This article was written for our industry association, the National Association of Landscape Professionals

When you take on a new lawn care client, you may think you know what products should be applied based on what you’re seeing in the turf. However, there is a lot more going on than meets the eye and this is where the importance of soil tests come in.

“It’s like going to the doctor,” says Mike Hall, COO of Spectrum Analytic, Inc. based in Washington Court House, Ohio. “They’re going order a battery of tests if you’ve never been to that doctor before to find out what’s going on inside your body. A soil test does the same thing. It finds out what’s going on in the soil so you can amend it properly and not just guess.”

Hall guarantees that if you pulled a soil sample from each house in a cul-de-sac the results would be different for each lawn, so it’s important not to assume the soil is the same as the other properties you care for in the area.

Soil tests can tell you what is deficient and what may be in excess in a lawn.

“That’s an enormously important thing to know because we live in a world where all the inputs that people are using are becoming ever more expensive,” says Bob Mann, director of state and local government relations for NALP and agronomist. “So, if you’re using them improperly to excess or not enough or not charging what you should be charging that comes right off your bottom line. It’s good business sense to know exactly what you’re dealing with on a per lawn basis.” 

When it comes to conducting soil tests it’s critical you gather enough cores. You can’t just pull one sample from a corner of a yard and expect it to tell you anything. Also, be mindful of what you’re sending to the lab.

“You want to get rid of the verdure, the growing portion of what you pull up, get rid of the thatch layer, that intermingled layer of living and dead tissue, and then the first couple of three inches of soil put in the bag,” Mann says. “You want to be specific to where the roots are going to be growing to the exclusion of all that organic matter.”

Majority of the time the sample bag from the laboratory will indicate where to fill it so you know the amount of soil to provide. Hall says if you are planning to treat the front and backyard the same, pull 10 to 12 cores and mix the soil well so you can treat the property based on that one sample. However, if there is a problem area in a yard, it’s best to do a separate soil test for that spot so you can properly diagnose the issue.

“Your results are as only good as the person that takes that sample,” Hall says.

As for when you should conduct soil testing, Mann and Hall agree that after taking an initial soil test for a new client, they should be placed on a three-year rotation. Mann says the best time to conduct soil testing is in the spring before anything has been treated so the soil test does not reflect any recent applications.

When selecting who to send your soil tests off to, Hall advises looking for a soil lab that has quality control methods, competitive prices and agronomists on staff who will help you understand the results. Mann says whether you choose to work with a cooperative extension or a private company’s soil lab, you need to establish a relationship with them first before sending them hundreds of soil tests.

“You want to set up an account first off, so they know who you are,” Mann says. “You want to tell them ahead of time ‘Hey, I’ve got 1,000 customers, and I want to do 333 soil tests every year. Put everybody on a cycle, plus I budget 500 new sales a year.’”

Once you’ve established a relationship with the soil lab of your choice, then comes the matter of deciding what tier of testing you want to go with. Mann says this depends on how detailed you want to get and how much you want to pay.

The most basic level of soil testing looks at the soil pH, which affects how other elements are taken up by the grass. For those who are applying lime no matter what, they can be compounding the problem if the soil pH is already over 7.

“Grasses grow in a wide range of pHs but you want to be in that proper range so the other elements in the soil, the micros and macros, are taken up by the turf,” Hall says.

Another soil test level is looking at the nutrient levels in the soil – both the macro and the micronutrients. The third type of testing level looks at the physical aspect of the soil including the level of organic matter, the texture and the cation exchange capacity.

Mann says it’s important to work with a soil lab so you are not overwhelmed by the results. They are a resource for your company.

Both Mann and Hall advise not absorbing the cost of soil testing. Instead, communicate to the customer why soil testing matters, and provide them a PDF of the soil test results so you can back up why you advise making certain applications.

“I think it’s like anything else, I’ve never found a hospital where they did free blood testing,” Hall says.

Depending on what lab you’re using, you’ll get some basic recommendations back from them, but how you interpret those recommendations is what really matters. Dr. Frank Rossi from Cornell University says don’t let the data lead you astray.

“What he meant by that is don’t just look at the soil test numbers in a vacuum,” Mann says. “You have to be engaged in a constant effort to educate yourself as to what’s going on.”

While soil testing can ensure you have better success with your lawn care practices, it also helps with significant savings, so your company isn’t applying expensive products that are unnecessary for certain properties.

“We want you to be successful,” Mann says. “We want you to be professional. We want you to be a trusted resource when it comes to this and part of that is getting engaged with soil testing.”

