After Winter Lawn Challenges...
EJ Martinez
National and Strategic Accounts Director, helping to create solutions and build consistency across your portfolio.
After Winter Lawn Challenges, Are You Ready?
Is your current lawncare program ready to address the “after” winter challenges? If not, you may face additional expenses to repair the damage. While your winter wonderland may look stunning on the lawn, beneath the snow, it could be taking on a lot of stress. You need to be aware of what’s going on with your lawn and adjust your plan accordingly.
Salt Spreader Damage
While we can all agree that a safer street is a better street, sometimes these salt sprayers can hit the edges of your lawn, contaminating your soil, and causing salt damage. Salt damage occurs when your grass does not receive enough water to wash the deicing salts from your soil.
Don’t worry too much, though. Fixing minor salt damage is relatively easy: simply water your lawn to dilute the salt concentration and welcome back your healthy turf. That said, in instances where salt damage is severe, it can be detrimental to the health of your soil's ecosystem and may need a more extensive plan. Which might include replacement if excessive amounts of salt have been deposited. (www.trugreen.com/lawn-care-101/blog/lawn-care-tips)
Snow Mold
You may think your lawn has escaped the winter season completely unscathed, but once the snow melts you may be in for a rude awakening. Snow mold is a cold-weather fungus primarily affecting cool-season grasses that can only be found after periods of extended snow cover. This means that you probably won’t know snow mold is present until the beginning of spring/end of winter.
??Come springtime, you’ll know you have snow mold if you notice the following signs:
??Straw-colored circular patches ranging in size from a few inches to several feet across
??Grass patches that are matted down and crusty.
??Gray snow mold will have a grayish white appearance.
??Pink snow mold will have a whitish pink appearance.
That said, if you do find signs of snow mold, the best control is to lightly rake through the affected area when the snow begins to melt. If snow mold damage is severe, feel free to reach out we can discuss the plan to recovery. For next year, to ensure no damage is caused by snow mold, it is recommended that you apply preventative fungicide in the fall, prior to snowfall.
Overwintering Pests
While some insects migrate during the colder months, many build a home right in the lawn or plants, taking cover until temperatures rise.
This hibernation practice for critters is most referred to as overwintering. While activity and development of larvae, nymphs, eggs, and adults nearly ceases, their populations remain at large under the surface of the lawn waiting for temperatures to rise.
Once they’ve slipped into their overwintering state in your lawn, trees or shrubs, there’s little you can do to rid your lawn of pests. That said, tackling them either before the snow sends them deep into your turf or scheduling an early spring pest treatment once they’ve awakened should be part of your plan. If you don’t want to wait until spring to protect your trees and shrubs from pests, a special application of horticultural oil can be applied to help control difficult types of diseases and insects in their overwintering stage before damage occurs.
At TruGreen Commercial Services our team can customize a healthy lawncare plan that is unique to your climate, challenges, soil condition, grass type and lawn usage to keep your lawn green all year long. We can help. Let’s Talk!