We've had a lot of questions about the timing of our spring application and whether it will still be effective since the bermudagrass has began to green up. The answer is no it will not effect the value of putting down a pre-emergent as the crabgrass, sandburs, and other summer weeds have not began to emerge ye. The only thing we have had to change or drop is the use of Round-Up or Glyphosphate in our tank mixes to ensure no harm is done to our customer's bermuda grass. At the same time we are having to up the rate of our broadleaf control products to ensure quick and efficient control of the winter annual weeds even though they are becoming quite mature. Crabgrass and other summer weeds will not begin to emerge until the soil temperatures have reached fifty-five degrees and can stay there consistently for about a week. Generally in Northern Oklahoma this is right around April 15th.

Here is a map of the current soil temperatures at 2 inches below the sod line:

The winter annual weeds are just about to begin really growing, or explode onto the scene. This is caused by the temperatures getting warmer and the day length getting longer. Also with all the moisture we have received the weeds are even more prone to begin to rapidly growing, which causes us to be more prudent in what we use to control them. Weeds that you are about to begin seeing explode in growth are henbit, dandelions, chickweed, and the little winter grasses. Here is a quick I.D. of the weeds I just mentioned, these are some of the most common weeds in Enid, Oklahoma...

1. Henbit- A winter annual.

2. Chickweed- A winter annual, I think every weed in a yard gets called this by someone.

4. Dandelion- An annoying Bi-Annual weed.

5. Poa-Annua- An annual winter grass

1. How long after you spray can it start raining?

Generally speaking I would love to have 3-4 hours after I spray before it rains. Yet often times the weather is unpredictable in Enid, Oklahoma and we can get caught much quicker than 3-4 hours after we spray with a rain. We are aware of this from the get go, and we choose to use excellent chemicals and surfactant that prevent us from having problems with unexpected rain events. However, when we have sprayed a lawn and an unexpected rain event occurs we will notify the customer of the problem, and watch it closely to insure everything does work properly and the customer is happy.

2. When is it too early to begin spraying yards in the spring?

My general rule of thumb of when to start spraying lawns is right around February 1st of each year. Generally this is when the days have started to turn a little bit warmer and the days have began to get a little bit longer which gets the weeds up and growing. So by capturing the weeds while they have just began growing again we can control them while they are very small and unnoticable, while also laying down the pre-emergent that will come into play later on as the summer annual weeds begin to emerge.

Overall we have a had a warm wet start to the spring season in Enid, Oklahoma and because of that we have began spraying lawns already and expect everything to work perfectly!

Bright and early Monday morning though we will return to work focused and driven, ready to spray lawns. I am truly excited about spraying lawns this year, we've got a good crew and we've planned well in hopes of having everything go smoothly and efficiently.

Pictures of my mini-vacation: 

 The Local Wildlife

 The Country Side

View out of my window...

So I've committed myself to blogging at least once a week for the rest of this year, and hopefully beyond.

What I'm seeing in lawns right now are a whole bunch of weeds just waiting on longer day length to explode up in people's lawns and get going. I think this may be an effect of the drought, as many of the weeds did not germinate last year due to the crazy weather conditions and now that they've had enough moisture to germinate them they are going to explode onto the scene. So I think this year could be a very "weedy" year so to speak. I am also going to be on the look out for any more signs and or damage from the drought to show up this year, as things hopefully begin to try and recover from the drought.

Note: I have been checking on some lawns I sprayed earlier on in the season, and it reminded me of something that occurs every year. Henbit, is terribly slow and boring to watch die. Unlike some weeds, this weed does not curl up and turn brown in a week, it simply quits growing, twists up just a little bit, and then goes away only after being mowed. For those of you that requested or had us use Round-Up on your lawn please keep in mind it will be 14-21 days before you will begin to see true death of the unwanted grasses in your lawn. After being sprayed they will simply turn purple and then slowly begin to yellow out eventually signaling surrender.

One of things many people are in a hurry to do is get their lawn scalped. When I say scalping their lawn, I'm talking mowing a lawn between a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of height. This allows them to pick up all the dead thatch, leaves, and unwanted trash in their lawns that has accumulated over the winter months. By doing so a person feels better about their lawn as they can look out and see a cleaner more manicured lawn, as they wait on the bermudagrass to begin greening up.

