Question
QUESTION: I had read of a home-made enzyme liquid used to remove lawn thatch. I've lost the info, but I remember one of the ingredients was "beer". Do you know a formula for such a product? I'm aware there are commercial products available but I'd like to save money & make my own

ANSWER:
Sounds like a Jerry Baker recipe -- although I could be wrong.  For the basic recipe, you take 4 or 5 cans of Beer, 4 1-litre bottles of 7-Up, 1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid, 2 gallons of Ammonia and 1 gal Gatorade.  You mix this up gently and keep it around until you need it.  Then you dilute it, 4 oz of Baker's Magic Plant Food mixed with a gallon of water and spray and/or water it into your plants, your Lawn, your Trees, your flowers.

Does it work?  Well, I have a bit of a problem with a few of the details.  It's definitely fun to do this, but there are pro's and cons.

For one, the dish soap is not such a good thing for your plants.  I have recommended it at times for specific problems, but as a regular maintenance product, ixnay on the oapsay.

The Gatorade -- I don't know what's in it that would be good for plants and missing from your Soil, but I admit I get suspicious when something glows like it was antifreeze.  Besides, why support a product that's made with High Fructose Corn Syrup?  It certainly makes life interesting to spray Gatorade on your plants, but I think there are better things to use.  Jerry Baker disagrees.

Beer is an interesting product.  In the case of Budweiser and some other producers, the specific yeast they use to brew their Beer is a carefully guarded trade secret.  Beer also has enzymes, which is how it gets to be Beer.  Introducing Beer to Soil would deliver a menu of enzymes, yeasts and CO2 to microbes and roots.

Now, one very extensive 8-year study found that raising the level of CO2 increased photosynthesis plus leaf and root growth.  It also increased the number of Soil microbes.  With the exception of Gammaproteobacteria (percentage of this microbe almost doubled), most Bacteria did not respond to the higher CO2 levels.  But Fungi did.  And THIS is what would break down thatch.  Simply put, a well-fed Fungal community functions nearer to its respiratory potential.  Hooray for Beer.

Will it save you money?

I'd like to know first why you have a Thatch Problem.  What are you doing to decimate the population of microbes in your Soil?

Twenty bucks says you FERTILIZED.

Confess.  rsvp.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes , I do fertilize.

Follow-up question: Are there any dethatching solutions on the market you would recommend, either by brand or by effective ingrediants?

Answer
Twenty dollars, please.

Let me explain how these things work.

Dethatching 'treatments' are not like, say, Drano.  They don't dissolve Thatch like Drano dissolves hair that's clogging up your pipes.  They work by (a) creating ideal conditions for Thatch-digesting microbes, including nutrients that support a much bigger population; and/or (b) seeding your Soil with a culture of microbes that will digest Thatch.  Actually, Drano would probably do the trick, too, but it would probably qualify as an EPA violation.

Fertilizers are, by definition, chemical Salts.  This is mildly toxic at best, and totally toxic at worst, to your Grass and Soil bioflora and fauna.

So when you use chemical Salts to do things like fertilize, you damage the communities that are normally out there in charge of Thatch Removal.  Fewer microbes do the job much, much slower.  And THAT, my friend, is why you have a Thatch Problem.

An ad hoc Dethatcher will solve that... until you fertilize again, or use Grubkiller or Weedkiller or Fungicide.

Go over to your biggest Garden Center and look around.  See if you can find a product that de-thatches.  One of the best is also available on the internet, Nature's Lawn - www.natureslawn.com.

Remember Clem Levine and This Old House?  Their website posts a few landscaping products:

www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20052307,00.html

'How to De-thatch a Lawn' is apparently their specialty.  Live and learn.

Bedtime.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER