Mainscape Blog
Why are My Plants/Trees Dying?
Why are My Plants/Trees Dying?
This time of year I receive a lot of calls and pictures pertaining to dead or dying plant material. The typical response from the sender is, “It was fine a couple of weeks ago.” But was it really? I am confident that there were signs the plant was declining before it died that went unnoticed. As an expert in the horticultural field, I am always looking for plants showing signs of stress and what is causing the problem. I then look for options for reversal if it is possible.
Biotic (living) organism injury is more easily recognizable by chewing or sucking insects and disease. Abiotic (non-living) injury, is typically much more cryptic to diagnose and sometimes much harder to understand whether you are the diagnostician or the recipient of the “bad news.”
Mainscape services many communities that were recently developed. These communities are built on compacted soils and have very little to offer new plantings that have been cultivated in a pot of rich soil. Most all of the soils in South Florida are excavated soils, consisting of varying degrees of silt, shell-rock sand and some clay, long ago deposited and lacking in anything good for shrubs, trees and sod. These dredge soils are removed to create neighborhood lakes and deposited on building sites to elevate the lot for drainage purposes. Shrubs, sod and trees are then installed. Do you see where I am heading with this? Can you see where problems could arise? Let’s count the ways:
- Was the plant installed too deep? Plants that are installed below the root flare will starve for oxygen and may end up in a pool of water.
- Do you have girdling and circling roots? These happen when a plant has grown in a pot too long. When planted in the ground, they will continue to grow in a circle and eventual choke a plant to death.
- What are the surrounding soils like? As mentioned, the soil can be dense, compact and void of nutritional value. They may hold water and not allow drainage necessary for many plants. Wet feet can lead to a dead plant.
- Were the plants selected for the site or vise-versa? Plants that will thrive is one area, may not in others. The wrong plant may not die overnight, but gradually decline to the point of failure. This is not a cause of sudden death syndrome, by the way.
- Prior to installation, how were the plants handled, dug, or conditioned before installation? I have seen a lot rootballs exposed to the sun drying out precious root hairs. In a very short time the plant can become compromised, resulting in plants unable to overcome the stress of installation. Sometimes this stress takes time to manifest itself as death. Typically they struggle for awhile, even years before finally succumbing. Usually it is result of an intense environmental swing in water availability or extreme heat, much like what we experience in April and May in FL.
I could go on, but I think you get my point. Look at the tree below…do you think the decline is biotic or abiotic? What process of deduction would you use? How would you explain the decline? Can we fix the problem? What is your prognosis?
Gary Hill
Technical Director
E-Verify, What Is It and Why Use It?
E-Verify, What is it and why use it?
E-Verify is a free, easy to use web-based service that assists employers with verifying that an individual is legally permitted to work in the United States. The E-Verify system is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration. The program is mandatory for some employers, such as those employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause and employers in certain states.
Though there is not yet a federal law requiring all employers to participate, Mainscape is one of those employers who have voluntarily elected to participate in the program. We have been participating in the E-Verify program for four years and find it to be easy to use while providing an additional step in ensuring our employees are eligible to work in the United States. Many of our customers require this of their contractors and I feel this gives Mainscape a true advantage over many of our competitors.
Although there have been challenges related to hiring in some markets, Mainscape is committed to ensuring the employment eligibility of our newly hired employees. Not only is E-Verify the best means available to determine the employment eligibility of new hires, it also improves the accuracy of wage and tax reporting, protects jobs for authorized U.S. workers, and helps U.S employers maintain a legal workforce.
There is a momentum building in the Unites States to ensure that employers are only hiring individuals legally permitted to work. Being ahead of the game and participating in the E-Verify program to verify the legal employment status of our employees is additional insurance of a stable, legal workforce.
Tina Miller
Director of Human Resources
Mainscape’s Culture- Enthusiasm Driven
Mainscape’s Culture - Enthusiasm Driven
I was reading an interesting piece from Ralph Waldo Emerson and it sparked an interesting dilemma in me. I wonder if I’m alone or if this is a common experience.
Regardless, I’ll be brief and to the point.
