Question
Hi
I live in Chicago and have a normal city lot (30x125) and my house faces west
with front and back lawns. I am going to have it aerated and de-thatched this
week. Temps are in the 50's. I bought Scotts Sun & Shade mix seed and
Starter fertilizer to use after they do the aerating. Here are my 5 issues:

1) Am I doing the right thing at the right time and did I buy the right grass
seed?

2) Should I put Grub control down now or...? I do have some brownish spots
now but so does every other lawn I see at this time of year. Just want to
prevent the grubs.

3) When should I put the first fertilizer down? Or is the Starter fertilizer I use
with the grass seed sufficient for the first app of the year? IF not, do I use
Scotts stage 1 and if so, when? Also, should I follow up with the rest of the "4
step  process"?

4) A lot of areas on my lawn came up kind of easily (like when grubs attack,
the lawn pulls up easily) when I was trying to manually aerate my lawn with a
cultivating tool I bought (I have since decided to hire someone to do it the
right way!) The areas were green, though and not brown like when grubs get
in. I had grubs at my previous house so I know the symptoms. Is this normal
for lawns this time of year? What can I do to strengthen my lawn, if anything?

5) I have this patch of brighter green grass in my back yard. It's an odd shape
and about 2 feet by 5 feet I wanna say. What could've caused this and how
can I get all my lawn a consistent green (without re-sodding, of course!)?
Would the aerating and seeding work?


Please address all my issues as I would like nothing more to than to keep a
green, healthy lawn year 'round!

Thanks SO much!!
Ed
Ed

Answer
Long story deserves a long answer, my friend.  The problem is that long answers are often corrupted when I finally send them out.  Sometimes they disappear completely.  You have no idea how frustrating that is, to spend all that time explaining carefully, then the answer vanishes.  Or you can't read it when it posts.  Plus I use a lot of memory apparently with these long, long answers.  All of this by way of urging you to pose any followups you need to.  Because I will have to shorten a lot here, more than I like, just so I finish by dawn and you get to read it this weekend!

Here goes.

Re: Your Scotts Grass seed.  Generally my experience is that Scotts produces a very good Grass seed product.  Scotts bids on these to buy them from the Seed Breeders, who get their Seed tested rigorously for several years to get an idea of how it performs under different conditions.  There is often better Seed, but usually not significantly better.  So go with your Sun and Shade blend.  I'd like to know if you find it what kind of Seed they sold you (Fescue, Rye, etc).

Next, let me explain a few things about Fertilizer that you may not realize.

'Fertilizer' per se (i.e., your 'Starter Fertilizer') is by definition a Salt.  You certainly know that Salt is bad for plants, including Grass.  Now you can see how Fertilizer could also be bad.

Does Seed need to be fertilized?

How can Grass be healthy unless you fertilize it?

What's not to like about Fertilizer?

Seed needs nutrients to grow.  It gets those from the Soil.  If your Soil is rich, if it has a lot of humic acids, if you have built it up by amending it with organic matter, your Soil will actually GENERATE nutrients for your Grass.

They did not know this when I was a kid.  And right now, this kind of information will not sell a lot of bags of 'starter Fertilizer'.  But we know this for a fact.

OK, let's figure that you want to fertilize your new grass 'just in case'.  Can't go wrong with EXTRA fertilizer, right?  Isn't this what love is all about?  Loving your Lawn?

Actually, chemical fertilizer (the SALTY kind) does a real number on Soil microbes.  These microbes are the guys who break down the Organic Matter in your Soil.  Bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, etc.  While they break the Soil down, they generate nutrients.  If the weather is hot, they generate a LOT of nutrients.  If the weather is cool, they slow down.  This is perfect for Grass.  In hot weather, Grass needs more nutrients.  In cold weather, it needs less.  Even if all other factors were equal (which they're not), not even the top of the line slow-release fertilizer will speed up in the hot weather and slow down when it gets cold.

Next, let's understand what those microbes are doing down there at the bottom of the food chain besides breaking down organic matter for your Lawn.

Some of them are soldiers.

They seek out bad guys, house to house, and disarm them.

The Fungus population in your Soil gets a very bad rap from us Lawnlovers.  GOOD Fungi are a necessary part of a healthy Lawn.

Yes, I said that.  Fungi are GOOD for your Grass.

You want to banish BAD Fungi from your Lawn.  Before they erupt.  Trust me, they're down there, waiting to happen.  

Take the studies at the U.S. Dept of Agriculture by Robert Kremer, a microbiologist.  Summarized at the Cornell website, Kremer discovered that 'certain Rhizobacteria, when provided with organic matter, keep Weed seeds from germinating.'

