Question
QUESTION: Dear Sir,
I live in northern NJ. My lawn is on the slope,baking in the sun, some trees there as well as I have to contend with a bad soil. I had reseeded it completely last fall due to big areas of weeds, moss and bare spots.
If I use corn gluten this spring, what other applications of fertilizers should I do and when. I did apply a large amout of lime to my soil in the fall as well, should I add additional lime now , how does it affect the corn gluten application. Having moss on a sunny lawn is another puzzle to me.
Thank you in advance for your reply.

Sincerely,
Polina


ANSWER: Why Oh Why Oh Why does NO ONE test their Soil?

After all these q's and a's, all these unforced errors, I am still getting the same question, from clearly intelligent people who dot every i and cross every t and do every dinky little thing except the FIRST thing they should have done in the first place.

Polina.... Have you ever baked a cake?

First thing you do to bake a cake, you get the recipe out.  Right, Polina?  You get out the cookbook, and you write up a shopping list.  But you don't just run out with the list.  Nooooooo!  First... you check in the kitchen to see what you have.

Do you have eggs?  Check.

Flour?  Check.

Milk?  Vanilla?  Baking Soda?

You make a list.  Then you get in the car and you go shopping.

If you already have Flour, you don't need to buy any more Flour.

This is obvious, right, Polina?  It's not difficult.  It's STEP 1.  You would not skip this step.  You can't assume you have Eggs.  But you don't want to buy a dozen Eggs IF YOU HAVE EGGS.

If you have Flour, WHY would you buy more Flour?  You cross those off the list and THEN you go shopping.  You buy what you need, and you go home.

Now when you get home, you have to pre-heat the oven.

What's the temperature of the oven?

Did you test for that?

Polina, HOW IN THE WORLD ARE YOU GOING TO SET THE TEMPERATURE OF THE OVEN IF YOU DON'T CHECK IT FIRST?

How are you going to bake a cake if you don't know how hot the oven is?

You need to find that out!

What's the pH of your soil?

You don't know!

A soil test will tell you what's in the cupboard, what's the oven
temperature, how long the cake was in there, if you have Eggs and Butter and Flour... These are things you NEED to know.

Because as we all know...

You CANNOT grow wonderful green Grass without this information.

You MUST get a Soil Test.  Or your Cake will not come out right.

And here's where you can do that:

http://njaes.rutgers.edu/services/

That's the website for Rutgers University's Plant Diagnostic and Soil Testing Laboratory.  They'll give you all the dirt on your dirt.

Be VERY careful about following the instructions so that you give them a valid sample.  They'll study it, analyze it, and issue a complicated scientific report about what makes up the Soil around your house.  If your pH is good, you won't need to spend any more money on Lime.  If you've got Phosphorus, you don't need to spend a penny on Phosphorus.  Plus your Cake will taste much better without all those extra things it doesn't need -- and I am not kidding here, because too much of any of those good things will tilt the balance of Nature and may trigger shortages of other things your Grass must get, but can't.

Let's just go over the Corn Gluten Meal exercise.

It's almost time to put this stuff down in the Garden State.  CGM interrupts germination of Weed Seeds (or any other Seed you plant, so don't put this down and then try to sow Grass, it won't grow).  While the CGM is decomposing all Summer, it pours tasty Nitrogen into your Soil, and feeds your Grass all season, in low, steady doses that are good for it.  Nitrogen happens to be one of those things that has to be 'fixed' or it can't be stored or used by living things.  But if you have mud, you are telling me you have some bare dirt that is the perfect place for Weeds to go forth and multiply.  You need that like a hole in the head.  Get yourself a bag of Clover, and when Summer comes, sprinkle it over those bare areas to fill them in with it.  That way you'll be building up your Soil all Summer; in Fall, you can plant new Grass down there, and it will be happy as a clam.

Thick, healthy Grass outgrows Weeds, especially in Spring.  Come Summer, you must be careful to continue mowing and watering properly.  Yank out any PERENNIAL Weeds you see -- they are already down there with a root system and CGM will not do ANY damage to anything that's already growing.  You'll find if you're diligent about this in Spring, you'll see few if any Dandelions and other Weeds come mid-July.  Just be careful that you NEVER let those Weeds go to Seed.

