I’m very new at this and need to get my lawn off chemicals…lawn is green but, soil is dead. I need to restore the organic life I’ve killed over the last couple of years and was hoping you could look over my plan. Rather than ask a lot of questions here is what I “think” I should do….please poke holes in it so I can learn.

Additional info - Live in Connecticut, 70% shade lawn, 14,000 sf, do not water the lawn, mulch mower, cut as high as my mower will allow. have used J Green ferts.

New Plan -

1, Top dress my lawn in the fall with good quality compost – ¼ inch deep, do not bury the grass blades. Reseed where necessary.

2, Apply bacterial compost tea at a rate of 5 gal (tea) per 14,000 sf to help rebuild the beneficial life. Apply every two weeks during growing season or until my lawn looks better. Apply AM or PM to avoid UV light.

Making tea –
A, Fill 5 gal bucket with water from my well (62 +/- degrees, cold water holds oxygen better)
B, Add 2 lbs worm castings, 2 oz molasses and 1 oz kelp (add bulk, not in bag)
C, Mix well and aerate for 24 to 36 hrs (brew in basement to keep water temp lower) with three aquarium air pumps
D, Add (strain thru paint strainer) finished brew to 25 gal’s of (62 degree) well water and mix.
E, Apply to lawn with a backpack sprayer with largest spray tip.

3, Test lawn and apply correct amount of (organic) fert and lime.

Thanks for the help

On the up side, soil's never dead. Not unless it baked in the oven for a long time, and even then it stops being sterile as soon as water gets added and the bacterial spores drift in.

So far, your plan sounds great. #3 is the stickler, and we'll have to await your soil test to see what you need.

However, there's no need to wait with organic fertilizers (most of the targeted chemical changes use synthetics, actually, as you can get a much more metered change faster, cheaper, and without worrying that this batch of alfalfa contains a bit less K than the last). You can start tossing down any organic feeding you find at any time and in almost any amount. Most of the grains we discuss around here are great, or Milorganite.

Plus never let a leaf leave the property. Import if you can. The positive advantages of leaf mulch and, later, leaf humus aren't to be under-estimated!

+1 Andy. I neglected to mention that I have no experience with compost tea, so can't really guide you on it. I never used that or compost to light the fires (as it were) in the soil...I just started organic feeding. It worked.

Your plan calls for a 1/4" of top-dressing of compost. If it high-quality stuff, you don't need the compost tea unless you really know what you're doing, are targeting a specific set of microbes and can somehow verify it (outside lab, microscope, etc). Put down the compost, and spray some molasses if you'd like - but let the microbes grow in situ. (An argument can be made that compost tea has additional benefits as a foliar application, but I'm ignoring that for now.)

If you really want to use your sprayer after you put down quality compost, you'd be better off using a soil conditioner (humates, kelp extracts, flocculants, etc.).

I agree with all said above. I'd like to add that it is very nice to see when someone has been doing their homework.

I would not sweat the compost tea, but hey, this is your hobby, not mine. I would be on a grain based fertilizer immediately. Morph mentioned the importance of this. Organic fertilizer is both necessary and sufficient to get going all by itself. Compost has a lot of benefits but long term fertilizing is not one of them. You need fertilizer.

Why don't you water? Is it because you don't need to?

This is a great help...can't thank you guys enough.

MorpheusPA - I had my soil tested a couple years ago and the Calcium, PH and Phosphorus were low. I followed the recommendations to get things back to optimum so I have to assume I'm fairly close or at least better than it was. Didn't know soil doesn't really die...glad to hear!!

andy10917 - Your right, I have not had a good steady rain in about 8 weeks...all the hard work I did the past two years is gone.

I'm still scratching my head on how to get 1/4 compost over my entire lawn so if a good quality organic fert will work just as well that would be great.

cactus - I've wondered the same thing - If I don't know the exact makeup of my tea, I have no idea when its "really" ready to be applied. I'm going with the idea that something was better than nothing; I'm considering testing but have not gone that far yet. What do you mean by " using a soil conditioner (humates, kelp extracts, flocculants, etc.)" can this be applied in liquid form?

