Saturday, July 24, 2010

Feeding Update

I've been pretty good about publishing photos, but I haven't been so good about updating how I'm keeping the lawn looking like that!

With my low iron levels (1.3 PPM on the last soil test), and slightly high pH, iron's critical. I've dropped 50 pounds of ferrous sulfate (7.1 pounds per thousand) this year to help with both iron levels and the pH. Ferrous sulfate has about 1/8th the acidifying power of elemental sulfur, so this is the equivalent of a bit under a pound of sulfur per thousand.

I've backed off on feeding this year what with the heat and the fact that the soil simply doesn't need it any longer. So far, 118 pounds per thousand square feet of organic feedings have gone down. I'm dividing that into half Milorganite, half soybean meal for most feedings, although I did drop 20 pounds per thousand square feet of cracked corn earlier in the season to help with any fungal issues.

All things considered, that works out (per thousand square feet so far this year) to 6.5 pounds of organic nitrogen, 2.5 pounds of phosphorus, 1 pound of potassium, and 9.6 pounds of iron.

August's feeding goes right around the first, and that will be pure Milorganite. The second August feeding will be soybean meal, around the 15th. That will help get the lawn fed for fall when it really wants the nitrogen. I'll continue heavily feeding in September as well since the weather is still compatible.

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