Reduce Chances of Lawn & Landscape Disease Now

With all the snow that fell earlier this week, I know that you probably are not thinking much about your lawn and landscape.  However, we are still technically in the fall season and now is a great time to start on disease prevention in your lawn and landscape. 

One of the easiest ways you can help to prevent diseases in your landscape is by using sanitation practices.  A good sanitation program can help reduce the need for chemical controls and can improve the effectiveness of other practices for managing disease. 

That good sanitation program can start now with the removal of leaves and other fallen plant materials from around your trees, shrubs and landscape areas.  Fallen leaves can serve as a source of fungal spores.  Many pathogens can overwinter in fallen debris and then can create many problems in the spring. 

According to Nicole Gauthier, UK Extension Plant Pathologist, other sanitation practices include:

·        Remove diseased plant tissues from infected plants. Prune branches with cankers  well below the point of infection. Cuts should be made at an intersecting branch.  Rake and remove fallen buds, flowers, twigs, leaves, and needles.

·        Disinfest tools used to prune galls and cankers. Cutting blades should be dipped into a commercial sanitizer, 10% Lysol disinfectant, 10% bleach, or rubbing alcohol between each cut. If using bleach, rinse and oil tools after completing work, to prevent corrosion.

·        Discard perennial and annual plants that are heavily infected and those with untreatable diseases. Dig infected plants to include as much of the root system as possible, along with infested soil.

·        Trees and shrubs infected with systemic diseases that show considerable dieback should be cut and the stump removed or destroyed.

·        If infected plants are to be treated with fungicides, prune or remove infected tissue and debris to eliminate sources for spore production or propagule multiplication. This should be done before fungicide application. Fungicide effectiveness may be reduced when disease pressure is heavy, which can result when pathogen levels cannot be reduced sufficiently by chemical means (fungicides).

·        Do not compost diseased plant material or infested soil because incomplete composting (temperatures below 160˚ F) may result in survival of pathogens.

·        Homeowners should be cautious about storing diseased limbs and trunks as firewood or using the wood chips as mulch.

·        Remove weeds and volunteer plants to prevent establishment of a “green bridge” between plants. A green bridge allows pathogens to infect alternate hosts until a more suitable one becomes available. Be sure to remove above ground parts AND roots.

·        Soil from container-grown plants should not be reused from one season to the next because pathogens can survive in soil.

For more information on proper landscape sanitation and disease prevention, contact the McLean County Cooperative Extension Service at (270)273-3690.  Educational programs of the Cooperative Extension Service serve all people regardless of race, color, sex, religion, disability or national origin.