Now is the time to apply pre-emergent herbicides if you want to control winter annual weeds in your warm season grasses. Pre-emergents can be sprayed or spread as granules. Most are applied as weed and feed granular products where you feed your lawn at the same time you are applying the weed killer. There are many good pre-emergent herbicides. Some of the most popular and broad-spectrum contain Barricade or Prodiamine, Dimension, Trimec or Simizine and they act like birth control to kill the winter weed seeds before they germinate.
The researchers at OSU recommend application by mid September so you are not feeding your lawn and stimulating too much soft new growth as we approach freezing temperatures. Many folks still apply fall weed and feed products through October, just remember the pre-emergent weed killers are generally not effective once the weeds have germinated.
Many folks are experiencing a lot of mole and gopher problems this year. This often means you have a lot of white grubs that they are feeding on. Apply a product with Imidacloprid or Mach 2 to your lawn areas and water thoroughly to help reduce your grub population.
This is a good time to apply fertilizer to your trees and shrubs, particularly young trees and shrubs to help them prepare for winter. If you plan to convert any lawn area to tall fescue this fall – usually in late September through October – now is the time to apply glyphosate (Round-up) type post-emergents to kill competing grasses and weeds in the areas to be converted.
My tomato plants don’t have many red fruit but they are absolutely loaded with green fruit after our cooler temperatures and refreshing August rains. It is too late to plant more tomatoes for this season, but you can still add to your fall vegetable garden. You can plant collards, lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard for greens. Consider planting leeks, onions, radish, rutabaga or turnips to produce root crops to use fresh in your kitchen. You can also plant green peas, kale and kohlrabi to enjoy this fall or plant garlic cloves now to produce next summer. You may want to find some row cover to have on hand in late October so you can cover and protect your good producing vegetables from any early frosts to stretch out your season. We often will have 3 to 6 weeks of Indian Summer after the first frost or two and a little protection can give you a lot longer harvest season.
Rodd's Seeds of Wisdom 