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Author:  jc4u [ Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:45 pm ]
Post subject:  New lawn

I just moved into a newly built house. We sodded with Bermuda (2000 sq ft) in May '08 over clay and construction sand. I feritilized over the summer with syntetic stuff. I now want to go organic and need to know where to start. - Compost over the lawn first? Organic fertilizer first? Should I do both now or one now and one in Spring. I live in McKinney, Tx

Author:  pstevens1 [ Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:39 am ]
Post subject:  New Lawn

I would use an organic fertilizer now and save the compost for the spring right when the grass is starting to green up for the season.

Author:  user_48634 [ Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:14 pm ]
Post subject: 

I am sort of an organic traitor because I am not married to the idea of using compost. Here's why.

Compost is the end product of decomposition. The resulting material has no microbial food value left. If it had food value it would not be finished compost. Once the decomposition process is finished, the only thing left is cellulose that takes years longer to decompose plus the remains of the microbes that did the decomposing. Thus the value of compost is to wash those microbes off the cellulose to get them into the soil. So to summarize my heresy, compost has no residual fertilizer value. Any "NPK" value it has comes from those microbes.

Modern organic fertilizer is a blend of cereal grains like wheat, oats, corn, soy, as well as alfalfa and cottonseed. These are obviously food with protein, carbohydrate, vitamins, and minerals. These grains feed the microbes, assuming you have microbes. I automatically assume there are microbes. Perhaps they are underfed, but they are there. Once you feed them and perhaps dose them with molasses, they will respond by greening up your lawn and building their population in the soil. They spread quickly once fed and watered. Thus my point about not using compost is based on the assumption that there are is a minimal population of microbes that will grow into a more healthy population.

If cost is a concern, then you really want to skip the compost. In my area compost costs $50 per cubic yard plus $40-$50 for delivery. That amounts to $90 per 1,000 square feet. The cost of ordinary corn meal is $15 per 5,000 square feet or $3 per 1,000 square feet. You can apply bags and bags of corn meal before you approach the cost of compost.

In summary my suggestion is to skip the compost and just start fertilizing. If you have a spot that absolutely will not grow grass or weeds, then apply compost or compost tea.

Author:  jc4u [ Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:38 pm ]
Post subject: 

Can anyone tell me where in Dallas (I'm in McKinney) to get regular corn meal per David Hall's recommendation and price estimate? I have approx 20K in lawn size and all I've seen is corn gluten which is expensive. Below is David's recommendation from a month ago:

If cost is a concern, then you really want to skip the compost. In my area compost costs $50 per cubic yard plus $40-$50 for delivery. That amounts to $90 per 1,000 square feet. The cost of ordinary corn meal is $15 per 5,000 square feet or $3 per 1,000 square feet. You can apply bags and bags of corn meal before you approach the cost of compost.

Author:  user_48634 [ Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:46 am ]
Post subject: 

Go to Google Maps.

For your search criteria, type in feed stores, dallas, tx. I got 21,232 hits for feed store locations.

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