I have blabbed on way too long about this now.  Maybe you'd like to ask a question or two.

L.I.G.

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

QUESTION: Dear Henry,

Thank you for your reply. The problem is all those years I had "professional" lawn service and as you may know they have standard seasonal program (one size fits none) and apart from setting me back few hundred dollars it did nothing to solve my lawn problem. That is why I decided to do it myself. I do know that my soil is very acidic as I checked it with the portable PH meter,that is why I did apply lime last fall.( I will however use your advise on getting the soil kit from Rutgers). You advised me to plant clover in bare spots, how soon after the corn gluten application I can do that as I assume it will interfere with the clover germination as well. Now, what about grub and other pest control? Should I apply it (I do prefer to use as little chemicals as possible)but I do have grub problem, and does corn gluten control crab grass as well?
Thank you so much for your help.
Polina

ANSWER: You're right -- Corn Gluten Meal will screw up the sprouting of almost everything it's near.  Including Clover.  Therefore, don't sow Clover seeds within 2 months of using CGM.  Clover is not Grass.  It will grow any time you plant it during the Summer.  You don't have to be as careful with it as you do with a premium Grass Seed.

That said, congratulations on some back breaking work.

Re your pH meter, I guess a lot depends on the meter as to how reliably accurate it is going to be.  You can use it if it's accurate.  Any way to find that out?

Re Grubs:  The best Grub Control on the planet is your local Birds.  They drool over Grubs like it was caviar.  Grubs have natural predators all around, as well.  It is a dangerous world if you are a Grub.  The only time they become a problem is when their natural predators (Birds, Beetles, etc) have been banished or destroyed from the Lawn.  Then, you have a problem.  But nothing you should ever worry about so much that you use Weedkiller or Grubkiller.

Re Crabgrass, most of this is an Annual; last year's Crabgrass is history, this year's Crabgrass is getting ready to launch the 2008 Summer season.  Mow the tops of all Weeds off, and hand dig the ones that don't get the message the first time.

Please explain what you mean by 'other pest control'.  Thanks for your quick answer!

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

QUESTION: Dear Henry,
Thank you for getting back to me so fast.
I was contemplating on using Milky spore disease for grubs, simply because I do want to enjoy my roses , that are being devoured by beetles that are obviously overwintering as grubs.
As far as clover is concerned I am afraid that by the time I will be able to plant clover seed the bare spots might be already filled with weeds. I assume I can't plant clover now before I put down corn gluten. Also do you have preference as which brand of corn gluten to use.
Thank you very much for your help.
Polina

Answer
Milky Spore is very effective, but it also takes quite a bit of time to spread.  You will need to attack those Beetles from more than one front if you are going to win the war.

I have had great success with Milky Spore using backup from the hanging Japanese Beetle traps with pheromone lures to attract them AND by using a kinder, gentler approach to Lawn Care, which is non-hostile to the natural predators that snack on the Grubs (mainly Ground Beetles and Birds).

If you are going to use Corn Gluten Meal as a preemergent, put down multiple applications the first year, spaced a few weeks apart.  You don't have to worry about overdoses because it's an organic product that will not burn roots or over-fertilize.  This way, you get all the sprouts, through the whole sprouting season.  That said, I must agree that Clover is not going to cut the mustard if you are going to use CGM this year unless you can avoid the areas you plant it.  You'll have to do one or the other.

There is no brand of CGM that is better than another, although some are pelletized and easier to use.  I prefer the cheapest, which would simply be picked up at a farm supply store with the generic label, 'Corn Gluten Meal'.  There is no difference in quality, only in packaging.

Roses are very high maintenance and you are probably used to babysitting them constantly.  One of my frequent and not too tedious chores in Summer is to head out in the middle of the night with a flashlight hunting for Japanese Beetles, with a cup of soapy water in the other hand.  There always seem to be a few sneaky Beetles eating the Roses.  It is most satisfying to dispose of them before I turn in.