Ornamental and Turf Pest Control
Scope
Ornamental and turf work covers lawns, golf courses, parks, athletic fields, cemeteries, nurseries, greenhouses and landscape plantings. Know the pest groups - annual and perennial weeds, white grubs and surface-feeding insects, foliar diseases, mites - and the cultural controls that make chemical control work: mowing height, fertility, irrigation, thatch management and cultivar selection.
Application knowledge
Distinguish preemergence from postemergence timing, granular from liquid application, and soil drench from foliar spray. Calibrate spreaders and sprayers, know how to water in a granular product, and know that many ornamental species are sensitive to particular active ingredients. Reentry intervals and posting requirements apply on turf sites, and Vermont requires schools and certain public sites to follow integrated pest management and to notify or post before applications. Read the site list on the label carefully: turf, nursery, greenhouse and landscape are not interchangeable sites.
Traps
Applying a broadleaf herbicide in heat or wind and cupping the neighbor's tomatoes; treating blooming plants while bees forage; assuming a weed-and-feed product can be timed freely; and mixing product-per-1,000-square-foot rates with per-acre rates.
Rule of thumb
One pound per 1,000 sq ft equals about 43.6 lb per acre. Worked example: a 50% wettable powder at 0.5 lb active ingredient per 1,000 sq ft means 1 lb of product per 1,000 sq ft, so a 5,000 sq ft lawn needs 5 lb of product. Weigh or measure the spreader output over a measured area before treating the whole site.