Many companies that care for turf in Florida believe that it is nearly impossible to use a preemergent herbicide to treat weeds taking up their residence among St. Augustinegrass. Debunking this myth was one of the main reasons Bayer hosted its Focus on Florida media summit on July 11-12.
Throughout the summit, representatives from Bayer, along with lawn care providers and grounds operators, spoke about how preemergent programs could be effective on St. Augustinegrass, especially with the introduction of Bayer’s Specticle Flo.
Erica Santella, regional technical manager for TruGreen, spoke to the group about this topic.
“One of the urban legends in Florida is that preemergents don’t work in sandy soils,” she said. “Every other agriculture industry uses preemergents, but that myth still exists.”
Attendees of the event got to see firsthand how one company decided to ignore the myth that preemergent herbicides can’t work in Florida.
The group headed out into the field to see how a preemergent treatment of Specticle on St. Augustinegrass has helped Stahlman Landscape and Property Maintenance in Naples, Fla., rid a housing development of weeds. Leon Humphrey, manager at Stahlman, met the group to discuss the preemergent treatments the company was doing at the site.
So far, the program has been effective, according to Humphrey. “I walked that whole street in December of last year, and if I found 50 weeds in there, it was amazing,” Humphrey noted. “It works. It takes some time to get going and working, but it works.”
