![]() In place of any nursery stake, use two wooden poles measuring 6-to 8-feet long and 2- to 3-inches in diameter. A tree should never been constricted around its trunk. When you plant the nursery tree in the ground, change the staking method to the one we describe here, which will be loosely looped around the trunk to allow the tree to sway in any direction. Even if the tree came this way from a nursery, remove the stake. Stake with the Right MaterialsĬommercially grown trees often come with a stake tied tightly to the trunk. After no more than a year, remove the stakes entirely and backfill their holes with soil. Most any type or size of tree, however, is only going to need support stakes through the monsoon season plus one or two growing seasons (spring or autumn) before or after. We therefore stake them to protect them not only from wind, but also from people, traffic, equipment, animals and other hazards. Young trees have often not developed trunk strength or a root system extensive enough to withstand the winds. The heavy winds characteristic of summer monsoon storms in Arizona threaten to damage young trees. ![]() It’s the combination of cutting, watering, fertilizing, aerating, dethatching and weeding that keeps grass looking great and growing well. Overall, no single action you take is enough to keep your grass healthy. There are online tools that can help you with both, like AMWUA’s Landscape Watering by the Numbers. Recalculate the correct rates of water and fertilizer you should be applying. Then apply the appropriate rate of fertilizer (see our blog post) to help the grass fill in the newly exposed bare spots.Įven if you dethatch your lawn, take steps to prevent it from happening too quickly again. Either way, be sure to clean up all of the debris that gets raked up so it doesn’t settle back in between the grass blades when you next water. Or, you can rent a verticutter/power rake machine. To dethatch your lawn, you can always do it the old-fashioned way, using a sturdy steel rake. This can be as soon as March or April in Arizona. ![]() You can dethatch your lawn any time of year that the average nighttime temperature is above 60 degrees. Just an inch or so of thatch is going to have a damaging effect on your grass. To be sure that thinness is due to thatch, use your fingers or a screwdriver to dig down between the grass blades until you touch the hard soil surface to roughly measure the depth of the thatch layer. Thatch buildup causes thin, patchy grass with areas of brown in between. Thatch can accumulate quickly if you overwater, overfertilize or have heavy clay soil. A thatch layer that is too thick can also harbor pests and detrimental fungi. More than that, and the thatch becomes an impermeable barrier to delivering air, water and nutrients to the soil layer and then down to the grass roots beneath. So why would we need to remove the thatch?Ī layer of thatch is beneficial to a penetrable thickness of about one-half inch. Organic matter at the soil surface also forms a barrier against weed germination and serves to minimize water evaporation and protect grass against frost damage. As organic matter decomposes, carbon, nitrogen and other important elements are released that are necessary for plant growth. Shouldn’t organic matter be beneficial to the soil and turfgrass plants? Yes, indeed. The organic matter can consist of decomposing grass plants, tree droppings and insects or animal waste, but mostly uncollected grass clippings and living and dead Bermudagrass stolons and rhizomes.īut, wait a minute. The purpose of dethatching is to remove that layer of built-up organic matter to restore some breathing room to the soil surface. Add dethatching to your summer turf care routine. ![]() In Arizona, overseeded turf is prone to thatch because the grass plants die back twice a year, and that dead material accumulates as thatch. Another good indication of thatch buildup is that the grass has a bouncy feel when you walk on it. If it is still looking thin and patchy with areas of brown in between, your turf may be suffering the effects of too much thatch accumulation. It’s August, and your summer Bermudagrass should have grown in nicely by now.
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