Dchall_San_Antonio - Thanks for the homework plug...great hobby, a lot to learn and its all for a good cause. In addition to getting rid of chemicals in my lawn I've also gone from putting a full 32 gal trash can at the curb each week for pickup to now (one month later) I'm canceling my trash pickup (don't need it) due to more recycling and composting. Also planning to start a veg garden next spring to close the whole organic loop.

I don't water because I have a well and the well pump out-put is less than the sprinkler output...run out of water. I live in CT and with the lack of rain my lawn is crisp.

Is it just wishful thinking on my part or can I apply organic fert and a soil conditioner (humates, kelp extracts, flocculants, etc.) and skip the 1/4 compost top dress? I'll make compost tea for the plants and veg garden instead.
FYI - I did apply J Green Natural beauty organic fert and Mag-I-Cal in June

Davidb6 wrote:MorpheusPA - I had my soil tested a couple years ago and the Calcium, PH and Phosphorus were low. I followed the recommendations to get things back to optimum so I have to assume I'm fairly close or at least better than it was. Didn't know soil doesn't really die...glad to hear!!

Good! Warranted, pH walks over time, so that may need adjustment. P tends to leach out or bind up into fixed compounds. Calcium, like pH, changes. No doubt some twiddling will be necessary. Even I have to twiddle and I test every year.

I don't water because I have a well and the well pump out-put is less than the sprinkler output...run out of water. I live in CT and with the lack of rain my lawn is crisp.

I discontinued irrigation July first because the weather this year is awful, and no harm done (recent photos show it still looked great). Right now it's going a bit crispy critters, but we're coming up on two weeks without significant rain, and one week with nothing (and very hot).

Your lawn will survive this...although bad, it's not an absolutely intolerable year.

Is it just wishful thinking on my part or can I apply organic fert and a soil conditioner (humates, kelp extracts, flocculants, etc.) and skip the 1/4 compost top dress? I'll make compost tea for the plants and veg garden instead.
FYI - I did apply J Green Natural beauty organic fert and Mag-I-Cal in June

We'll take note of the Mag-I-Cal; that's going to change your pH, but may not have had quite sufficient rainfall to work down into the testing range yet.

It's not wishful thinking. There's just NO WAY I'm putting down 1/4" of compost on this lawn. None. Too expensive, too much effort, and way too much time when a thousand other tasks are screaming for attention. Plus I wasn't in a condition to absolutely require it. This used to be corn field. It was tapped out, biologically not very active, and absolutely horrible soil. However, it had never been severely poisoned (it could, after all, grow corn), nor had it flooded for days in anyone's memory (I'm in the billion year flood zone).

So I never did. What I did do--knowing that soil has bacteria in it, and anything I'm missing will drift in over time anyway--is feed them heavily. Cracked corn. Milorganite. Soybean meal. Alfalfa. Kelp meal. Leaves. Weeds (with roots, flowers, and seeds torn off). Contents of the garden in November. Anything I could get my hands on. Plus spray with soil conditioner and Kelp Help with Humates (cheap formulas available on this site).

That worked. It may take longer to light the fires, as it were, but not much. The first soil test made me gag. Now I just smile (and get my butt to work on adding more organic material and adjusting the little things that remain).

Compost is great. It has its uses. I just don't consider the lawn one of them--most of my compost output goes to the younger trees, roses, and Thuja. Anything remaining will get scattered over the lawn, but it's not much.

Compost for 14,000 square feet is 14 cubic yards. If I was going that direction, I would have that much blown in by professionals with a big truck. You won't lose by deleting compost from your plan. That might make compost tea more important. Spraying 14,000 square feet will take some time, too.

If you cannot water in the summer, you might try not mowing either. Tall grass will survive drought much better than short grass.

You guys made my day (year) if I don't need to spread compost over 14,000sf. I will use compost for any areas needing re-seeding and may top dress small sections at a time each fall.

Glad I found this forum (and you guys) first!