I truly do understand the desire to scalp a lawn, and see no reason not to have it done. Yet, I think people should be more patient and wait to scalp their lawn until after March 25th. Up until then we can still get a hard freeze that can set back or even kill the bermuda grass that has begun to green up. Often times people don't realize that the dormant bermuda grass thatch and leaves in a yard create a blanket that keeps the grass plants warmer and shields them from the temperature extremes that can occur. With out this blanket you expose the bermuda grass to more damage from cold, snow, and temperature swings that can easily damage grass that is unprotected. By scalping a lawn you allow a lawn's soil to warm up quicker and bermuda grass to come out of dormancy sooner which in turn makes it more vulnerable to cold temperatures.

Simply put I think it's ok to scalp a lawn, and the later the better. I would rather see a lawn scalped on April 15th than February 15th, as bermuda grass can easily recover from a scalping with warm temperatures and water.

-Kaleb

Many people then ask about crabgrass and when it will emerge. Crabgrass generally does not emerge until soil temperatures consistently stay at 65 degrees, here in Enid that is generally right around the April 15th . I can assure you there is no crabgrass growing in your lawn right now, if you have a grassy weed in your lawn it is probably annual bluegrass, cheat, or possibly six weeks fescue.

-Kaleb

People often times ask me, if you were to pick one application to make to my yard, what would it be. My answer is always the same, a spring pre-emergent application. By making this application you are killing two birds with one stone. When you apply a spring pre-emergent application at the proper time you effectively control both the winter weeds that have emerged and  growing in your lawn, as well as the summer annual weeds that will emerge later on when the soil warms up.

We are able to control such a broad spectrum of weeds by using multiple angles of attack. Here is a quick synopsis of typical tank mix we apply to our customer's lawn in order to control the broad spectrum of weeds emerging in their lawn at any given time.

1. A Pre-Emergent: simply put this chemical controls weeds as they are emerging, and before you ever see them. The quality of this chemical will greatly affect how long they last and the range of weeds they control. In the spring application, this chemical is the one focused on controlling weeds that will emerge as the soil temperature warms up.

2. A Contact Herbicide: This chemical or chemicals should be focused on controlling the unwanted grasses and broadleaf weeds that are growing in your lawn at the time of application. Once again what an applicator uses and what rate they use will determine how successful they are in controlling the weeds in your lawn.

3. A Surfactant: Many companies skip this ingredient in hopes of saving money, but we feel it is a crucial element in our mix. This chemical helps both the pre-emergent and contact herbicides stick to their intended targets and allow the plant's  to absorb the chemical more efficiently for better efficacy.

4. Dye: We use this chemical to know where we have been and where we are needing to go. This keeps us from missing anything or from overlapping which could cause harm to our customer's lawn.

Whether you are a customer of our's or not I would highly recommend going through and looking at what is applied to your lawn in hopes of ensuring you get the the best possible job. There are a lot of ways people can go about trying to cut corners to save money when spraying lawns, but as with anything else you have to remember you get what you pay for.

Kaleb

We have decided that instead of hiring someone instantly and trying to get them up to speed too quickly, we are going to instead adjust our workload to fit our man power capabilities as of the moment. When we find and hire the right person we hope to train them to be a good applicator and do the job as though it was their yard. We chose to take this route in order to show our customers that we have a relentless commitment to quality over quantity.

The hardest part of doing this is letting go of some of our customers, whom we have built a relationship over the years. We hope they will understand and know that we did everything we could to prevent this from happening. Yet somethings are out of our control.

To the customers we are still able to provide service to, we are open and ready for business. We have made the commitment to provide you with the best service available and hope that you will continue to allow us to work with you on taking care of your properties.

