How to get rid of live oak sprouts, pests
Q: I believe we have live oaks in our neighborhood. They have started sending up hundreds of little seedlings. Last year when this happened, I sprayed to kill them, but it turned the zoysia brown. I don’t want to pull them by hand because there are so many, plus some of them are very deeply rooted. What can I do?
A:
To confirm, you do have live oak sprouts. Use a sharpshooter spade to dig several of them up carefully. See if they are on their own set of very immature roots or if they have developed from a large root of the mother tree. If they are all separate seedlings, you can probably get rid of them simply by mowing them. If they’re root sprouts from the mother tree, however, you’ll have to sever them with the sharpshooter plunged into the soil at a 30degree angle. Sprays won’t work since they’re part of the mother tree. By the way, if they’re seedlings and you do end up spraying, be sure you’re using a broadleafed herbicide that is labeled for use on any type of lawngrass. Sometimes people use a glyphosate product not realizing that it will kill grass more effectively than it kills non-grassy weeds.
Q: I have been reading about solarization to kill jumping worms and their cocoons. Will it work? When should I do it and for how long?
A:
First and foremost, I am certainly not the world expert on this imported invader — far from it. I did some research online, and I learned a great deal about the damage they do to the soil. They are present in Texas and almost half of the other states. However, I found no university information on products that would eradicate them. But several sites do warn us that we must put any Asian jumping worms that we might find into plastic bags in the sun to kill them. That would suggest that the solarization you mention for several weeks in the heat of the summer might be a plan. I would suggest that you contact entomologists at Texas A&M. Granted, these aren’t
insects, but if the entomologists don’t work with them, they will know who does.
Q: What are your thoughts on Prodiamine as a pre-emergent weedkiller? When should I use it?
A:
It’s a good pre-emergent that also has post-emergent capabilities. Use it right away, however. Time is speeding by. Read and follow label directions.
Q: I have had problems with dead spots in my lawn in the spring for several years. Could this be a fungus? Can I just re-sod those areas?
A:
I don’t have nearly enough
information to give you a good answer. I don’t know what type of grass you have, and to do an “autopsy” I would need to have some type of description of what the patient looked like as it was dying. There aren’t any common diseases that come to my mind that normally kill out patches of grass over the winter. If you have St. Augustine or perhaps zoysia, you might have brown patch in the fall or take all root rot in the spring. But of those two, only take-all patch will actually kill the grass. Damage of white grub worms is most likely to show up after the winter. They feed on any type of grass, and they might come back to the same parts of your lawn. Control for them comes in mid-summer with Merit. However, don’t apply it until you dig a few holes to confirm grubs were actually the problem. If you see more than four or five
grubs per square foot now, you do need to treat for the beetles come May and June. If the dead patches return this spring, send samples of the dying grass to the Texas Plant Disease Clinic at Texas A&M in College Station. They will charge you to culture the leaf, stem and root samples, but then you would know if there might be any disease involved. Sampling instructions and mailing information are available at the clinic’s website.
Q: You are aware that nandinas kill many birds and should not be planted but instead eradicated?
A:
I hope you’ve seen my many cautions about nandina berries and the fact that cedar waxwings and other species may have trouble digesting them. I warn people to enjoy looking at the berries for the first two-thirds of the winter, but then to trim them off as they trim the tallest nandina canes back to the ground to keep the plants compact. And it’s important to note that only three or four of the dozen or so nandina cultivars bear fruit. I love birds and have six feeders up currently, so obviously I am concerned. However, I’ll stop short of asking people to remove an otherwise very good landscaping plant from their gardens. Good maintenance practices can solve this problem.
Q: I have a rural property in East Texas where I’m trying to establish a privacy screen. I want to use Nellie R. Stevens hollies. The fence is 270 feet long. How many plants would I need (how far apart), and how can I find someone to plant them? I’ve recently had surgery. Also, how often will they have to be watered?
A:
I’m assuming you’ll let them grow without pruning to reduce their mature height. They will love East Texas if you can supply water weekly during the warm months. Given those growing conditions, you can expect them to grow to 18- or 20-feet tall in East Texas. I would space them 10 to 12 feet apart. If you plant them any closer together, they will crowd one another. As for who might plant them for you, I’ll have to leave that up to you. I’d suggest you ask the nursery where you buy them or look for a young person trying to earn some dollars this spring. See if he or she could then be hired to do the watering every three days from April through October. Don’t let them dry out!