The Master's Lawn Care conducts a soil test in partnership with UF-IFAS and their turfgrass department on Hull Road to ensure our programs for lawn health clients are tailored for each lawn's specific needs, related to soil, grass type, cultivar, amount of sun, and other property dynamics. 

The fungal disease known as melting out is seen most commonly in cool-season Zoysia grass, but it can also be a killer in warm-seasons as well.
Symptoms of melting-out resemble leaf spot symptoms and these two diseases are often grouped together. Melting out however is a cool-weather disease where leaf spot is a warm-weather disease. Symptoms first appear as black to purple spots on the leaf blades. Spots eventually move to the leaf sheaths, and the fungus invades the crowns and roots of the grass. The grass will appear yellow or blackish brown from a distance depending on the nitrogen level of the turf during infection.
Melting-out has two stages of disease development; one being in the early spring in cool, wet weather, which brings about spotting on the leaves of the turf. As cool, wet conditions persist, the crown and root rot stage of the disease follows, and infected turfgrass begins to thin and die.

How to manage Melting Out:

• Raising the height of your lawn mower during the cool, wet weather of early spring and fall will help turf to survive an attack of melting-out.
• Proper fertilization during the cool weather of the spring and fall will help to reduce disease severity.
• Managing the irrigation settings to reduce watering should reduce the severity of melting out.
• Finally, systemic and contact fungicides can be used after all of the above measures are taken into account.

If you need help with Gainesville lawn weed treatments and fertilizer programs, give our team a call or text at (352) 378-5296. We're local and have been serving Gainesville for over 15 years. We look forward to working with you!

Chickweeds form low, spreading mats that can take over vast swaths of land in no time at all. Though they thrive in cool, moist areas with shade, they have the capability to spread despite sun exposure. This annual weed creates small, star-like flowers that look pretty but can cover your lawn in no time—so don’t let these beauties fool you!

These and other winter annual weeds germinate from seeds during fall as the soil temperature cools and the day length shortens. The seedlings usually go unnoticed but continue to slowly grow through the colder winter months. 

Timing is critical when it comes to Gainesville lawn weed control. The mistake most homeowners make is to wait too late to treat winter weeds.

There are  two ways to get rid of chickweed:

1. A good ole fashion pulling session. These have pretty shallow roots, so hoeing the ground and pulling up the weeds are fine strategies for this type of nuisance.

2. Treating them with a combination of pre and post emergent lawn weed controls at the right time is the key to your success.

If you have a history of problems with winter weeds in your lawn, attempt control measures before the weeds go to seed. If you intend to use a preemergence herbicide, apply it during October, just before the winter weeds germinate. Then you'll only have to do clean up on a lot less tubular weeds that come back up.

If you need help with Gainesville lawn weed treatments and fertilizer programs, give our team a call or text at (352) 378-5296. We're local and have been serving Gainesville for over 15 years. We look forward to working with you!

For the most part, hollies are extremely hardy, suffering from few pests or diseases. In fact, most problems that do occur are usually associated with other factors, such as environmental conditions. However, pests damaging holly bushes can happen so it’s important to become familiar with this common one for help in prevention as well as treatment.

Holly Scale insects can be found feeding on the back sides of the leaves of hollies. These sucking insects use a needle-like mouth-part to pierce leaves and drink the sugary sap inside. Scale insect droppings are sugary and drip onto the upper surfaces of leaves below. A black fungus called sooty mold grows on the droppings. It is the secretion from a pest known as scale that releases a sticky substance that dirt sticks to, causing the black fungus-like appearance. The scale pest can be treated with a contact or systemic insecticide as well as organic treatments.

To reduce insecticide use, our lawn pest team at The Master’s Lawn Care will use horticultural oils in the cooler months to control this common landscape pest. For proper control, it is critical to apply the oil spray over every surface of the plant. If the insects are on the underside of the leaves and the oil is only applied to the upper surface, it will have no effect on them. Because scale insects are difficult to kill, one or two follow-up applications should be made after the first one.

In the warmer months, the best method is systemic insecticides that are soaked into the plant and kill the scale as they Feast on its nutrients.

Check out our video for more information on Holly Scale:
Is Black Sooty Mold a Pest on my Holly Bush?

If you come across a Gainesville Lawn Pest, please don't hesitate to let us know if we can help. Contact our office at (352) 378-5296 and one of our technicians would be glad to assist you!