Just to clarify - my lawn is suffering due to lack of rain but I also want to get it off chemicals. I'm assuming the chemical ferts I've used made the grass green and thick but started to kill off the life in the soil.

MorpheusPA - Is this the formula you mentioned?

Bestlawn Kelp Help With Humates:
About 1 oz of unsulphured blackstrap molasses
4 oz of kelp concentrate
8 oz of humic acid concentrate
2 gallons of water

Spray at 2 ounces per gallon per thousand square feet.
Use 4 ounces of powder (or 8 for the HA) plus 1 gallon of water to make the concentrate, then use that at 2-ish ounces per thousand. If you use both the kelp and HA, it's 4 ounces of the kelp powder, 8 ounces of the HA powder, and 2 gallons of water (plus some molasses if you want) to create the concentrate which you then spray at 2 ounces per gallon of water.

Dchall_San_Antonio - During the summer I only mow where it needs to be mowed. In fact, my front lawn was mowed the first week of June and not again until the last week of July. Also during the summer I try to mow the lawn when I expect a cooler couple of days are ahead...not always possible, but I try.

The worst part of my lawn (brown and dry) is under tree overhangs. The rain we did get was so light it's not enough to get through the tree branches. Open areas with little or no tree cover is much better. I'm sure there is competition from the tree roots also at wok here.

That's it--you might want to check out the soil conditioner, as well (same thread). I credit that with taking my soil from 1/4" of decent stuff to 30" of decent stuff...

Is this the one?

Bestlawn Soil Conditioner:

8 oz of yucca extract
80 ounces of sodium laureth sulfate
Add water to 1 gallon (about 40 ounces)

Spray at 1 to 2 ounces per gallon per thousand square feet

Started searching the web for sources of these ingredient's; anyplace you can recommend?

You got it.

For SLES: Click here for more information

For yucca: Click here for more information

The quart of yucca will make about 4 gallons, so don't bother getting a gallon.

This sure sounds a lot easier than my plan...can't thank you enough.

Do you have an overall lawn care schedule you wouldn't mind sharing that includes the Kelp Help and soil conditioner?

For example - do you also use an organic fert (like 10-10-10) as well? How often do you apply these?

Thanks again
Dave

No problem. Yucca is also a non-ionic surfactant, so anything (like most herbicide concentrates and other stuff) that calls for it can use yucca with no problems.

Perhaps you don't want to follow my exact plan. This year I'm cutting back, which means I only need 12 bags of Milorganite and 7 bags of soy between now and the end of the season. Plus winterizer. On seven thousand square feet of lawn and two thousand of gardens.

A good rule of thumb is to get something down every month to six weeks or so, and shoot for 80 to 100 pounds of organic feeding (in the form of Milorganite, soybean meal, etc.) per thousand square feet over the course of the season. You can spray with both formulae at the same time, so every four to six weeks. That would be what I consider a good basic plan, allow for some soil changes, not be a budget-buster, and do a good job feeding the lawn (figure 5 to 7 pounds of actual N per year depending on what you use).

If you want faster soil changes, accelerate the sprays to once a month. Plus add more organic material--it's really very difficult to overdo it, although I'd avoid going too terribly high the first year until the soil organisms come up to being able to handle huge amounts. I ended up applying 1,200 pounds per thousand square feet of organics last year (not including the gardens) for a total of about 8,400 pounds. It was disappearing as fast as I could add it. That worked out to a grand total of 37 pounds of organic nitrogen per thousand square feet. Do that with a synthetic and you just destroyed the soil, killed the lawn, and rendered your plot unable to grow anything until the salts wash out. Doing it organically? I was cutting twice a week all season long, further adding OM in the form of clippings and root sloughing. Plus it went *really* green.

Or, if hauling that much material doesn't appeal, hybridize and feed organically in summer, synthetically in spring and fall. There's nothing wrong with doing that, and any added organic material will help. Spray when you have time, maybe 2 to 3 times per year. Changes will be very slow, but they'll still happen.

Spot spray or not for weeds as it pleases you; herbicides have very little impact on the soil for the most part, and there's always a bacteria that thinks of that as lunch. Or pick them out, use a Weed Hound, whatever.

