Top Dressing Compost Vs Compost Tea

13 years ago

A little background: my wife and I bought a house in July. We live in Dallas which mostly clay soils. The yard is very established St Augustine except in the back which is a mix of bermuda and St Augustine. I have been reading Teaming With Microbes. I have just gotten started started on an organic program. I applied 50lbs of SBM and sprayed Midtholian Lou's recipe of fish and seaweed extract, cider vinegar, and molasses to the yard in early August. I am going to apply CGM this weekend and next.

I need to add compost. Is it better to use aerated compost tea or top dress a layer of compost. I would like to use a tea initially since 3 or 4 yards is a lot of compost to deal with. I am not sure the history of the yard care in the past. There is weed and feed in the garage, but I am not sure if it was left by the previous owners or the 2 generation of previous owners.

I have been mowing with a reel mover set as high as it will go. Our grass is definitely looking better than our

Comments (3)

Kimmsr
13 years ago
Spraying compost tea might be a good short term booster but if the soil does not have a good supply of organic matter for the Soil Food Web to live on it will do little long term. I'd top dress with compost.
dallasjava
Original Author
13 years ago
kimmsr, doesn't the soybean meal break down into organic matter?
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gargwarb
13 years ago
The amount of organic matter that you're shooting for will vary depending on the situation, the plant type, and who you ask but a pretty good rule of thumb is 5 to 6% by dry weight. If you put out steamed bone meal at a relatively aggressive rate of 15 lbs. per 1000 sq. feet, that would only boost the organic content by about 0.003%, or three one thousandths of one percent. That is, of course, before it even breaks down and some is lost to leaching, volitalization, plant uptake, etc.
So the answer is yes but not much. Like Kimmsr, I too would top dress with compost.