Nutsedge, also called nutgrass, is an aggressive weed that often plagues lawns in the wet seasons like we have been in. There are several different varieties of nutsedge, and they're all perennial weeds in the sedge family that regrow each year and reproduce in a manner that makes them difficult to manage.

Nutsedge outbreaks often start in moist, poorly drained lawn areas, where they quickly develop into large colonies. Their extensive root systems may reach up to 4 feet deep. Once established, these weeds can tolerate drought, but grow best in the damp areas of the lawn.

Identifying Nutsedge:
Shape- Nutsedge weeds, like all sedges (grasslike plants), have a triangular stem that can be felt in your hands. The stem of the sedge feels like it has 3 sides or 3 points, much like a triangle.

"Sandspurs" - Many Floridians mistake these weeds for sandspurs, because of their green spiky flowers that resemble sandspurs. However, they are not sharp and are soft enough to crush between your fingertips. True sandspurs are brown and very tough on fingers.

Roots- Nutsedge has roots, called rhizomes, that can reach 8-14 inches below ground. Rhizomes will grow horizontally under the soil and emerge out of the soil to form a new sedge plant. This means multiple sedges may be connected by one series of rhizomes.

How to control nutsedge:
First, and this is very important - Don’t pull it.  Most of the time pulling nutsedge doesn’t work because it has two nuts attached to the roots.  You can pull up the first one but if you don’t get the second one, and you almost never can get it, you usually end up with it splitting and getting even more nutsedge.  In fact, nutsedge reminds me of the stories of fishermen who tried to get rid of starfish by cutting them up and throwing them back in the sea.  What happens when you cut up starfish?  The pieces each turn into a starfish and you end up with a lot more starfish.  That’s pretty much what happens when you pull nutsedge in Gainesville landscapes

In terms of how to get rid of nutsedge, you will need to implement specialty post-emergent control products. These products are specifically targeted to nutsedge and won’t damage the rest of your grass. Sesgehammer and Pro-Sedge are two of the most common - but during the rainy season just can bairly stunt the growth.

Due to its hardiness and the fact that it grows rapidly, nutsedge will require repeated controls to knock back. And even when you successfully achieve this in one season, it may return.

This is why it’s important that nutsedge control is part of an ongoing and comprehensive weed control program. You simply can’t let your guard down with a persistent weed like nutsedge.

If you come across a Gainesville Lawn Weed, please don't hesitate to let us know if we can help. Contact our office at (352) 378-5296 and one of our technicians would be glad to assist you!

Short on time?
Watch our YouTube video that explains this yard pest!

Have you noticed black sooty mold on your landscape plants?

That powdery, black residue on your landscape plants probably isn't doing them any harm, but the same can't be said for the pests that cause it. The black coating is called sooty mold, and it's a sign your plants are under attack!

Insects, such as aphids and scales, are attracted to plants and will suck the leaves for plant juices. As they digest the plant nutrients, they excrete a very sugary substance that we call honeydew.

The first sign that you have a sucking insect problem will be very shiny or oily-looking leaves. These leaves will feel sticky from the sugary honeydew. You will usually notice ants trailing up the tree to get the sugar, and you might notice a lot of wasps and bees flying around the tree also. If you park your car under the tree, you will also see the honeydew dripping on your hood.

The sugar not only attracts other insects, but it also attracts sooty mold, which can live and grow on the honeydew. You might see a white fence under the tree or plant turn black, as well as patio furniture or even your car if honeydew is falling on them!

Although it looks unsightly, sooty mold isn't harmful to human health. If you touch or rub leaves, stems, or bark that has that characteristic black coating, you're left with dark smudges on your fingers.

You'll probably also feel the sticky honeydew that the mold is growing on. But there's nothing to worry about. Just wash your hands with warm water and soap to remove the black marks.

It is easier to prevent sooty mold than to control it, and that means starting early.

Sooty mold is really an insect problem, and if you control the insects, you will not have sooty mold. You have heard that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It applies here. The scale pest can be treated with a contact or systemic insecticide as well as organic treatments.

To reduce insecticide use, our team uses horticultural oils in the cooler months to control this common landscape pest. In the warmer months, the best method is systemic insecticides that are soaked into the plant and kill the scale as they feast on its nutrients.

If you come across this lawn pest, please don't hesitate to let us know! We are ready to help. Contact our office at (352) 378-5296 or (904) 913-5296 or fill out our form at the top of the page, our technicians would be glad to assist you!