Try to avoid insecticides unless you have good reason to use them--I use Grub-X because historically I've had grub issues. I treat the back line with Sevin because we've had tick issues (and three dogs, plus Lyme's is very widespread here). I try to weigh the potential damage against the damage of NOT doing it, and both of those fit the bill--for me.

I've seen all three methods used. My soil has undergone a rapid-fire transformation from almost white to deep brown, filled with worms, healthy, airy, and capable of growing anything I throw at it (except the stuff I'm bad at, like azaleas...I just stink at dealing with those). Overall, I'm scoring myself a 9 overall (I'm picky; most people put it at 9.5+), 10 for the neighborhood, and probably a 9.5 compared overall to every lawn I've ever seen.

My mother chose the middle path and her soil and lawn have markedly improved to being the best in the neighborhood. They don't and can't compete with mine, but on the 1 to 10 scale she's definitely scoring a 7 to 8 overall and a 10 for the surroundings.

Her neighbor is using the lowest approach. Things have improved. On the 1 to 10 scale, it's a 5 and he hasn't been doing this nearly as long as my mother and I, so there's definite improvement from his previous score of 3 or so. Neighborhood-wise, it's scoring a 6 or so--better than average, but not yet markedly so.

What I'm saying is there's no wrong answer...light, heavy, or hybrid, what works for you will be just fine and WILL help. Only the magnitude of change and the speed of it is different between them.

Addendum: rather than take my word for my score (and realizing that I'm extremely critical of my own work), check my blog. The photos are up, and you can draw your own conclusions. Realizing, of course, that it's an elite bluegrass lawn...but the gardens are pretty standard stuff.

I will also share my schedule for a southern lawn and then comment on the impact of doing it similarly in the north.

I fertilize with ordinary corn meal on the federal holidays. I start on Washington's Birthday, then Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. I use corn meal because I can get it at any feed store in my area. You probably cannot get it where you live but you can probably get soy bean meal and alfalfa pellets. I like the federal holiday schedule because it is easy to remember. My personal application rate is 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet. When I'm making suggestions I tell folks that anything from 10-20 pounds per 1,000 is fine. Morph and many others have demonstrated that going to much higher rates than those I suggest will not hurt anything and may develop good biology in the soil faster.

If you are using organic fertilizer, you can follow that schedule in the north, too. You might want to skip Washington's Birthday unless your soil temps are more toward the upper 40s (unlikely). Generally, according to the farmers who grow pastures in the north, the northern grasses are fertilized once in the late spring and twice in the fall. The bulk of the "nitrogen," from 3/4 to 2/3, goes on in the fall. They wait until late spring to start because in the early spring the grass is going to grow like gang busters anyway. If they feed too early they are feeding the weeds and encouraging hyper growth of the grass. Their reason for waiting is to keep from having to mow if they can help it. Cattle can eat a lot of grass in the early spring but they cannot keep up with hyper fast growth. Plus if they fertilize after the initial flush of fast growth, they keep the growth going longer into the summer.

Softening your soil is a good idea. I have one method using a soaker hose, but it takes weeks to do it. Morph has been very successful with his surfactant recipe, so I would go with that. His method might take weeks, too, but it is much less hassle than my method.

Just a reminder since you are new to this, don't expect to see overnight results. It takes 3 full weeks to see the color change to dark green after applying organic fertilizer. These 3 weeks are another reason for my federal holiday schedule. By applying on those dates I usually don't get the grass turning yellow in between applications. Once it turns yellow, if you apply immediately you get to wait 3 weeks. You'll get the hang of this and develop a working schedule for yourself. These are just suggestions. There is no wrong answer, as Morph said.

Glad I found this forum (and you guys) first!