The quote was this, “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Well, I was doubtful even before I finished the third sentence and had to belabor to finish the section. I began to question its veracity. A flood of memories cascaded my mind that were wrapped in enthusiasm and ended in failure. Had I become vulnerable to the negativity of pessimism?
I contemplated my doubt and attempted to figure it out. Quickly I had the answers. Certainly, the abundance of catch phrases has diminished the potency of quotes such as this; Twitter tweets, Facebook posts, or email signatures abound and saturate our virtual unreality.
I pondered some more.
Drought Systems Start Up
Southern United States Faces Severe Drought with West to Follow
If you have tuned into the evening news over the past several weeks you have probably heard about the severe drought in Texas. In reality much of the southern United States is facing severe drought. As these maps indicate drought conditions throughout the United States are clearly on the rise. From January of 2010 to February of this year 27% of the contiguous United States now faces severe to extreme drought.
Crab Grass Options
Maintaining quality turf in Florida can be extremely challenging. We typically have year round growing conditions, extremes in heat and cold, lots of lawn damaging insects, limited chemical resources, and extreme variables in water management in the absence of rainfall. All this places stress on a turfgrass community and where there is stress you have the possibility for annual weedy grass contamination to get started. This time of year weedy grasses are evident by their lower tolerance to cold and the resulting differing brownish shades within the turf community. The following program is now offered to minimize future annual weedy grass encroachment.
Fungicide and Disease Management
Fungicide and Disease Management
As the Technical Director at Mainscape, I receive a lot of questions this time of year about ornamental plants not looking good and it appears they have active fungus on the leaf material. Some of the damage is active fungus and some of the damage is caused from cold temperatures and/or fungus can be secondary to the cold temperatures on some ornamentals.
All too often the quick fix is a fungicide. A fungicide application should be viewed as a “band-aid” and not a curative procedure. Fungicide will protect the plant’s unaffected leaves until the environmental circumstances that predicated the disease change or are altered by Mainscape employees. Leaves that are already damaged will not be returned to health those cells are already beyond repair typically and will eventually fall from the plant.
At Mainscape, we use a systemic fungicide in our program. It is the most expensive option for us and it can act as a protectant for new leaf emergence as well as some curative properties to stop any new lesions on already affected leaves. It also provides us the longest residual and is generally recognized as the broadest spectrum fungicide controlling many different diseases.
How to Prepare for Snow Removal
How to Prepare for Snow Removal
As snow and landscape professionals, we are often times asked what we can do to prepare for snow removal. This is a great question and it boils down to just a few easy ideas.
- Protect the Turf
- Make sure that you get out in front of the snow and stake the area that is to be plowed with reflective markers. This is done to help the plow trucks understand the proper areas to plow. It also is a nice barrier so that the trucks do not accidentally plow the turf instead of the drive.
Irrigation Team Members gain accreditation from Florida Water Star
Florida Water StarSM is a water conservation certification program for new and existing homes and commercial developments. Program standards and guidelines for water efficiency are included for household appliances, plumbing fixtures, irrigation systems and landscapes. New homes and commercial sites can achieve gold or silver status while the bronze status is designed for retrofit of existing homes. The program is sponsored by several of the water management districts throughout Florida.
My Thankful Time of the Year
Fall in Indiana is not just the sign that winter is around the corner. It is the time of year to remember what we are thankful for. It is also the beginning of leaves falling on the ground and over the years I have learned to be thankful for them.
I live in a heavily wooded area that bursts into color at the start of fall. Being thankful for the trees’ beauty is easy but at the end of their splendor, I have a mess. About 40 bags worth of leaves! Here is why my family and I are thankful for the mess.
Mainscape launches new irrigation service
With Fall in the air, Mainscape added central control monitoring to it’s water management offerings. Some of the larger more sophisticated irrigation systems are run by one single computer. This type of system can control several hundred if not thousands of zones. The advantage to a centrally controlled system is that the computer can manage all the zones to work in harmony. Without this synchronization, irrigation technicians must be responsible for making dozens of field controllers work together. This can be a tedious task with the slightest mistake causing the program to fail.
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