Mosquitoes are an unfortunate fact of life in Florida. Nothing is worse than being in a backyard full of mosquitoes, especially since mosquitoes aren’t just annoyingly painful, they also carry many life-threatening diseases. To prevent your yard from being overrun with mosquitoes, try these five tips.

1. Remove Standing Water
Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water. The eggs hatch into larvae about three days later, and about 12 days after that, adults emerge and fly away. Considering that each female can lay up to 400 eggs and the life cycle is complete in about two weeks, you can see why mosquito populations can increase so quickly. Reducing the amount of standing water around your home will minimize breeding sites and reduce the number of mosquitoes. Some places to look include children's toys in the yard, clogged rain gutters, tree holes, old tires, discarded cans, and the saucers of your outdoor flower pots.

After eliminating the yard's water collectors, ensure your lawn has functional Gainesville drainage. Eliminate wet spots in your yard that are prone to flooding or where stagnant water collects. You can eliminate these areas through the use of gravel, stone pavers, or more advanced landscape solutions like adjusting the pitch of your yard or installing a French drain.

2. Keep the grass cut and plant growth under control
Like how mosquitoes need water to breed, they like to live in an overrun yard. Tallgrass, plants, and shrubs are where mosquitoes go to rest, relax and play. Getting rid of standing water will prevent them from breeding, but if you have a standing mosquito problem, maintaining your landscape will help eliminate the existing population.

3. Use Scents to Repel Mosquitoes
Lavender, citrus, basil, lemongrass, peppermint, and geraniums are fragrant plants that some people swear by as deterring mosquitoes from hanging around. However, you should be aware that the science on this is not settled. While some gardeners swear by them, these plants have not been found in a lab to provide a repellent effect. Still, thanks to the pleasant smell they make for humans, they're not a bad thing to have in your Gainesville landscape design anyway.

4. Attract natural predators
Predators can’t completely eradicate your issue if you’re overrun with mosquitoes, but if you’re just getting a few unwanted critters here and there, attracting them is worth a shot.

Many birds are natural mosquito predators, including purple martins, waterfowl, swallows, and migratory songbirds. Setting up bird feeders is a solid step in attracting these birds. Installing a bat house can also help. Bats eat up mosquitoes, but you may not want to attract bats near your home.

If you have a pond, you can benefit from predators like goldfish, koi, and red-eared slider turtles.

Mosquitoes also fall prey to other insects—some you’d be happy to see in your garden and others, not so much. Spiders eat mosquitoes when they fly into their webs and dragonflies gobble mosquitoes right up.

5. Start a Professional Mosquito Control Program
While you may find some measure of success with DIY methods, if you’re dealing with tons of mosquitoes, you need to call in a professional pest control company. Professional pest control companies have the expertise to kill mosquitoes at all stages of the life cycle and are more knowledgeable about safety practices when applying chemicals.

A Mosquito pesticide treatment offered by a company like Gainesville's Mosquito Joe can help to greatly reduce the mosquitoes living directly around your house. Because of their high humidity requirement, mosquitoes like damp and shady areas to shelter in. Regularly treating these areas with an appropriately labeled pesticide can kill mosquitoes and make it impossible for them to breed.

A pesticide with a long-lasting residual effect that will continue to kill mosquitoes for weeks even after the chemical has dried. Multiple applications will probably be required throughout the summer season.

Areas that don't get a lot of sun should be treated regularly. These are the areas where mosquitoes like to rest during the day when it’s hottest, so treating them with a pesticide will greatly reduce the number of bugs in your yard.

With the right actions in your lawn, you can have fewer bug bites and more peace of mind. Call us today at (352) 378-5296 if we can help you with your drainage, pest control, gutters, or landscaping in any way!

Doveweed is an aggressive summer annual turfgrass weed. Its long leaves resemble St. Augustine grass in appearance, so this weed can grow unnoticed for some time. But doveweed doesn't just invade St. Augustine grass, it also takes hold in Bermuda, hybrid Bermuda, and zoysia grass.

Not only can doveweed be an annoyance to people who are trying to grow turfgrass, it can also cause serious contact dermatitis for dogs that come in contact with the weed.

Doveweed thrives in overly moist soils because of poor soil drainage or frequent rainfall and irrigation, combined with lack of sunlight. In these wet areas, homeowners may not realize this grass-like weed is present until large patches of turfgrass have been smothered out. In summer, doveweed produces small, 3-petaled, lavender flowers that, when in bloom, become more noticeable in the lawn.

Once the weeds are established, they grow vigorously. When managing doveweed, use an integrated management approach. As always, a healthy lawn is the best defense. Healthy turfgrass can outcompete weeds. Pre Emergent herbicides can help; be sure to read the label first and closely follow the directions.