-Kaleb

The crop consulting portion of Metcalf Land & Lawn is taken care of by my father, who is a contract crop consultant with Farmer's Grain Company. This job routinely takes him all across North Central, Oklahoma with the mission of helping farmers and ranchers take better care of both their land and the crops growing on them. This allows me the oppurtunity to manage the lawn care portion of Metcalf Land & Lawn with the help of my Aunt Rhonda and friend James Blom. Many of you have spoken to my Aunt Rhonda when you call the office with a job or a question.  You immediately notice she is always extremely pleasant to visit with and will bend over backwards to help in anyway she can. James Blom works with us on taking care of customers' lawns.  He has been with us for the past 2 years and is quick to learn anything he can about the business. Together we strive to bring professionalism to our industry and excellent service to our customers.  

People often times ask me what it is like to work with father everyday, and I'd be lying if I said it was always easy. I think we would both say it takes work from both sides. I'm younger (20's) and gung-ho, and he's more experienced (50's) and conservative. This creates the oppurtunity to see the world from both perspectives and allows us to hopefully meet in the middle. Don't tell him this, but the longer we work together, the more I think he may know what he's talking about.

Collectively Metcalf Land & Lawn prides itself on not just being "another" company in either the lawn care or crop consulting industry. We try to be cutting edge and innovative in what we do to provide our customers with a level of service that is second to none. Many people assume the lawn care industry for us is a cash grab business, that is only open certain times of the year. I can assure you it is not, we run this business full time and dedicate three people to serving our customers year round, if fact many of our customers have chosen a 5-step lawn care program that provides a multi-season approach to lawn maintenance. We approach things in the same manner whether it is January 1st or May 1st.  This is what we do.

Kaleb Metcalf

Metcalf Land & Lawn is simply waiting until later on in the spring when the days are longer and weeds are actively growing before we make an application to control them. By waiting we are also giving the pre-emergent a better chance of retaining it's potency and being able to control the weeds that emerge later on in the spring such as crabgrass.

-Kaleb

Simply put this is an old wives tale, a cheap way for people to make money, and a good way to kill a tree. By topping a tree you are forcing the tree to use all it's energy reserves to simply come out of dormancy, and try to put on some leaves to photosynthesize. A tree's leaves are it's heart and soul, they allow the tree to undergo photosynthesis which keeps the plant growing. So by cutting a tree's limbs off you are then forcing the tree to use up any energy reserves and root growth it was going to complete to simply leaf out. People also tell me that it helps the tree grow faster by "topping" them, and all I have to say is if you start from a bare tree in spring and by summer's end you have some five foot branches you're gonna be impressed.

Instead of "topping" trees may I suggest simply grooming them? All you really need to do is have your tree company come out and walk around your trees with you and discuss which branches you would like to prune out. By doing so you you can still clean up all the dead branches and wood from the top of the tree, prune out any undesirable branches, and still leave 75% of the tree in tact. I can assure you by not "topping" your trees and simply taking the time to prune out poorly grown branches and dead wood you will have a much healthier tree.

-Kaleb Metcalf

First off your lawn is not dead during the winter months it is simply dormant, so please treat your lawn as you would during the summer. So often we see people turn off their irrigation system, winterize the mower and forget about their lawn until next spring when all of the sudden it does not look like they think it should. You should instead check on your lawn periodically to make sure it has plenty of moisture, and is mowed at the proper height to ensure it is well insulated for the cold winter months. These rules apply to both Fescue and Bermudagrass as they both need moisture and insulation to make it through winter.

On this same note, people should also be careful where they use salt or fertilizer to melt ice to on their sidewalks. As often times they apply way too much of these products and then when they run off they kill the grass that borders these areas. What kills the grass in this situation is simply salt, or the overabundance of salt in the soil. Therefore by the time the grass is dead your soil already has too much salt in it to allow the grass to come back next year. So please be careful when using these products, while very useful they can also cause you problems you don't often think about.

Keep it green,

Kaleb Metcalf

I've also had a lot of questions lately about controlling crabgrass at this time of year. To be honest it's a little too late, as the crabgrass is just about done with it's life cycle, and is somewhat hardened off to chemicals as they are no longer really growing. The best way to control crabgrass is to stay ahead of it with pre-emergent applications, both in the spring and in the summer. By making pre-emergent applications we hope to stay ahead of the emergence cycles of crabgrass, and keep their population numbers to a minimum.

