Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
hogan_nj

HELP dandelions!

hogan_nj
15 years ago

I need some help here. I just decided this year I wanted to go all organic. So I sent out for a soil test about 3 weeks ago. In the meantime I did very little to my lawn,I basically just did a spring clean up.

The wheather here has been cool and wet,so the grass looked pretty good. Today the first day in awhile it was 65 degrees and sunny. I looked outside and their were dandelions all over the place. One area was really bad.

I thought going organic that I would just pull the weeds with the weed hound and not worry. There are to many to pull by hand.

I

Can anyone give me a suggestion on what to do?

Comments (16)

  • mrpeach
    15 years ago

    Be happy. Make dandelion wine.

  • hogan_nj
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Any other suggestions?

  • dchall_san_antonio
    15 years ago

    Weed hound and grow your grass taller. I assume you have cool season grasses in NJ.

  • organic2009
    15 years ago

    Science and more importantly nature has yet to provide us with a truly organic herbicide that works and is cost efficient. There is nothing you can do to make them go away immediately without using a chemical herbicide. (that mostly likely will include 2-4D...the distant cousin of Agent Orange.)
    Dandelions are a wonderful sign of spring weather and one of the most important parts of organic lawn care is to develop not only a tolerance for weeds but an appreciation for some things most everybody else considers a pest. Dandelions are pretty and will go to seed and disappear pretty quickly.
    If you go with our advice of appreciation and mowing high you should also check your soil pH and start to make the necessary adjustments to make the environment less suitable for weeds and more suitable for grass.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Lawns for America

  • billhill
    15 years ago

    There is no law stating that you must go all organic all at one time. Many including myself made a slow transition to organic lawn care. Many practice a hybrid approach to lawn maintenance using spot treatments of selective herbicides and one application of urea as the last fertilizer application in late fall. I recommend that you use organic fertilizers starting immediately but unless you are a truly orthodox organic gardener, you should get your weeds and crabgrass under control before you dump the chemicals down the drain.
    Quoting my friend dchall_san_antonioÂs frequent advise:
    "1. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.
    2. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above.
    3. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above."
    Bill Hill

    Here is a link that might be useful: Organic lawncare FAQ

  • andy10917
    15 years ago

    You can either spot-treat the dandelions with 2-4D for this year, or trust that you'll beat them with better practices by next year and just pull the flowers so they don't go to seed. Almost all dandelions are biennial. I noticed in your other posting that your Calcium/Magnesium ratios are a bit low - switch to a Calcitic lime next year. Ratios under 7:1 can encourage a natural process of deep-rooted dandelions trying to pull Calcium to the surface - they become the "alpha dog" in those situations.

  • hogan_nj
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Thank you for your replies. My question as far as putting down lime next year is,why would I need it next year since I never used lime since I been in my house for over 8 years? I mean my ph is slightly acidic,why all of a sudden next year would it need lime?

  • andy10917
    15 years ago

    If you live in NJ and have natural pH 6.85 soil you should thank your lucky stars. You must have a local microenvironment - many NJ soils can run as low as pH 5.0 - we had a guy claiming a NJ soil with pH 3.5 just the other day. We told him to rerun the tests as we didn't think that was possible, but untreated NJ soils and most of the Northeast tend to run pretty acidic.

    Was the soil test taken by mixing soils from several spots on your lawn?

    My comment about "the next time you lime" was that you were asking about your bumper crop of dandelions. Soils in which the amount of Calcium is lower than 7 times the amount of Magnesium can make dandelions the "alpha dog" of the soil as they are specialized scavengers of Calcium from places very deep in the soil. You can't add Calcium or Magnesium to your soil without affecting pH upward though. My comment was to say that should the pH fall, use a Calcitic lime instead of a Dolomitic one.

    Don't use any lime unless that pH falls.

    Your soil test didn't happen to include a "buffer pH" value, did it?

  • hogan_nj
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    No it does not have a buffer ph.

    OK so no lime unless the ph really drops,got it. How do I eventually get the calcium to magnesium ratio under control. You said I can not address that problem without effecting the ph,so I guess all I can do at this time is use a organic fert., correct?

  • andy10917
    15 years ago

    Calcium and Magnesium are relatively slow to leave the soil, but they will eventually. When they do, use a Calcitic lime instead of the Dolomitic lime that all the big-box stores carry. The proportion of Calcium to Magnesium is like 2:1 or 3:1 in the Dolomitic stuff (way too low) and 10:1 in the Calcitic stuff. I use the Jonathan Green Mir-A-Cal or Mag-I-Cal stuff. I'm sure there is a garden center that carries the Jonathan Green products somewhere near you. The price is 8X as high, but it go 10X farther, so its actually cheaper. I think that a company named Encap also makes it, but I've been unable to find it.

    As far as the fertilizer goes, I'd say that your soil test is a very nice starting place for the season. Go for it!

  • cookie8
    15 years ago

    I also like the Weedhound. I can get up to 10 recycle bags a season - this usually includes plantains. Each year makes a huge difference and I am talking about 1/3 an acre that I am tackling. It helps to start as soon as the dandelions pop out before they flower. Granted I am probably driving my neighbours nuts with the clanging noise the thing makes.

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago

    2,4,D is not a cousin of Agent Orange it is a constituent part of that along with many other herbicides and that is why you never, ever mix chemicals unless yuou know for an absoulte fact they will not morph into somethning even worse. 2,4, D, Dicanbra, etc. are not acceptable herbicides to an organic gardener.
    To control Dandelions in your lawn you can spray existing plants with vinegar, stronger levels of acetic acid than the grocers carry can often be found in the better garden centers, but work on getting the present turf growing thicker which can help prevent future seed germination.

  • andy10917
    15 years ago

    Uh-oh. We have the self-appointed enviro-police telling a homeowner what he "can" do and setting the rules for organics. Kimmsr - do you have training in biochemistry? I do. Your statements about those herbicides is miles from true, and is most likely just regurgitated from sites that state weak opinions as fact and quote each other as "expert opinions".

    Were you even honest enough to tell this person that is asking for an opinion about dandelions that 15-20% acetic acid is a non-selective kill and the surrounding grass will die too?

    Hogan_NJ, getting your lawn dense enough to hold off the weeds is a work-in-progress. It takes commitment and a weaning process to get the soil and grass back to a thriving place. Don't be afraid to make minor synthetic treatments to get to wholely organic - we'd hate to see you throw in the towel just to make someone who throws around junk science happy. The last person throwing around that stuff turned out to have an IP Address in a dorm room at SUNY Albany. So much for the real world experience.

  • donaldb
    15 years ago

    Break the rules and use Bayer Broad Leaf weed killer.

  • civilengr3
    15 years ago

    Mowing high makes for a thick lawn that shades out the weeds, including dandelions. My first year mowing high, I still had a lot of dandelions. The second year was much improved. By year 3, I had no dandelions at all in my yard, while my neighbors on either side of me had lawns full of them. I didn't even bother pulling many of them, especially at first, since there were so many. But I guess too, I really didn't care if I had the dandelions. Guess it depends on how big a deal you want to make of them.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    15 years ago

    I've had dandelions die right in front of me simply because I let the grass grow up tall. Normally dandelion leaves lay out flat but when the grass grew up under them, the dandelions folded up and disappeared.

Sponsored
Rodriguez Construction Company
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars1 Review
Industry Leading Home Builders in Franklin County, OH