Urea Granules

[grollies]

I've been making my own chicken manure tea and spreading it about.

 

Somethings do well, especially chillies and lime trees don't half put on growth.

 

Tried it on the lawn and surrounding hedges with limited success.

 

Wifey then spreads urea granules around the place and the lawn and hedge shot up.

 

Anyone got experience of using this stuff?

[Pdaz]

Yep. I use it on my lawn. 46-0-0 Urea nitrogen. Need to water it in well as it's pretty "hot" and will burn the grass. Clear glass like crystals. Certainly greens up the grass. But I only use it sparingly. Mostly I use 16-16-16 slow release pellets.

[grollies]

1 hour ago, Pdaz said:

Yep. I use it on my lawn. 46-0-0 Urea nitrogen. Need to water it in well as it's pretty "hot" and will burn the grass. Clear glass like crystals. Certainly greens up the grass. But I only use it sparingly. Mostly I use 16-16-16 slow release pellets.

Yeah, get that, no P or K.

I'll try your 16-16-16.

 

Got to spike the lawn first and take out all the scutch.

[fruitman]

Sometimes our streets have earthworms everywhere, guess they tried to escape the urea thrown on the lawns...

[grollies]

2 minutes ago, fruitman said:

Sometimes our streets have earthworms everywhere, guess they tried to escape the urea thrown on the lawns...

Read that worms don't like urea but this time of year they all seem to emigrate anyway - where do they go?

[drtreelove]

14 hours ago, grollies said:

Read that worms don't like urea but this time of year they all seem to emigrate anyway - where do they go?

They go deeper, for soil moisture as surface layers dry out; or cocoon stage to lay dormant until conditions are right again for new cycle, rainy season.

Earthworms are not the only soil organisms that don't like harsh chemical fertilizers. Since this is the organic sub-forum, think about preserving soil biology by building good conditions for the soil-food-web to optimize.  Organic Land Care standards have specific do's and don't's for lawn care. Check it out. You can guess --, 46-0-0 and 16-16-16 etc are not part of an organic program. There are other good options for slow release fertility. 

Age you chicken manure or compost it with other organic materials. When it's ready, screen it and use as a top dressing. Compost tea with the finished product will be more compete with soil biology than the chicken manure tea alone. Have patience, quick greening does not necessarily represent healthy conditions and sustainable practices. 

[grollies]

29 minutes ago, drtreelove said:

They go deeper, for soil moisture as surface layers dry out; or cocoon stage to lay dormant until conditions are right again for new cycle, rainy season.

Earthworms are not the only soil organisms that don't like harsh chemical fertilizers. Since this is the organic sub-forum, think about preserving soil biology by building good conditions for the soil-food-web to optimize.  Organic Land Care standards have specific do's and don't's for lawn care. Check it out. You can guess --, 46-0-0 and 16-16-16 etc are not part of an organic program. There are other good options for slow release fertility. 

Age you chicken manure or compost it with other organic materials. When it's ready, screen it and use as a top dressing. Compost tea with the finished product will be more compete with soil biology than the chicken manure tea alone. Have patience, quick greening does not necessarily represent healthy conditions and sustainable practices. 

I've got a compost heap on the go. Chicken manure/rice husk, banana stems, grass cuttings, kitchen waste, etc.

 

You're right about organic and that's the way I'm trying to go on the garden.

 

Interesting about the worms, thanks.

 

Thought I'd have a go at aeration on the lawn and add home made feed.

 

A raised bed with gravel and a mix of soil, sand, chicken manure and straw is doing really well with chillies. Left it to stew for a couple of months before planting the seedlings.

 

Thanks for the advice.

[drtreelove]

Aside from starting over and tearing up the turf to rototill in a 2 or 3 inch layer of compost before replanting; Annual aeration of the turf followed by top dressing with fine compost that fills the holes  is a real good way to gradually improve soil fertility. You can mow and leave lay if you mow weekly so that amount of cuttings is not too heavy and lays on top of the green grass and prevents sunlight. or mow and remove cuttings for your compost heap. Spread it out and mix it in so it doesn't mat in layers.

