Organic Lawn Applications Need Help

I say they need help because when we apply an organic fertilizer such as Milorganite or Ringer Lawn Restore, the nutrients found in those “pellets” are not released so easily. Keep in mind that most of your regular synthetic fertilizers you get at the store (Scott’s 4-step stuff) let their nutrients out in the form of dissolving in water. That is why we tell you to “water them in.”

However, with organics, water is NOT what makes the nutrients hit the soil, rather natural breakdown from heat. In addition, the smaller the pieces, the quicker the heat action can break them down. The reason we want to help this process is because we don’t want the pellets to wash away in a rain storm while we are patiently waiting for the nutrients to “decay” in the lawn.

Make Your Organic Stick In The Lawn

The very best way to ensure your organics “stick” in the lawn long enough to deliver maximum nutrient benefit is to help them along by sticking them into the soil. There are two ways I recommend you do this:

1) Apply sand to the yard – yep, good old play sand you can get at the local home and garden store. Now, this only applies if you live in an area of the country with clay-based soil which is a lot of the south and most of the Midwest. The sand has a way of “roughing” into the clay and it will drag down your organic fertilizer with it, effectively embedding it into the hard clay. You should apply the fertilizer first and the sand immediately after. Apply the sand at about 1lb of sand per 1,000 square feet. In other words, you don’t need a lot of sand. This also acts as an overall soil conditioner for hard clay lawn soils.

2) Aerate first – I talk a lot about lawn aeration as a pivotal part of your overall organic lawn care program, but it is never anymore important then when we are trying to get the lawn some good, soil-enriching organic nutrients. The sand I mention above helps keep the organics in the lawn, but aeration REALLY helps. As you know, when you aerate you are removing soil plugs from the lawn. This leaves thousands of holes and makes a great chance for you and me to apply natural fertilizers to the lawn that will effectively fall into or wash into those holes where they will remain feeding the lawn for weeks or even months.

Keep in mind that organics are usually applied very heavily (14 pounds per 1,000 sq feet or Milorganite) and that is a lot of product to fill into those holes and break down over time!

For all intensive purposes, you should be applying organics in the spring and fall in conjunction with your aeration, and using sand in the summer to rough into the hard clay. This is exactly how you get the most from your organic lawn care products and has been done on green-conscious golf courses and sports fields for years.

1) In Fall, grass roots expand naturally, thickening. Grass grows on top in the spring, and below in the fall. Roots are really what we are concerned with. Thicker roots=thicker lawn. Simple!

2) There is less weed pressure in the fall. Sure, we do get a slight resurgence of weeds in September and October, but nothing like we see in the later spring. Since we have less weeds to deal with in the fall, we can concentrate efforts on other things.

3) Temperatures are perfect in the fall to promote very healthy turf. In northern areas, we want to grow grass when it is in the mid-upper-70s. That is perfect for turf.

4) We also have sufficient moisture in the fall time. It’s a great time to grow grass seed too because you don’t really need to worry about watering too much.

5) Fall is the best time to aerate your lawn.

6) You should also plan to fertilize your lawn well in the fall. What type and how much and how often will be determined by how thick your lawn is already. The key is to use only what you need and nothing more and to use a fertilizer that has some nutrients in it other than just nitrogen. We want some natural phosphorous in there too as phos encourages more root growth. Get my book for the specifics.

In other words guys, you gotta aerate your lawn this fall.. ya gotta!

Core Aerating Your Lawn – Benefits

1) core aeration removes actual cores from the lawn. This allows air, water and fertilizer nutrients direct access into the root structure of the turf. In addition, grass roots can spread out into the holes, making the lawn thicker overall. It is best to do aeration in the fall because that is when grass spreads its roots anyway

2) core aeration breaks down thatch. We have talked about your lawn’s thatch layer before. We want some, but not too much and aeration punches holes in this layer… these holes are enough to keep it managed properly

3) core aeration spreads out soil organisms. There are all kinds of neat organisms in your lawn’s soil, especially if you are organic with it. Aerating the lawn brings these organisms up and out and allows them to spread to new areas of the lawn. That is healthy.

Core aeration is a mechanical process – no chemicals, and that is cool too! Simple!

dollar spot just starting to show

In most cases, I find dollar spot infesting lawns in the front yard! I also find it in lawns that are less than 15 years old. What??

Yeah, read that again because it is important to understand. You see, most houses built these days, the lawn gets sod in the front and seed in the back lawn. I also find that it takes a good 15 or more years for sod roots to get really well established. This means the sodded front lawns are susceptible to dollar spot fungus.

So if you are seeing spots like the ones in these pics in your front lawn, it may be dollar spot. If you have had hot and humid days with intermitant rain (of your own watering) then is probably is dollar spot.

Is Dollar Spot Serious?

Not really, but it does look bad for a while and if it gets really had, it can cause some long term appearance issues. I find it worse in areas that are bordered by sidewalks, driveways and the street. This is because these areas heat up much hotter and faster in the sun, making the fungus go wild.

same lawn as above, but this is the parkway, severe!

How To Get Rid Of Dollar Spot In Lawns

You should put down a fungicide that is organic and safe. I like Serenade. Apply it 3 or 4 times over the course of the summer according to the label directions.

