Seasonal Briefing · March – MayWatering Restrictions & Chinch Bugs
Spring Landscape Care in Southwest Florida
Spring is the hardest test of an irrigation system in Southwest Florida. Demand peaks, rainfall does not arrive, and watering days are limited. Everything that fails in June was usually set up incorrectly in March.
Water restrictions and the pre-summer setup.
Limited watering days through the end of the dry season
Lee County, Collier County and the cities within them each set their own irrigation schedules, limiting watering to set days and keeping it out of the heat of the day. In the dry season, those schedules can tighten further. With so few allowable days, every zone has to be right.
Chinch bug pressure begins before the damage is visible
Southern chinch bug runs approximately 7 to 10 generations per year in southern Florida, and turf in open sunny areas or under drought stress is attacked first. Early damage is patchy yellowing that is commonly misdiagnosed as drought, which is exactly how a small area becomes a full turf replacement.
Identification first, not calendar spraying
Insecticide modes of action have to be rotated, because Florida chinch bug populations have developed resistance to multiple chemical classes. Over-fertilization raises nitrogen in plant tissue and has been associated with higher chinch bug abundance, and thick thatch shelters the insect from its natural enemies. Blanket feeding and blanket spraying work against each other.
Palms get pruned correctly before hurricane season, not aggressively
The hurricane cut does not protect palms in a storm. Field observations after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons found it makes crown failure more likely, because the young leaves left behind have not hardened off and no longer have the support of the older leaf bases. Over-pruning also reduces the palm’s photosynthetic capacity and, over time, produces a smaller trunk diameter.
About one third of St. Augustinegrass turf carries southern chinch bugs at any given time. Presence alone is not the trigger; treatment begins when a population threshold is reached. Spot treatment of areas where the insect is abundant or causing damage is the recommended approach over preventive, calendar-based cover sprays, which raise cost and accelerate resistance.
- Full irrigation audit: heads, rotation, rain sensor and controller calibration
- Scouting-based turf inspection with documented findings, not calendar cover sprays
- Correct palm pruning ahead of storm season: dead fronds and seed pods, not green canopy
- Pre-summer fertility completed before the June 1 restriction begins
This briefing is issued to NewScape members as a printable document. Download a copy for the board or the office file.
Resources: UF/IFAS EDIS ENH1/MG025 Cold Protection of Landscape Plants · ENY-325/LH036 Managing Southern Chinch Bug in Warm Season Turfgrasses · ENH1009/EP261 Fertilization of Field-Grown and Landscape Palms in Florida · ENH1182/EP443 Pruning Palms · ENH5/LH010 St. Augustinegrass for Florida Lawns · SS-PLP-5/LH044 Large Patch · Lee County Ordinance No. 08-08 · Lee County Ordinance No. 24-01 (amending No. 05-10) · City of Bonita Springs Ordinance 08-23 · South Florida Water Management District landscape irrigation schedules. Regulatory requirements are summarized, not quoted in full; the governing ordinance controls.
Every season, briefed before it begins.
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