With the cooler weather, gardening tasks may be slowing down some, but there are still plenty of things to do in the garden and landscape in the fall and winter months. Here are a few things to think about as you head into the next planting season. Follow the list to reduce future pest problems and have healthier plants.
Cleaning up
- Pull out annual plants that have reached the end of their growing season, such as tomatoes, squashes, and peppers.
- Remove and clean up old fruit and nuts in and under trees to avoid harboring pests and diseases.
- Remove fallen leaves from beneath deciduous fruit trees and roses.
- After cleaning up, add leaves dropped during fall to a compost pile. Turn and keep the compost pile moist.
- Apply organic mulch where thin or soil is bare beneath trees and shrubs. See our website for more information about mulching.
Pruning
- Prune deciduous trees and shrubs such as apple, crape myrtle, pear, rose, spirea, and stone fruits.
- Make cuts properly to encourage good form and structure.
- Remove dead, diseased, and borer-infested wood.
- Not all pests and host plants should be pruned in the fall. Certain pest-infested wood, such as damage from shothole borers, and plants such as apricot and cherry should be pruned during the summer.
Planting
- Fall is a good time to plant bare root deciduous trees, shrubs, and vines, such as caneberries, fruit and nut trees, grapes, and roses.
- Plant California natives now so they can establish before the summer.
- When you add new plants to your garden, select species and cultivars that are well-adapted to the local site.
Adjusting irrigation
- The weather has turned wetter and cooler, so adjust watering schedules since plants won't need as much water.
- Check your irrigation systems for leaks and broken emitters and do any maintenance.
- You might want to upgrade the irrigation system to improve its water efficiency.
- If it's not raining, water plants as needed to keep root zones moist, but not soggy.
- Prepare for rainfall by improving drainage. The goal is to prevent water ponding around trunks and foundations.
- Install downspout diverters to direct runoff into landscape soils, but avoid waterlogging of soil.
Monitoring for pests
- Look for Asian citrus psyllid on your citrus trees and if you find it in a new location, report it to your local county agricultural commissioner.
- Also monitor for damage and pests such as brown rot, leafminer, root rots, and snails on citrus trees.
- Check for leaf curl or shot hole on apricot, nectarine, peach, and plum trees.
Lawn care
- All types of lawns are actively growing during the fall months. Fertilizer applied at this time will help ensure that turfgrass is vigorous enough to outcompete weeds and resist other potential pest problems. Visit our website for more information about correct fertilization of established lawns, including when to fertilize in your region.
- Practice weed management for annual cool-season weeds. It's also not too early to consider management for weeds that emerge in springtime.
For more information, see the Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklist.
[Original article published in the Fall 2021 issue of the Home & Garden Pest Newsletter]
/h2>/h2>/h2>/h2>/h2>/h2>Weeds in the landscape can be tough to manage. But there are many options for weed management using an integrated approach that combines nonchemical and chemical methods.
Identification:
- Start by identifying the weeds you want to manage. UC IPM has a weed photo gallery that includes most weeds found in California landscapes. Knowing how a weed grows and spreads is an important step in successful control.
- Once you know what weed or weeds you're dealing with, consult the Pest Notes series on weeds to find specific management options.
- Management options depend on whether the site is already planted or if you're installing a new landscaping. Develop a weed management plan before planting.
Cultural Controls:
- When you're installing new lawns or plantings, you can use soil solarization to control weeds prior to planting. Instructions on how to solarize soil can be found in the Soil Solarization Pest Notes.
- Selecting the right plants for your site and planting them at the right time will enable the plants to establish quickly, eliminating the need for additional herbicides.
- Choosing drip or subsurface irrigation or microsprinklers instead of rotor and turf-type sprinkler heads will also help in reducing weeds, since the water is placed at or near desirable plants.
Mechanical and physical controls:
- Use mulch and geotextiles (landscape fabrics) in landscape plantings to reduce the growth of weeds.
- Mow and trim as needed to prevent weeds from forming flowers or seeds.
- Cultivation, such as hand-weeding, can be useful to remove small weeds before they set seed.
- Young weeds in open areas can be controlled with small flaming or infrared units.
- Steam weeder machines are available that use superheated hot water or steam to kill weeds.
Chemical controls:
- A variety of other herbicides, both preemergence and postemergence, are registered for use in residential and urban landscapes. No single herbicide will control all weeds. Always read the label before use. Be sure to use the correct personal protective equipment to reduce your exposure to the pesticide.
For more general information, see the Pest Notes on Weed Management in the Landscape or Weed Management in Lawns.
[Article originally published as “Ask the Expert!” in the Fall 2019 issue of the Green Bulletin.]
/h2>/h2>/h2>/h2>/div>- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
[From the UC Weed Science blog]
More and more, cities and public agencies are being asked to review and revise (and in some cases develop) their pesticide use policies. Often this change is requested by well-meaning members of the community after reading news articles and then becoming concerned about potential toxic effects of pesticides on children or the environment. In the case above, the grounds crew was also responding to requests from a public interest group that wanted them to reduce synthetic herbicide use and they were experimenting with natural and sustainable landscaping and organic weed control.
Integrated pest management (IPM) programs are just that – INTEGRATED. IPM programs combine or stack management approaches to balance the desired effect (e.g. higher crop yield, decreased plant damage, etc.) with cost of the desired goal and environmental impacts.
From What is IPM?:
The most effective, long-term way to manage pests is by using a combination of methods that work better together than separately. Approaches for managing pests are often grouped in the following categories.
Biological control
Biological control is the use of natural enemies—predators, parasites, pathogens, and competitors—to control pests and their damage. Invertebrates, plant pathogens, nematodes, weeds, and vertebrates have many natural enemies.
Cultural controls
Cultural controls are practices that reduce pest establishment, reproduction, dispersal, and survival. For example, changing irrigation practices can reduce pest problems, since too much water can increase root disease and weeds.
Mechanical and physical controls
Mechanical and physical controls kill a pest directly, block pests out, or make the environment unsuitable for it. Traps for rodents are examples of mechanical control. Physical controls include mulches for weed management, steam sterilization of the soil for disease management, or barriers such as screens to keep birds or insects out.
Chemical control
Chemical control is the use of pesticides. In IPM, pesticides are used only when needed and in combination with other approaches for more effective, long-term control. Pesticides are selected and applied in a way that minimizes their possible harm to people, nontarget organisms, and the environment. With IPM you'll use the most selective pesticide that will do the job and be the safest for other organisms and for air, soil, and water quality; use pesticides in bait stations rather than sprays; or spot-spray a few weeds instead of an entire area.
Another component to an IPM Program is the use of guidelines or thresholds to make a decision about when a management action is needed. This threshold must be realistic and in landscape and turf management is often set by the budget. So while a parent may want to see a beautiful weed-free lawn as they enter a school, a local decision about not using an herbicide would make it infeasible because the alternatives would require additional mowing, trimming, and hand weeding. This in turn, would require much more grounds staff time than what the budget would allow. Increasing the grounds budget is not helpful because that would take away funds from the core mission of the school.
So what to do? When the chemical component of an IPM program is no longer an option and weed management must rely on physical and mechanical methods something's got to give. And that thing is a change is attitude or expectations of what the site should look like. In the long run, that will become the new normal.
For information about managing weeds in lawns, consult the UC Guide to Healthy Lawns.