milky sap. It grows well in areas that have high traffic. I get a lot of it in my sidewalk and brick patio. It also grows along sidewalks, driveways as well as in lawns.

Young spotted spurge can be easily pulled by hand or with a hoe. It is also easily controlled with most broadleaf weed killers or a non selective material like glyphosate (roundup).

If you have areas like a sidewalk that have lots of spotted spurge plants each year, you can use a pre-emergence next spring in late April - May to prevent the weeds.

ORANGE STRIPED

OAKWORM

We have been seeing several samples of a fall defoliator of oak trees. It is called the Orange striped Oakworm. It is dark in color and has a few orange stripes down the side of its body. In July a moth laid the eggs in clusters on the underside of the leaves of the oak tree. These hatched out and the young caterpillars feed on the oak tissue between the veins of the tree. As they get large, they will eat more of the leaf and may only leave the mid rib of the leaf. They can grow to be two to three inches long before they drop to the ground and burrow into the soil to pupate. Next summer in July, the moths will emerge, mate and the eggs are laid.

The good thing about these insects is they hit in the fall when most of the work of the leaves are done so they are not considered to be as harmful as the gypsy moth was in the spring.

If you notice that your oak trees have an area where the leaves have been stripped you probably have these in your tree. If you can reach them from the ground, then just pick off the caterpillars (they are leaf eaters, not meat eaters, so they won't bite you.) and drop them in soapy water to destroy them. If it was earlier in the season, you could have used Bt, but they are getting too big for Bt to be effective, so your choice is probably to do nothing unless your tree is small or has been defoliated by gypsy moth or you have a lot of them in areas of your tree, then you should treat your tree. Then you could use carbaryl (Sevin), or a product that contains cyfluthrin, permethrin or deltamethrin as an ingredient. Remember they are feeding on the leaves, so your spray should be on the areas of the tree when you see them working and the spray needs to cover the leaves they are feeding on.