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mcoleman80_gw

Summer Lawncare Plan -- any thoughts??

mcoleman80
13 years ago

I posted this in the Lawn Care forum and they referred me over to Organic Lawn Care (DUH! Didn't see it or I would have posted here the first time! :).

I'm a fairly new homeowner with a typical quarter acre lot in the north 'burbs of Chicago. All of my neighbors use the lawn companies who come and spray their lawns, and I'm out to prove that the job can be done organically. Or at least without harmful chemicals.

Here's the plan I've got put together for the summer. I'm hoping to get ya'lls thoughts. I'm still pretty new, so I appreaciate any feedback.

I have two questions regarding the plan for sure... 1) Am I applying enough organic matter to stimulate ongoing hummus development and 2) Do I need the potash as a regular part of the plan, or only if my soil test says I'm low on potassium? I'm not exactly applying a TON of potash; also everything else I'm applying seems a bit week in potassium.

Here's the plan:

APRIL 1

50lbs Corn Gluten Meal (10-0-0)

APRIL 15

Fish/Seaweed Emulsion Spray (2-3-1)

6lbs Bone Meal (6-9-0)

15lbs Blood Meal (13-1-0)

MAY 1

20lbs Ringer Fertilizer (10-2-6)

JUNE 1

100lbs Potash (0-0-30)

AUGUST 1

20 lbs Ringer Fertilizer (10-2-6)

SEPTEMBER 1

Aerate, Kentucky Bluegrass Overseed, Compost

Comments (7)

  • bpgreen
    13 years ago

    How big is your lawn? Or are you stating the number of lbs per 1000 sq ft for each product?

    Is your current lawn KBG? If so, you shouldn't need to overseed, unless you're doing so for a particular reason, such as adding a cultivar for some specific property (or properties) that your current lawn lacks. If it's just to make the lawn fuller, KBG will do that on its own.

    You're not applying a tone of potash (unless you're using lbs per 1000 sq ft and you have 20k sq ft of lawn). But you're applying 100 lbs of 30% potash. Is your lawn currently low on potash or are you adding it just because the other things are somewhat low in potash?

    If you mulch mow, you're not losing potash, so all the potash you've applied in the past is still there. Most of it, anyway, some could have leached out, but it's fairly stable in the soil. Where I live, there's no need to add any potash, even for those people who routinely bag their leaves. The soil around here is naturally high in both P and K.

    I'm not sure of the dates (maybe Garyc will chime in). Personally, if I were going to use blood meal, since it's fast release, I think I'd do that late fall, like October or November to give the grass a boost going into winter.

  • Kimmsr
    13 years ago

    Grasses up here tend to try, really hard, to go dormant during the summer so mostly what they need is water. Unless a good, reliable soil test said your soil was low in Potassium I would not add any Potash and 20 pounds of Ringers may not be enough (as I recall that 20 pounds is for 2,500 square feet).
    You may find this article from Ohio State helpful
    http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/4000/4031.html

    Here is a link that might be useful: UI CES

  • dchall_san_antonio
    13 years ago

    Gary replied to his question on his other post in the Lawns forum.

    Listen to GaryinChicago and you'll have the Yard of the Month all season long. There is absolutely no reason why not. Organics seem to provide a slightly deeper green to grass.

  • mcoleman80
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Hey thanks for these thoughts! Here are my answers to the currently outstanding questions:

    1) My lawn is a quarter acre -- about 50x100. With the house and garden areas taken out of that, I figure it's about 2500sq ft. The quantities on my list are for the entire yard, not per 1000st feet.

    2) Lawn is currently a nasty looking blend of contractors mix. I'm overseeding with hopes that the KBG will become the predominant species of grass.

    3) So the potash is only useful as a reaction to the soil test suggestions, that is good to know for sure! I was adding it because the remainder of my products are deficient in potassium, and I have read that it is good for root development.

    4) Blood meal is moving back on the schedule to the Fall! Good suggestion.

    KIMMSR -- those links are awesome! thanks... I'm new to suburban living and I am having a great time exploring all of the stuff out there on this.

    From these two responses I modified the plan a bit, but am still not confident in the amount of blood meal and bone meal I was planning to use:

    APRIL 1
    50lbs Corn Gluten Meal (10-0-0)
    Fish/Seaweed Emulsion Spray (2-3-1)
    (HOW MUCH) Bone Meal (6-9-0)

    MAY 1
    30 lbs Ringer Fertilizer (10-2-6)

    JUNE 1
    50lbs Corn Gluten Meal (10-0-0)

    AUGUST 21
    Aerate
    20lbs Kentucky Bluegrass Overseed
    30lbs Ringer Fertilizer

    NOVEMBER 1
    (HOW MUCH) Blood Meal

  • dchall_san_antonio
    13 years ago

    In all my years on organic forums, nobody has paid much attention to bone meal. Why do you want to use that? Did you read something somewhere or get advice from a soil test lab?

    Blood meal is a relatively hot material. It probably should be mixed with something else you were going to apply. That would be a good time for soy if you can find that. I would mix 5-10 pounds of blood meal thoroughly with soy and spread the blend at 10-30 pounds per 1,000 square feet. At that time of year I would advise you to use up everything you have in the garage so it doesn't get wormy over the winter. I have used it in the wormy stage. It is icky but still goes out at the same rates.

  • matt_in_mi
    13 years ago

    I'd go ahead and apply some potash if it was my yard. Especially if you've never added any before. Based on my last soil test, my yard was way below optimum when it came to (K), so I don't buy the notion that mulching supplies all you need, or that it isn't used/leached out of the soil. I've never bagged my clippings, been mulching them from day one and yet I have very little (K) in my soil. But of course everywhere is different and it really depends on your specific property, which is why everyone should have a soil test done that gives a wit about their lawn.

    My property used to be a farm field at one time, but hadn't been actively farmed for the previous 15 yrs before I bought it. Perhaps the previous farming had something to due with the low levels of (K) in my soil. According to my soil test, my property has above optimum levels of (P), optimum levels of (Mg) and way below optimum levels of (K). The ag agent that did my soil test said I needed to add 3-4 lbs of (K) per 1000/ft to bring up the level of (K). He specifically recommended an applications of 5# of a 0-0-60 per 1000/ft to accomplish this.

    Applying the potash won't hurt, it may help, but you won't know for sure until you do a soil test, but I wouldn't just assume that you already have plenty just because you mulch mow, etc...

    Having said that, applying 100 lbs of a 0-0-30 to a lawn only 2500 sq ft. seems like quite a bit to me. That would result in 30 lbs of (K) / 2.5 = 12 lbs of (K) per 1000/ft. Considering my ag agent seemed to think adding 3-4 per 1000/ft would be enough to bring my way below optimum levels up to optimum. 12 lbs per seems unnecessary.

    results of my last soil test:
    (P) was 30 ppm, which was deemed above optimum.
    (K) was 37 ppm, which was deemed way below optimum.
    (Mg) was 105 ppm, which was at the upper end of optimum levels, just below what they considered above optimum.

  • bpgreen
    13 years ago

    Mcoleman, I wouldn't go by Matt's soil test results when you're deciding what to put on your lawn. His results only apply to his lawn. Without a soil test, there's no way to know whether or not you need P and K.

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