tigermaniac

LINK

I suck at posting photos and/or embedding YouTube videos, but that’s a link to Shovels & Rope’s song “Love Song From a Dog”.

I promise you, your sweet Layla loved you as much as you loved her.

Not entirely sure how to post YouTube links, but the whole album by Silicone Boone titled, “The Reaches”, is about space. It’s pretty intriguing and worth a listen.

bayoubengals….

Taking a Quick Look at that link, that appears to be a lot of the info in the general standards part of the test. I can’t recall if the study guide that the LSU Ag Center has is more specific to LA or if it’s pretty much that guide…but regardless, the principles are the same. And the Ag Center would also have the supplemental study guide for whatever classification you’re attempting to obtain (in your case, more than likely, a Category 3-Turf and Ornamental).

All of the other items you listed would be necessary too…but don’t let that keep you from moving forward. You never know what kind of possibilities that could be opened up for you in the future.

I promise you this isn’t meant to be sarcastic, and if comes across that way, I apologize….but there is a “general standards” section of the test and then a second part of the test in which you pick the “category” (Ag Pest Control, Forest Pest Control, Turf and Ornamental, Right-of-Way, etc) in order to get a Commercial Pesticide Applicators license. You would need this is if you planned to charge somebody a fee for applying pesticides (which by the way is a broad term that includes insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, miticides, nematicides, defoliants, disinfectants, etc). If you were to charge a fee, then there are other business licensing issues that you would have to address.

If you’re looking to be able to buy Restricted Use Pesticides, then a Commercial Pesticide Applicators license would allow you to do so. But then again, you would have to make sure of the legal ramifications of spraying someone else’s property other than your own, even without charging a fee.

If you’re planning on simply spraying ready-to-use products off the shelf(everyday herbicides) from a big box store that are not RUP, then a license wouldn’t be necessary.

Louisiana does have a private applicators license which would allow you to purchase RUP products and apply them to your property. However, there is still a lot of responsibility when it comes to applying pesticides and understanding what it is you’re applying them for.

Don’t gloss over the materials that are supplied by the LSU Ag Center. They do ask some pretty pointed questions on the test and you might find yourself re-taking it multiple times if you’re not careful. Above all else, whatever the label says on the package is the LAW. An inappropriate application or applying in a manner that is inconsistent with the labeling could land you a fine or worse.

Wish you much luck in your endeavor. As boring as the study materials may seem, you would do yourself a favor to be as well versed as you possibly can.

Just curious…why are you going to spray it? It’s soluble enough that it can be spread and then watered in. Would pretty much do the same thing and would be a lot less work. Either way, you’re going to get a quick green up/growth response, have to mow a bunch, and then do it again in a few weeks.

Are you trying to grow some areas in or just putting something out to help with general turf growth? Why not just get a good 50+% slow release fertilizer and plan that out over the next few months to give a consistent sustained feeding release over a longer period of time?

My in-laws live just south of Starkville. Just about every time we go visit, we make our plans around when Sonny’s Smokehouse in Ackerman is open. They’re only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but I would suggest going there for dinner if you have a chance.

It’s cash only (well, they take checks, but who writes checks anymore?).

It might just be, in our opinion, the best steak in Mississippi. The Barbecue Potato is, hands down, the best you’ll find anywhere. It’s not much of a looker as far as restaurants go, but who goes to a barbecue joint for ambiance? It’s all about the food.

Over the years, we’ve probably spent more money at that restaurant than any other in the Starkville area.

Went with the fam the second week of October. Had a fantastic road trip from Northwest LA. Having been to Death Valley a couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure how it would measure up…however…as a National Park, I found it fascinating. It really is quite diverse in its landscapes and ecology and the fact that you can run across a black bear (which we did on the way back on the Window View Trail) or a mountain lion (“Is that a cougar in the car?”) in the same area is pretty cool.

You can easily make it a couple of days to explore the different areas of the park. The Chisos Mountain area looks like a forest in the middle of the desert. We spent time hiking on several trails over the few days we were there. Santa Elena Canyon trail and the Boquillas Canyon trails were beautiful by the water. The Window View Trail is worth the effort for the view at the end. Some of my favorite pictures are from there.

We ventured into Mexico (with passports) across the Rio Grande via the Boquillas International Ferry and had lunch at Jose Falcon’s Restaurant.

It is a dark sky area and sitting out under the stars and seeing the Milky Way was pretty amazing. We stayed at The Summit at Big Bend in Terlingua. Was a pretty cool experience. Terlingua Ghost Town is not that far away and the Starlight Theatre was an incredibly interesting place to eat, listen to music and do some people watching.

I would definitely go back to explore more in the park and surrounding area. The area is a geological goldmine. There was a group of Geology students from a&m that pulled in behind us at one of the shorter trails (Lower Burro Runoff). If your fascinated at all by how our world was shaped over time and the geologic formations created by that, then this is definitely a place worth visiting.

As with anything, you make out of it what you want. Me and my family found it to be a beautiful park. I would, without hesitation, recommend it to anyone.

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but when you said it was zoysia that was ok?

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I didn’t say it was…I said “you MAY have a patch of zoysia.”

As a turf manager, when somebody shows me a picture of a weed or pest problem, I will suggest that it “may” be one thing or another, with the caveat that, until I actually visit the site or have an actual sample in hand, I don’t make any kind of positive ID or any further recommendations, regardless of what another picture/poster/person has stated. And if I can’t visit the site or have a sample in hand, then I suggest exactly what I stated in my previous post, take an actual sample to an agent so they can look at the plant’s physiology to correctly identify it. Pictures don’t always show the truth.

That’s the responsibility I speak of. That’s how I choose to operate. But you do you.

Best of luck in controlling your aquatic southern watergrass

Well, it’s not southern water grass either.

I hate to hear about your situation. As a turf manager, nothing irks me more than paying good money for sod and it not live.

Some questions for you:

A) location?

B) did you have any soil tests done prior to laying the sod? Centipede tends to prefer a slightly more acidic soil than most other types of grasses (pH of 5.0-6.0) whereas Bermuda, St. Augustine and zoysia generally prefer a pH over 6.0. A high pH will also cause the iron in the soil to become less available and lead to “yellowing” or chlorosis. High phosphorous can do the same.

C) how much fertilizing have you done? Centipede really only requires about 1 lb of nitrogen per growing season. More than that can lead to excessive thatch which can harbor disease and insects which could ultimately cause the turf to fail. A thatchy turf also leads to diminished root growth which causes overwatering which causes disease and so on and so on. Nematodes can also wreak havoc on a root system as well. Certainly a possibility there.

Never been a really big fan of centipede, although I understand, completely, budgetary restraints. I suppose if you were to check your soil pH and have a nutrient availability soil test done, that would be a huge first step in addressing the problem.

I do agree that if there is some green there and some of the stolons are still viable, then there could be hope for resurrecting your centipede grass. Since you already have a base there, depending on location, you could dethatch what’s there, remove that material and then interseed centipede seed and start growing it in from there. It may take 3-4 weeks before the seed starts to germinate, so depending on location, that may be best done next spring into summer. Or if you feel like there’s enough growing time left in the season, then do that asap. There are improved varieties of common Bermuda seed that can do well. It would take over the centipede and you would have a Bermuda lawn instead of centipede. (Some of those decisions, however, may be predicated by soil testing.)

I suppose a centipede lawn could be nice if all the conditions are right. It’s one of those grasses that doesn’t actually require a lot of maintenance. In fact, overdoing the maintenance on it can be worse for it than not doing enough.

I hope that helps a little.