In addition, I want you to mow tall, catch your clippings and cut your irrigation back to once per week and only water in the mornings. Just make sure you water deeply when you do. I also need you to be ready to follow my fertilizer program in the fall to help the lawn recover. Remember, root systems in lawn expand in fall, and this will repair the dollar spot scars naturally.

My lawn is treated with Milorganite iron

Iron is considered a micro-nutrient in the lawn. It is not necessarily essential, but a lack of it can make the lawn look pale or even yellow. (chlorosis) But for our purposes here, we want to use iron to give the lawn that deep blue/green coloring.

Yep, that’s right guys: iron is what makes Kentucky Bluegrass and other lawn grasses blue. THAT will surely help you stand out from your neighbor won’t it? Of course it will!

Now you need to make sure you get chelated iron for your lawn. Chelated means the iron is in a suspended state where it can be readily absorbed and use by grass plants. I say this because iron can bind up in soil where it can’t be utilized. If you get chelated, you will be just fine. The best source of chelated iron is milorganite. It’s organic and contains chelated iron! Awesome!

Be Careful With Iron – Ironite

If you decide to go with another type of iron for your lawn like Ironite, you need to be careful. Now, don’t get me wrong, Ironite works VERY well. The issue is, however, that Ironite have a few drawbacks. They are:

1) ironite can stain driveways, sidewalks, siding, decks, etc

2) you can over-apply iron and cause the lawn to turn grey or even completely “blow out” where the blades thin out completely

3) ironite is not slow-releasing and in my opinion won’t last as long in the lawn

Seriously guys, if you want iron in your lawn, use Milorganite. There are so many more advantages to it (like a boost of nitrogen as well) and it is error-proof… always important I think!

]]> http://yardandgardens.com/adding-iron-to-your-lawn-and-why/feed/ 0 http://yardandgardens.com/how-to-reduce-a-lawn-thatch-problem-in-your-lawn/ http://yardandgardens.com/how-to-reduce-a-lawn-thatch-problem-in-your-lawn/#comments Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:26:45 +0000 Yard Care Man http://yardandgardens.com/?p=120 I wanted to talk about lawn thatch buildup today because it is one of the top 5 reasons why home lawns look poor, brown and thin. Yep, that’s right, excessive thatch in your lawn is a huge problem and will cause all kinds of issues down the road if you don’t get it under control. So let’s talk about it and how we can take care of it. Good news: it’s an organic process!!

What Is Lawn Thatch?

The thatch in your lawn is a layer of organic materials that reside just above the soil line at the area of the grass crown. (grass crowns are the part of the plant where the blades grow from, like your hair grows out of the crown of your head ) Thatch is a GOOD thing in the lawn if it is managed properly.

The thatch in this lawn is thinning out the turf

Thatch is good because:

1) it shades the root system of the turf, helping the roots stay cooler in the dead of summer

2) it prevents soil erosion during heavy rains

3) it helps retain soil moisture, thus making your irrigation more effective

3) houses organisms that are healthy for lawn soil

So you can see that thatch in the lawn is good, but keep in mind you guys, only if it is managed and kept in proper levels. What that means is we want the thatch layer to remain thinner than 1/2 inch in the lawn. Any thicker and you are gonna have issues that will continue to build.

Too much thatch is bad because:

1) too much thatch makes the lawn spongy, meaning there is no room for grass to grow. In other words, the thatch layer competes with the grass itself, causing the lawn to thin out.

2) to0 much thatch means water (from rain or your sprinkler) cannot penetrate down into the soil. The water sits in the thick thatch layer. Grass roots will actually turn upward to get that water, meaning the grass roots are actually growing in the thatch layer and not the soil (shallow rooting) making the problem compound very quickly!

3) a thick thatch layer will harbor disease and fungus that can harm your turf.

the grass roots are ALL in the thatch layer, not soil

How To Manage Your Lawn’s Thatch Layer

I recommend that everyone of your reading this have your lawn aerated every single year in the fall. Aeration is a mechanical process (no chemicals!) that punches holes in the lawn. This loosens soil and allow root expansion, but for our purposes, it also punches holes in the thatch layer. Remember, some thatch is good, so we don’t need to remove it all if we are just managing it at a reasonable level. Aerate in the fall and you should be good.

However, if you already have a major thatch problem (your lawn is very spongy) then you need something more drastic. We call this de-thatching or power-raking and it is done by a machine with a roller and tines. The tines can be set to a depth that will literally scrape out the thatch. You can do this in the fall or in the spring. Just be careful not to remove ALL of the thatch. You should also be prepared to do some major cleanup after de-thatching.

What Causes The Thatch Layer To Get Too Thick?

I figured I’d throw this one in here at the end in case any of you are wondering. Thatch usually gets way to thick in lawns that have been freshly sodded in the last few years. Sod takes some time to create a root system. In addition, if you have a sprinkler system and set it to water only 10 minutes per day per zone, you are contributing to the problem. Ten minutes of water only makes the water sit on the surface of the lawn thus meaning the shallow sod roots stay above ground, causing thatch.

To prevent thatch, you need to water deep when you do! Your questions are welcome in the comments below.