Keep it green,

Kaleb Metcalf

An example of this, is my neighbor. He waters his lawn relentlessly in hopes of keeping it nice and green during the heat of the summer, yet complains about his water bill each time he gets it. So one day he asked me what my water bill was and I told him, and to his shock my water bill was half of what his was even though I have an irrigation system that runs 4-5 days a week for each part of lawn. Not even I was ready for how big of difference there was but it makes sense when you think about it as I irrigate each morning at 4:00 am, before the sun rises and winds are generally the calmest.

In the end, I would simply try and water your lawn early in the morning and late in the evening when evaporation rates are lowest. Also try to keep the amount of water you apply in mind, and make sure it's not running down your curb.

Kaleb

1. First of these is that Bermuda-grass can and will go into a semi-dormant state when it runs out of water and it gets hot, simply to protect itself from the stress of the hot weather. The bermuda-grass will come out of this as soon as consistent rain and cooler temperatures arrive.

2. Fescue on the other hand is a cool season grass that does not have the same mechanisms of drought control that bermuda-grass does, and is much more prone to dying out during hot weather. This is why you need to try and keep your fescue well irrigated, even so some fescues will stop growing and may regress just due to the hot weather.

You can help both your fescue and bermuda-grass lawns through the dog day's of summer by simply raising your mowing heights, as the longer leaf blade you have the more cooling area your grass has. Also be smart about when you irrigate as irrigation that is put on during the heat of the day is easily lost to the atmosphere by evaporation or wind. Instead try to apply irrigation during the evening hours when evaporation rates are lower, and often times the wind is dying down allowing the water to hit it's intended target.

Keep it green,

Kaleb

1. The first way to know if you have grubs is if you notice either skunks or armadillos digging holes or making divots in your lawn. Generally they will start digging little divots in your lawn in small patches underneath a street or porch light where the grubs are most numerous. So if you notice something has dug little holes all over your yard in small patches, it could be a sure bet you may have grubs.

2. Another way a person may know they have grubs is go outside at night and turn on a porch light or walk underneath a street light to see if they are a lot of junebugs flying or crawling around. They may be able to fly or crawl in from other places but if there are a lot of them chances are they are there because the local population is larger than it should be.

3. The final way a person can know if they have grubs is to get on their hand and knees and try to see if the bermudagrass will peel back like carpet. All we are doing here is checking to see if the grubs have chewed up the roots so much that the grass is not rooted in well. Also when you peel back the grass you should look for grubs to be right underneath the grass surface, which will answer your question of whether or not you have grubs in your lawn.

To control grubs one must own up to the fact they have grubs and then contact us to schedule an application. We generally try to make grub control applications in May and June, just as the grubs and their larvae are nearing the soils surface. The chemical we use to control grubs is very safe, and poses no threat to either our customers or their pets. Another added benefit of spraying for grubs is the chemical we use also controls many other insects and unwanted pests in your lawn.

Being my first time to blog I just want to let you know that I hope to use this blog as both an informational and educational spot for people to learn about managment of thier lawns. So feel free to ask me questions, bring up topics, or just check regularly to see what I am up to in my daily ventures here in Enid, Oklahoma.

Everyone's lawn right now is transitioning from spring to summer, and therefore they are beginning to grow quickly and new weeds are begining to surface. One weed that is really beginning to draw my attention is Nutsedge, also known as "Nutgrass" or "Watergrass." This weed is not consistently controlled until it has emerged and is actively growing.  Once actively growing nutsedge can be controlled with a timely application of the right herbicide. This weed is easily identified by simply pulling a plant that you suspect may be nutsedge, and if the base of the plant you just pulled is triangular in shape you have nutsedge. Depending on the severity of the infestation and your tolerance level for this weed in your lawn you may want to consider having your lawn sprayed.

Another concern people are having right now is what causes all the irregular dead spots in their bermudagrass lawns. These irregular dead spots are cause by spring dead spot or "SDS" for short. This is one of the few fungal diseases bermudagrass gets, and the problem is you can't predict when and where it will strike. Thus controlling it is very diffucult and in most instances it may be better to let grass grow in and fill in the dead spots over time. Generally by the end of June most of the spots are filled in and not as noticeable.

Keep it green,

Kaleb