Over the past several weeks, I have offered a program called Gray for a Day to several Family and Consumer Science high school classes across the Southwind District.

The main goal of this program is to teach participants how to have empathy and show kindness to those that struggle with sensory and functional challenges due to aging. At the beginning of the first session, one participant asked me why empathy is so important. I paused to think about that answer as opposed to stating the obvious.

The most notable reason would be that all individuals seek kindness, comfort, love, and support. If you were struggling to reach the top shelf at the grocery store, you would hope that a passer-by would notice and offer to help you. But it goes much deeper than that surface-level answer.

Empathy is the ability to notice, share, understand, and consider how others feel. It is a large part of social behavior and establishing healthy relationships. Being able to empathize creates stronger social connections as it drives you to help others. There are ways to establish this skill throughout a lifespan, but it is extremely critical to start at a young age.

For young children, this is a complex set of emotions they begin to learn and develop while sharing toys and spaces and reacting to others’ feelings. One important thing to note is that children are impressionable and will model the behavior of those around them. By providing a good example for them to mimic, adults can help establish a behavioral pattern in young children.

To help support the development of empathy in children, adults can make examples out of others as they see them displaying positive behaviors. If they see unkind interactions, point that out to them and share how that might feel to others. Use verbal affirmations when you see a child do something kind and avoid giving treats or toys as a reward. This will diminish their motivation to engage in such acts. Let them make mistakes and learn from them. Help them understand how to correct their behavior so they can be better in future situations.

Empathy and kindness are critical skills for human development and healthy relationships at all ages. We can all work on enhancing this valuable skill. For more information, contact Cassidy Lutz at [email protected] or by calling 620-625-8620.

Whether for culinary or medicinal purposes, herbs are a versatile plant. Are you interested in learning how to grow herbs and utilize them as natural seasoning? If so, plan to attend an herb workshop set for Thursday, April 6 at 12:00 Noon at the Buck Run Community Center in Fort Scott. The workshop will cover growing herbs indoors, care and maintenance, the health benefits of cooking with herbs, utilizing them in the kitchen, and herb preservation. In addition, participants will get to taste test a few recipes. For more information, call the Southwind Extension District at 620-244-3826.

Corn planting is right around the corner for the Southwind District. It is time to consider adding a residual herbicide to your corn, weed management plan.

Residual herbicides that kill weed seeds/seedlings as they germinate or emerge are an important component of herbicide applications at or before the time of corn planting. These herbicides can control weeds for several weeks, which prevents yield loss due to early-season weed competition and can greatly improve the effectiveness of a post-emergence herbicide application and give more flexibility for post-application timing. Residual herbicides are also an important component of sequential herbicide applications later in the growing season. In general, preventing the emergence of weeds, especially herbicide resistant weeds, is preferable to controlling them after they emerge

Many cases of herbicide-resistant weeds have resulted from over-reliance on post-emergence herbicide applications, thus it is essential to include one or more residual herbicides available for corn. However, it is also important to remember to change residual herbicides to prevent selection of tolerant or resistant weeds. The importance of this is reflected in the recent confirmation of waterhemp and Palmer amaranth that are resistant to S-metolachlor (Dual).

The specific herbicide you use is important, but it is usually less important than making the decision to use a residual herbicide program that includes at least two effective herbicides. But, it is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of each product in terms of the spectrum of weeds controlled. A table summarizing weed species response to various corn herbicides can be found on pages 24-26 of 2023 Chemical Weed Control for Field Crops, Pastures, Rangeland, and Noncropland (SRP 1162).

Categories of residual herbicides for corn

Photosystem II Inhibitors (Group 5). Atrazine is the most widely used PS II inhibitor in corn. It controls a wide variety of broadleaf weeds, including pigweeds, ragweeds, morningglories, and mustards, as well as some grass species. However, atrazine resistance has been reported for many weed species. Atrazine use rates are influenced by soil type, soil pH, and organic matter, and use is prohibited in instances where water contamination is likely. Unless your situation prohibits atrazine use, it is recommended to include atrazine when you apply HPPD-inhibitor and acetamide herbicides.

Very Long Chain Fatty Acid Inhibitors (Group 15). The main VLCFA products used in corn include acetochlor, S-metolachlor, metolachlor, dimethamid-P, and pyroxasulfone In general, these products are very effective in controlling most annual grasses (except shattercane) and small-seeded broadleaf weeds such as pigweeds. They are much less effective in controlling kochia or large-seeded broadleaf weeds such as cocklebur, devilsclaw, morningglory, sunflower, and velvetleaf. An exception are those products containing pyroxasulfone. Though resistance to Group 15 herbicides have been reported in corn/soybean rotations in Illinois, there have been no cases of weed populations in Kansas developing resistance to the Group 15 herbicides to date.

Group 15 herbicides are most effective when applied with atrazine. In past years, often because of cost, reduced rates of these products were applied to help manage heavy summer annual grass pressure, then followed up with a good post-emergence herbicide program. With the increased occurrence of glyphosate- and other herbicide-resistant weeds, it is essential to use the full rates of these products in conjunction with a POST program.