We are too. It is frustrating for us when someone comes in and starts off with, "I didn't want to do anything harmful to my lawn before asking, so all I did was..." Usually they have done something like spray RoundUp to kill weeds or they rototilled. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The volume of and types of material are far different than I expected...very helpful info, thanks. I typically haven't done much more than apply Scott 4 step but the last two years I've been experimenting. Wanted to try higher quality products and try some different approaches. Unfortunately, due to the dry weather (dead grass) I can't tell what worked and what didn't. I can say that my yard looked great until mid June which is more than I can say for the lawns around me.
When I dug a small herb garden in May the soil was so bad (dry, white, dead looking, hard packed) it was an awakening...why was I feeding the grass and not the soil.

Here's what I did - (which I think was an overdose..had to cut the lawn every 4 days)

March 19, J Green, Crabgrass preventer and green-up, 15,000sf
Lots of rain
March 26, Agway Gyspum, 5,000 sf, front lawn only
Spot spray weed killer
March 30, Chicken poop, front lawn only, 10,000sf
April 11, J Green Mir-a-cal, front and side yard only, 10,000sf (based on soil tests)
April 9, Agway soil activator, front and north side yard, 10,000sf
April 24, J Green weed and feed – 15,000sf
- Switch to organic –
June 28, J Green Natrual beauty organic fert, 15,000sf
J Green Mag-I-Cal, rear and far front, 10,000sf
Spot spray weeds
July 30, Worm compost tea, 5 gal (15gal diluted) front yard only

I'll wait until we get some rain to wash in what I've already applied and begin the transition. Need to get on-line to start ordering the ingredients for Kelp-Help and the soil conditioner and start shopping for Milorganite and/or soybean meal ferts and maybe some corn meal for N. Will also plan to get the soil tested in the next month or so to get a starting point.

You guys saved me a few years of learning.
Thanks

That's fairly reasonable feeding rates for dry and hot weather, and you can find the organics whenever you have time to do so. There's no real rush.

You may want to get cracked corn instead of corn meal. It takes longer to decay, but goes through the spreader more like a granular fertilizer. I've had some trouble with corn meal that's too powdery.

One word: corn is a lousy source of N. The NPK of corn is approximately 1.65-0.65-0.40. By comparison:

Soybean Meal: 7-1-2
Milorganite: 5-2-0
Alfalfa: 2.5-0.5-2

To calculate how much to put down to get 1 pound of N per thousand, divide 100 by the N percentage, so:

Soybean Meal: 100/7 = 14.3 pounds per thousand
Milorganite: 100/5 = 20 pounds per thousand
Alfalfa: 100/2.5 = 40 pounds per thousand
Corn: 100/1.65 = 60.6 pounds per thousand

Of course, we don't just put them down for N as some things have other advantages. Milorganite has a lot of iron. Alfalfa contains root growth hormones. Corn is a fantastic soil conditioner and fungus fighter at 20 pounds per thousand.

Corn's also great because you can dump vast volumes of it without overfeeding the lawn (which is hardly possible organically anyway) or generating a lot of smell as it decays. Soy stinks if you put down too much. Milorganite has an odor when it goes down and may smell a bit as it decays. Alfalfa and corn are pretty scentless, but alfalfa is more expensive on average.

MorpheusPA wrote: Soy stinks if you put down too much. Milorganite has an odor when it goes down and may smell a bit as it decays. Alfalfa and corn are pretty scentless, but alfalfa is more expensive on average.

Sorry to OP if this is off topic, but I always wondered about this -- I can't get SBM to smell, no matter how much I put down. Ok, to be fair, I have only gone up to 20lb on my 500sf front yard at one time (40lb/1000), but not a whiff. Alfalfa, on the other hand, stinks like really strong manure or rotting something for a few days after, even at less than 10lb per 1000sf (so only 5lb on my 500sf front).

Would this be because of different concentrations of different microbes in the soil? I just found it curious, not that I mind at all. I still mix it up, and so far no one in the neighbourhood has figured out that it is our yard that is the stink factory whenever the alfalfa goes down

Sure, differing bacteria (and/or differing climate) are entirely possible. I can't get alfalfa to stink no matter what I do, but if I pass 30 per K of soy it whiffs a bit. Sixty and it's unspeakable for three days. Sixty of corn and it smells a bit like a corn field post-harvest--not at all unpleasant. And that fades fast.