July Gardening Tips for the Southwest
July Gardening Tips for the Southwest
July gardening tips. This month in the Southwest is consistently dry and hot. Please keep an eye on your watering systems. Make sure drippers, emitters, and sprinkler heads are all working properly before you go on vacation. Try not to rely on neighbors or relatives to water for you!
The most common problem is usually the lawn. How much water does one need for their lawn? This is the most challenging question to answer. For cool-season grasses such as fescue, rye, and bluegrass it’s about 3″ of water evenly distributed per week.
Warm Season Grasses
For warm-season, grasses such as Bermuda or hybrid Bermuda is about 2″ to 2 1/2″ per week. This is during the hottest time of the year, usually June, July, and August. Your lawn will typically need less during the cooler months of the year, so please water responsibly. Just remember it is not how long you leave you watering system on but how much water you actually apply to your lawn.
If you begin to notice “spots” on your lawn chances are it is suffering from dehydration. The easiest way to detect this is if you walk through your lawn and look back and notice exactly where you were walking, then that is your sign that your lawn needs a drink of water. A blue haze is also an indication that your grass needs water.
If you begin to notice brown patches in your lawn and have ruled out a watering deficiency, you may want to examine the soil that is just under and check for grub worms. If you have grubs, you will NOT mistake them for anything else!
These guys are as big as your thumb and feed vigorously on grassroots. We have several products to help eliminate these “critter” such as BENEFICIAL NEMATODES, 24-hour grub killer, and season-long grub killer from Bayer.
If you have ruled out grubs and water as culprits for your brown patches, the next thing to look out for is a fungus. Sometimes the easiest way is to examine the individual blades of grass right next to the brown patch.
The grass stems may have unusual markings on them which may be compared to the “wrinkles or folds” on your finger. Your local nursery will carry both liquid and granular fungicides to help combat this disease.
The July heat can really take a toll on just about all non-native plants. Make sure you fertilize regularly. The majority of plants are not picky about what you feed them just as long as you feed them something.
Plants are like people that cannot just live on water alone, especially in our nutrient-lacking soil.
HOT JULY GARDEN INFORMATION
If you find that even after using fertilizer regularly still does not “green-up” your plants, they may be lacking a secondary nutrient such as iron, sulfur, zinc or other micro-nutrient. Products such as Ironite, Grow More’s Chelated Iron, or Ferti-Lome Liquid Iron can help return plants to their green lush look again.
July Gardening Tips for the Southwest.
Keep in mind that these products are to be used in conjunction with a regular fertilizing program and should not be substituted for fertilizer.
MEDICAP IRON IMPLANTS have proven to help severely chlorotic plants/trees where soil applications are not practical. Other issues to watch for are insects.
Spider mites thrive in the dry summer heat and can breed at phenomenal rates. Spider mites often attack Junipers, Pine, Cypress, and Roses among a list of other plants. Sometimes an occasional “hosing off” with a strong stream of plain water can keep mites at bay without killing any beneficial insects in the process.
Sometimes an occasional “hosing off” with a strong stream of plain water can keep mites at bay without killing any beneficial insects in the process.
These insects are very small (about the size of a speck of dust) and usually, spin small brown colored webbing. More information on spider mites here. Wikipedia Spider Mites.
If you find that water is not working for you there are a number of insecticides available to rid your plants of these pests. Products such as ORHTO BUG-B-GON, GREENLIGHT NEEM OIL, SCHULTZ INSECT SPRAY, HIGH YIELD KELTHANE among other products will eradicate these mites.
July gardening tips article by Gary Guzman: All Rights Reserved.
If you have any question regarding this or any other tips please feel free to contact us at 575-521-0496 (Telshor Location) In Las Cruces, NM. Or just contact us here: CONTACT US
