Winni Water Quality A Concern

[lawn psycho]

Originally Posted by Jeanzb1

News Flash:

My husband just retired from working as a senior turf specialist for TruGreen ChemLawn for 20 years. Most people opt for the standard "quick green-up" treatment, which contains phosphorus as the first number (largest ingredient.)
Furthermore, from where we are I can easily see homeowners pushing the broadcast fertilizer spreader around the lawn, right up to the water's edge. That being said, I'm sure that leaching fields from septic systems are also a problem. But to start addressing this very serious water quality problem, as a first step doesn't it make sense to educate people about the use of Scott's and other phosphorus-based fertilizers???

Newsflash: The "lawn" service companies are the one's pushing the high nitrogen. Homeowner's don't "opt" for it. Ever notice there is ONE tank on the back of the truck for fertilizer? The reason lawn service companies push a fertilizer with a high nitrogren content is the grass plant can quickly use it for food and hence the quick green up. The consumer then thinks they are getting some kind of value. The problem is, the way to a healthly lawn is the soil. Bad soil = bad lawn. However, give me a bad lawn and I can push a ton of nitrogen to it and it will be green. Stop feeding and the issues return. What's worse is they also use cheap seed, not sod quality so they are acutually planting weeds into your lawn as a bone-us should you have them do an over-seed.

Ever notice that lawn services don't use a true soil tests for each lawn? Did you know that a soil test is the ONLY way to know how much fertilizer is needed in your turf? Soil needs to have organic matter which is also measured in the soil test. The lawn services all use a one-size-fits-all and if your soil is bad, the root of the problem is not addressed.

Having a nice lawn and landscaping is a serious hobby for me. One that I've got over 10 years of experience both practical as well as the two shelves of books I have just on grass and soil management. Some of us know what we're doing so when you make a blanket statement that people are using "Scott's" if they have nice lawn, you painted with too broad a brush.

I have a lot of fun with my lawn and plants. I get sick of hearing people tell me I must be using a ton of chemicals, yada, yada.

Start with the best sod quality seed you can buy and plant it into good soil and that's 90% of the battle. You can either get the seed from a local sod farm or order it online. The last 10% is proper cutting (height, sharp blade) and feeding in the right amounts and at the right time.

And by the way, fertilier content is given as N-P-K

You couldn't pay me to have the hacks of Lawn Dog, Scotts, or TruSuck to even walk on my lawn.