| Abstract/Contents: | "In 1955, in cooperation with Joseph W. Lentz, Scott Executive, the Lawn Institute undertook an evaluation of customer interest in lawn weeds. The customer continues to grumble today, but not always about the same things. Are weeds of major importance to the home owner? Certainly. In response to a national press offer of lawn information 15,614inquiries were received by the Lawn Institute on weed control, more than the combined total for fertilizers, soils, and equipment. 63% of the responses originated north and east of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, 25% from the border states and northwestern states, and 12% from the deep South. Weeds led inquiries in May, June, July, September; were second in April, August and October, in the 1955 season. What are weeds to the home owner? Apparently many are diligently planting "weeds," especially coarse fescues and bentgrasses which home owners complain form disruptive clumps or patches in good bluegrass turf. April 1958 Popular Gardening reports results tending were invited to bring weeds for identification. Two out of every three submitted proved to be tall fescue. In 1955 nimblewill rate one inquiry to every 5 for crabgrass; in 1958 Mr. Lentz reports there were 2 nimblewill inquiries to every one for crabgrass. There were 2 1/2 coarse fescue inquiries to each one for crabgrass. There are probably several causes for these shifts, chief of which may be that new widely marketed herbicides make crabgrass less a problem. At the same time greater lawn sophistication has probably brought objection to coarse or off-texture grasses. Worst of all, lawn seed mixers have widely diluted good bluegrass blends with coarse fescue. With consumer complaint trending away from crabgrass (since advent of the arsonates), a good selective herbicide for perennial pests such as nimblewill, tall fescue, and quackgrass should find quite a reception. For nimblewill there is report of one such product, and in our tests at the Lawn Institute we have been moderately successful in repressing it with two treatments of arsonate combined with 2,4-D or 2,4,5-TP. Blue grass is quite rugged and resists rates toxic to Muhlenbergia schreberi. This is hardly for home owners (since rates are critical and there may be some lawn discoloration), or for fine fescue and bentgrass, but it does suggest an approach. Nimblewill apparently has become more prevalent, at least in locations formerly dry but now receiving ample rainfall. Mr. Lentz notes that increased inquiry this year came mainly from Ohio wets. Bermuda in the bluegrass zone is another 1958 heavy cause for complaint, with no good (selective) answer. Inquiry was almost as frequent as for crabgrass, whereas in 1955 it was only about one-seventh as frequent. Perhaps an increasing consciousness about lawns in the South partly accounts for this, but it also may be due to Bermuda moving northward. Nutgrass is a similar situation. Davis has dealt in print with bentgrass as a weed in Kentucky bluegrass lawns. With recent we summers it is not surprising that bentgrass complaints were almost as voluminous as for coarse fescue, double those for crabgrass. Bent has always been a summertime prima donna, but the complaints seem to be shifting to its presence, not its failure. Both in 1955 and 1958 chickweed was chief broadleaf weed. We think we have good chickweed herbicides, but the public is either not aware, or the materials have not been widely marketed, or have failed. In both surveys knotweed was the second most troublesome broadleaf, along with spurge, one for which there still seems to be no very good late season answer. More complaints center on the speedwells. With Veronica resistant to 2,4-D it stands out while the susceptible dandelions and plantains succumb easily. As in 1955 there is still little inquiry or complaint about dandelion and plantain. The general public seems little concerned about the named varieties. Excitement about Zoysia, noted in 1955, has passed. Merion is occasionally still "discovered," but little is yet heard about Park, Delta, or of red fescue varieties. There is now more inquiry about rust and mildew, not much of a problem before Merion was included in bluegrass mixtures." |
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