Extended evening hours and warmer weather certainly are nice!
I applied 8 oz per thousand square feet of whole milk, plus 3 oz per thousand kelp, 3 oz per thousand humic acid, and 3 oz per thousand sodium laureth sufate solution. Those can sit until the next rainfall, which will probably be Friday.
Milk seems to have an odd effect in the lawn, gently enhancing performance on soils that are already resource-tuned and organic. I'm not certain that it would do much of anything on a poorer soil, however, so this isn't a step I generally recommend.
Kelp contains minor amounts of growth hormones, useful in developing spring root systems. It also contains just about every element possible, so any temporary shortfalls can be supplied via foliar input. The amount of organic matter is minor, but I'll take it.
Humic acid encourages fungal development and may help a bit with water retention. Since the latter isn't an issue in my soil, it's not a real consideration.
Sodium laureth sulfate flocculates (gathers together) soils, making them softer and allowing water and air to penetrate more easily. Of all the things I used today, this is the one with the greatest impact. Rather than purchase SLES online (which you can do), it's just as easy to use 3 ounces per thousand square feet of Suave or White Rain shampoo, or the generic baby shampoo off the shelf.
Application of shampoo can be made monthly until the soil loosens up, and should be combined with organic feeding and a soil test and resource balancing.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Milk and So On
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2 comments:
Georgiadad here. I see you're spraying milk in the spring. So it's safe to assume it's ok to put down milk during the growth spurt? Second question. I was spraying milk last fall. Then winter arrived unwelcomed a month early here. I found an unopened milk container in the basement fridge from last fall. Besides the smell, would it be ok to spray that on the yard this spring?
Milk's fine during the growth spurt!
Discard the basement milk and buy new. Who knows what grew during the winter in that stuff?
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