That's -- excuse the expression -- ground-breaking stuff.  All consistent with what we've been learning for years and years.

Cornell summed it up thusly:  'By producing toxins and excessive concentrations of plant growth hormones, root cells of Weeds rupture and leak, replenishing the organic matter for the Rhizobacteria.  Once weakened by the Bacteria, Weeds are less able to compete with other plants, and they become more vulnerable to other control measures.'

Steinernema nematodes are another potent force that live in your Soil -- unless you kill them.  They attack pests ranging from Termites and Fleas to Fungus Gnats.  Everything is under control.

Then there's Bacillus popilliae -- the famous 'Milky Spore Disease'.  This bacterium attacks the larvae of Japanese Beetles and their close relatives.  Have a look at the photos on Cornell University's Organic Biocontrol pages.  On one side, a Healthy Japanese Beetle Grub; on the other, one infected with Milky Spore Disease:

www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/images/bacillus_popilliaeA.html

Beetle larvae (Grubs) consume Soil infected with Milky Spore bacteria.  The germs infect them and multiply.  The Grubs get sick and die.  In between there's Winter, when nothing is going on.  This takes time.

Cornell authorities tell us Milky Spore Disease was 'the first insect pathogen to be registered in the U.S. as a microbial control agent.'

But if you aren't careful, they'll bite the dust.

Let's move on to Grubs.

Paenibacillus popilliae, the beneficial Nematodes Steinernema kushidai and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, and the highly toxic love-to-hate-it Weedkiller, Diazinon.

The WINNER in this Grubs Demolition Derby: the Nematode, Steinernema
kushidai.

An abbreviated abstract is posted on the BioOne website:

www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1603%2F0022-0493(2000)093[0071%3ABCAFWG]2.0.CO%3B2&ct=1

Cornell posts a full page on this celebrated Nematode from Japan, where it lives in the Japanese soil:

www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/nematodes.html

S. kushidai is just what they doctor ordered, they say, when it comes to curing your house and garden of all sorts of pathogenic pests.  They LOVE Steinernema at Cornell.  There, scientists have gone on record to call it 'extraordinarily lethal' against its foes.  In fact, they say, 'The only insect-parasitic nematodes possessing an optimal balance of biological control attributes are entomopathogenic or insecticidal nematodes in the genera Steinernema and Heterorhabditis.'

It gets better.

'Most biologicals require days or weeks to kill.  Yet Nematodes ...
kill insects in 24 to 48 hours.'

This is the magic bullet you want against Grubs.  A private sniper, lurking down there, waiting for trouble.

Note that if you are living in new construction, with a new plot of recently disturbed soil, the natural controls were eliminated and have not recovered.  Fungus treatments wipe out ALL Fungi including the 'good' Fungi that restrict growth of ones we don't like as well as insect pests.  Something must happen to decimate natural controls in your Soil.  Almost always, it's something you did.

THIS is why we want to be very nice to the microbes in our Soil.

Let's also remember that if you wipe out the bottom of the food chain, the rest of the food chain suffers.  Arthropods, Earthworms, beneficial Beetles (yes there is such a thing), Birds.  Did you know that Starlings are MASTER Grubs Controllers?

But only if you let them live.

Let's finish up here.  You asked about the bright Green Grass that you notice.  I am not clear as to how long it took for this patch to appear, and I would like to know a little more about it if you wouldn't mind.  One possible cause is something we see in Spring or Fall:  Bright Green circular patches that seem to grow faster than the surrounding Grass.

Fairy Rings?  Marasmius oreades?  Agrocybe pediades?  Agaricus campestris or bisporus?  Chlorophyllum molybdites?  Scleroderma? Others?

There are two kinds.

Edaphic Fairy Rings lives underground.  This Fungus eats organic matter in your Soil, generating the aforementioned nutrients needed by the Grass.  Grass runs out of steam and water, and bites the dust.  Mushrooms start popping up.  Tell me, were there any Trees in that area of your property?  This could have been years ago.  It can take a lifetime for the wood in Tree parts underground to break down under the Soil.

The other kind is Lectophillic Fairy Rings, Fungi that live in dead Grass and Thatch.  The area is slightly depressed in relation to the surrounding Soil.  Thatch that cannot break down because the microbes are extinct is their favorite place to live.

I could go on.  But it is late, and you want this now.  In a nutshell that's the deal.  Let me know if you would like more info.  Note please I will be away for the weekend but I will check back when I return.  Sorry -- busy season.