If these lawn weeds are caught early enough and you prefer to DIY your lawn weed control program, reducing irrigation and hand-pulling is the most effective way to keep these weeds from spreading. However, they do spread rapidly so it will be a good bit of elbow grease to get it under control.

If you are on a lawn program, controlling these weeds takes attention early in the season - because once they get established it will be a battle.

If you're tired of fighting the battle for weed control in your Gainesville lawn, call our office at (352) 378-LAWN or fill out our online form so we can schedule a meeting to discuss how we can help!

We have already seen activity with the recent rains, this pest is in season and looking for lawns to feed on!

Sod webworms are the larvae of lawn moths. They live in the root level of your lawn and munch up the grass leaves. They can kill an entire lawn in a matter of days! When the weather turns hot, patches of your grass may start to turn brown. If you see little moths flying above your grass at dusk, and the brown patches start to get larger, you could have a sod webworm problem.

Look for saucer-sized brown patches where your lawn is driest. Upon closer inspection, these areas will have a grazed or scalped appearance. The centers of the patches may have been eaten away and replaced by weeds. At root level, you'll see small white tubes made of silky web. At dusk, you might even see the worms themselves. They're about 1/4 - 3/4 inch long.

Under heavy sod webworm infestation, large areas of turf can be scalped and even killed during periods of summer heat and drought. While sod webworm larvae are active from early spring through fall, the most serious turfgrass injury usually occurs in mid to late summer.

The most severe damage usually shows up when the temperature is hot and there is a lot of moisture (rain and humidity). In fact, most sod webworm damage is mistaken for someone mowing prnweedeating areas of the lawn shorter than the rest (which is the webworm eating the new growth off the grass blades)

We have created a couple of videos that can help you identify and defend your lawn!
How to identify sod webworms and how to control them
Why do I have Moths in my Gainesville Florida lawn?

Professional Gainesville lawn spraying is the best solution for controlling sod webworms. Retail pesticides sold in Home Improvement stores can also be effective solutions for killing sod webworms, but they do take 3-4 applications to break the webworms life cycle, and you can damage your ecosystem if not used in accordance with the label.

If you're tired of fighting the battle for pest control in your Gainesville lawn, call our office at (352) 378-LAWN or fill out our online form so we can schedule a meeting to discuss how we can help!

Chinch bugs are small pests that can cause a large amount of damage to your lawn. Chinch bugs suck the moisture out of grass blades, then replace that moisture with a poison that kills the grass. Lawns that have been affected by chinch bugs appear to have drought-like symptoms, including yellow, brown, or dead grass. Chinch bugs are most prevalent from late spring to mid-fall and are typically found in St. Augustine lawns, although they are occasionally found in Zoysia yards as well.

What do Chinch Bugs do to a lawn?
They destroy by inserting their razor-sharp beaks into a blade of grass and then sucking out its natural fluids, causing the grass to dehydrate and die. Any time you find yellow patches of grass that turn brown and die—especially in sunny spots during hot weather—it's probably chinch bug damage. The damage caused by chinch bugs appears quickly in hot weather. With most of the damage in open, sunny areas, this may be mistaken for drought damage.

How to tell if you have a problem?
Chinch bugs give off an offensive odor when crushed. If your lawn has a noticeable odor when walked on, you could have a large infestation.
Spread the grass and check the soil surface for red nymphs or black adult chinch bugs. These bugs avoid the light and may hide in soil crevices. Chinch can also terrorize a neighborhood by going from lawn to lawn, attacking any lawn that isn’t on a lawn pest program.

How can you get rid of chinch bugs?
Managing this pest begins with proper lawn care. By keeping thatch to a minimum, for example, you reduce chinch bug numbers and make other control methods more effective. Thatch is the layer of dead plant material found between the green tops of the grass plant and the soil below. It provides a protective home for chinch bugs and chemically binds with many insecticides, making such controls less effective.

To control chinch bugs in Gainesville yourself, there are products you can buy at local home improvement stores. We recommend using the liquid products and buying a sprayer, though, as the granular products aren't nearly as effective. The granular lawn insect control products need the perfect amount of irrigation that won't dilute the product down beyond effectiveness, but also not under-irrigate where the granule doesn't dissolve.

If you're tired of fighting the battle for pest control in your Gainesville lawn, call our office at (352) 378-LAWN or fill out our online form so we can schedule a meeting to discuss how we can help!