 

See page 31+ in attached standards.

Organic Lawn Care Catching On.pdf

standards2011.pdf

[grollies]

30 minutes ago, drtreelove said:

Aside from starting over and tearing up the turf to rototill in a 2 or 3 inch layer of compost before replanting; Annual aeration of the turf followed by top dressing with fine compost that fills the holes  is a real good way to gradually improve soil fertility. You can mow and leave lay if you mow weekly so that amount of cuttings is not too heavy and lays on top of the green grass and prevents sunlight. or mow and remove cuttings for your compost heap. Spread it out and mix it in so it doesn't mat in layers.

 

See page 31+ in attached standards.

Organic Lawn Care Catching On.pdf

standards2011.pdf

@drtreelove, thanks.

 

Aeration will be my way to go, the wife will kill me if I said I was going to dig it all up.

 

Best lawn I ever had was on a rented house. Cut the grass with a ride-on mower and just let the clippings fly around.

 

Couldn't open the PDF, you got a URL link?

[drtreelove]

http://www.organiclandcare.net/sites/default/files/upload/standards2011.pdf  (Page 31 starts lawn care section)

 

Organic Lawn Care Catching On Straight to the Source Spreading the word on organic lawn care By Robert Knox Boston Globe, August 13, 2006   Lawn care -- long a byword for chemical fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides -- is going natural. The growing organic movement in agriculture is increasingly crossing over into landscaping, as professionals respond to rising consumer demand for healthy, full lawns that are nourished in an ecologically responsible way. ``People don't want chemicals on their lawn," said Kathy Litchfield, Massachusetts coordinator of the Northeast Organic Farming Association's Organic Land Care Program. The program, spurred by surging interest in a natural approach to lawn care, seeks to extend the principles of organic agriculture to suburban landscapes -- parks, athletic fields, and residential lawns -- and reduce reliance on potentially harmful synthetic chemicals and fertilizers. The association -- a nonprofit group of farmers, landscapers, gardeners, and organic food consumers -- has accredited more than 200 lawn-care professionals across the state, many from the suburbs south of Boston. On Thursday, the North and South Rivers Watershed Association will host a daylong lawn- and turf-management course designed for managers of parks, sports fields, and conservation areas. The course will be held at South Shore Vocational Technical High School in Hanover. Lawn-care professionals, municipal park managers, and land-preservation organizations are expected to attend. Chris Kennedy, a certified horticulturist, will discuss liquid compost. Kennedy said interest in organic lawn care has increased in tandem with customers' reluctance to apply chemicals to their lawns. ``We're hearing more and more of that," he said. Kennedy, who has sold organic products for a decade at Kennedy's Country Gardens in Scituate, said some customers are worried that chemical products pose a health risk, while others learn about the organic approach from gardening shows and magazines. Kennedy acknowledged that organic lawn care is more demanding and expensive for homeowners than relying on chemically based solutions. That's because organic methods view lawns as ecosystems, not carpets. But the long-term benefits for lawns and plants are significant. ``It takes a little more information," he said. `` You need to focus on what the plants like and what's good for the soil. You start from the ground up and try to make the soil as palatable to the plants as possible." Kennedy teaches customers to use organic products that rely on natural microorganisms to please plants and weaken weeds. He recommends liquid composts like Soil Soup as root strengtheners, helping plants weather drought and resist disease. Corn gluten meal, another organic product, boosts nitrogen to bolster roots and curb weeds. The Hanover course will also provide information on growing organic lawn and turf, converting from chemical-based lawn care, and marketing the organic approach. Course instructors include Chip Osborn, cofounder of the Living Lawn Project in Marblehead, and Kimberly Stoner, an entomologist and founder of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. For more information, visit www.organiclandcare.net.