HPPD-inhibitors (Group 27). Examples of HPPD-inhibitors are isoxaflutole (e.g. Balance Flexx) and mesotrione (e.g. Callisto and many generics). These products should be applied with atrazine. HPPD-inhibitors provide excellent for control of kochia, pigweeds, velvetleaf, and many other broadleaf weeds, as well as grasses. Corvus (thiencarbazone + isoxaflutole) will control shattercane and common sunflower better than Balance Flexx, provided the sunflower is not ALS-resistant. Keep in mind, products containing Balance should not be applied to coarse-textured soils when the water table is less than 25 feet below the soil surface. Balance Flexx does not provide adequate control of sunflower.

PPO-inhibitors (Group 14). Examples of PPO-inhibitors include flumioxazin (e.g. Valor) and saflufenacil (Sharpen). Herbicides containing flumiozaxin must be applied 7 to 30 days before corn planting. These herbicides provide excellent control of pigweeds; however, they are marginal on kochia. Fierce (flumioxazin + pyroxasulfone) will provide improved control of velvetleaf and kochia compared to Valor. The addition of atrazine will enhance kochia, pigweed, velvetleaf, and morningglory control, provided the populations are not triazine-resistant. Sharpen and Verdict (saflufenacil + dimethenamid-P) have excellent activity on pigweeds, kochia, and large-seeded broadleaf weeds. However, the length of residual activity can be shorter than other pre-emergence products when all are compared at full rates. Approximately 7 to 10 days of residual can be expected per 1 oz of Sharpen and 5 oz of Verdict.

ALS-inhibitors (Group 2). One example of a pre-emergence ALS-inhibitor used in corn is flumetsulam (Python), which only has broadleaf activity and provides good control of large-seeded broadleaf weeds such as cocklebur, sunflower, and velvetleaf, or the small-seeded common lambsquarters. Flumetsulam is also a component of Hornet, Stanza, SureStart II, and TripleFlex II. These products are especially effective for control of sunflower, along with cocklebur and velvetleaf, but less effective for morningglory control.

Rimsulfuron is another ALS-inhibiting herbicide that is a component of Basis Blend, Instigate, Prequel, Realm Q and Steadfast Q. Products with rimsulfuron will provide short residual control of grass and broadleaf weeds and should be used as a setup herbicide with a good post-emergence weed control program. If ALS-resistant broadleaf weeds are present, these ALS-containing herbicides often will be less effective.

The use of trade names is for clarity to readers and does not imply endorsement of a particular product, nor does exclusion imply non-approval. Always consult the herbicide label for the most current use requirements.

Adding a residual herbicide to your program could be a key piece to a successful corn-herbicide program this growing season. Choosing the correct residual herbicide for your operation can be difficult, so it is important to consider all of the options available. The Southwind Extension District offices have free 2023 Chemical Weed Control books available for producers and landowners. You can also contact Chad Guthrie, crop production and forage management agent, at any Southwind District office for more information.

Spring has sprung, but we still haven’t received adequate moisture to pull the area out of a drought situation. According to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor, all of the Southwind District counties remain in the moderate to severe drought classification. The drought is predicted to remain, but will improve. Unfortunately, the drought has caused permanent damage to some of our landscape plants – mainly fescue lawns and ornamental shrubs.

The fescue lawns in the area are not looking very good. I’ve noticed that some have areas of green-up and others have definite dead spots. In my own yard, the drought damage is very visible! Part of my yard is near an old hedge row and the grass located 20 feet or so out is completely dead. The hedge row successfully robbed all of the moisture and intensified the drought on the grass.

As much as I would like to overseed this spring, I’m going to refrain and wait until fall. You might be wondering why? Spring is not the ideal time to overseed fescue lawns because of the shorter time frame between seeding and when the hot summer conditions arrive. It is best to overseed in the fall when the temperatures are cooler and the plant can get a root system established before the brutal summer conditions.

That’s not to say that there aren’t times when a spring seeding can be successful. However, it requires committed watering and care from the time of seeding through the summer. The best time to attempt a spring seeding is mid-March through early April. We are near to closing the window of opportunity for this year. If you think scattering some seed out on the ground will suffice, you will be disappointed! It is definitely take more effort than that.

Soil preparation will be important and the use of verticutter is recommend. Verticutting slices grooves in the soil which will allow for good seed to soil contact for germination. Once the soil is prepared, the seed can be broadcast.

The ground must have moisture through germination and into early establishment in the form of light, frequent waterings. On average, it will take two weeks for the grass to emerge. After the seed is up, reduce the watering frequency. How often should you water? The grass will show you signs when it needs water. This will be evident by it wilting or it showing a bluish color to the blades.

The turf will need an application of fertilizer. At seeding, use a starter type fertilizer. About five or six weeks later, use a high nitrogen – slow release source of fertilizer at the rate suggested on the bag. As for crabgrass control, there is a product recommended for use on spring seedings. The active ingredient in the product is Dithiopyr. This product can actually be applied a little later in the growing season than other crabgrass preventing products and yet still provide season long control.

Have you noticed brown shrubs in area landscapes? Damage from the 2022 drought and winter injury is being seen on various woody plants, especially euonymus, boxwood and yew. Many that are brown have most likely died. However, the best time to assess the extent of the damage and the potential for recovery is May. By that time, new growth should have developed and it will be clear if the buds are going to put on some new growth and the shrub is still alive.

If you have questions about lawn care, gardens, trees or shrubs, please don’t hesitate to contact me at the Extension office. Most Extension services are free of charge.

Krista Harding is a K-State Research and Extension Horticulture agent assigned to Southwind District. She may be reached at [email protected] or 620-244-3826.

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