Q: I sodded an area in my backyard last spring with fescue. I know I need to do some maintenance to it this fall. Do I just seed and fertilize, or do I need to aerate? It’s still green but starting to thin. — Conner Poe, email
A: First decide if you truly have enough sunlight for fescue to prosper (five to six hours of direct sunshine per day). If you don’t, consider rearranging your landscape to grow grass in the sunniest spots.
Aeration might help if your soil is hard. Use a screwdriver to jab into the soil. If it doesn’t penetrate more than 1 inch, then you need to aerate. Before you start, mow the lawn and water it thoroughly the day before. The aerator should use hollow tines to bring up plugs of dirt, 3 inches long. This is important: every square foot of the lawn needs 10 holes. Anything less and you won’t see the benefits that you want. Details at bit.ly/GAaerate.
Q: I have a poplar tree providing wonderful shade for my house. This spring it developed two places on it that look like it is bleeding. A black substance is drooling down the side of the tree for 18 to 20 inches. Is there something I can do? — Ken Feltman, email
A: Your tree has a problem called slime flux or bacterial wetwood. The drooling results from a bacterial infection under the bark. The bacteria feed on the sap that is flowing generously now, and their waste products come through the bark. Depending on which bacteria is infecting the tree, the drool can smell like vinegar or alcohol. The best treatment is to wash it off the bark and let the tree fight the infection by itself.
Q: I need to know how to sex a kiwiberry plant. Is there a way I can tell when there are no blossoms? It is an “Anna” variety kiwiberry. Can you tell from the leaves? Seems like one of the plants has more jagged-edge leaves. They are very fine, so it’s quite subtle. — Derk Wehler, email
A: I salute you for growing kiwiberry. It is much more cold hardy than fuzzy kiwi fruit we see at the grocery. The delicious fruit is much smaller, about the size of a grape. It doesn’t travel well: that’s why you don’t see it on the produce aisle. Kiwiberry has male vines and female vines. One male will pollinate four to eight female vines. Sadly, it’s not possible to determine a kiwiberry’s sex until it blooms. The male flower will have yellow pollen-bearing stamens. The female flower will have only white stigmas to receive the pollen. The leaves and stem of a kiwiberry vine offer no hints as to which sex they are.
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