Question
QUESTION: I think I directed my question to Tom when I was really trying to email you.  I was wondering about the sugar treatment that some of the messages contain.  I live in Northern Utan and it sounds like a great alternative to chemicals.  What kind of sugar? how much do you apply?  how often?  Thanks for your help.

ANSWER: Hi Julie;
Just plain old table sugar.
You have to go all organic or none. If you go organic, and then put a chemical fertilizer or other chemical product down it will kill your beneficial microbes, and that cancels out your organic program.
Here is the program I use, with the amounts etc included.
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You will constantly improve your soil if you go on a totally organic program, and don't use any chemicals at all.
I have beenm on such a program for the last 9 to 10 years, after breaking my back and ruining my body trying to maintain a decent lawn, with only mediocre results.
the organics has freed me from about 90% of the physical work, about that much of the expense, and the results are a think, beautiful yard with no weeds or harmful insects.
Man!!! Wish I had known all this 50 years ago !
The corn clutem meal is an organic product.
If you use organics, and then use chemicals, you will cancel out the organics.
Chemical fertilizers kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodes and other beneficial insects and critters that work around the clock improving your soil.
Beneficial microbes enrich the soil. Chemicls do NOT.
If you put a little too muchj chemical products on the lawn, it will burn your grass, and do a lot of other damage.
If you put too much organics on it, all you do is waste a little time and money.
Sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish the beneficial micrebes. THEY do the work.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil. If they cme up, they will start to die out right away.
The first time I use sugar was in the spring. I had not put any chemicals on the yard since the fall feeding, so they were all worn out of the soil.
I had a lawn about 50% full of dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dollar weed and some other shallow rooted weeds like chickweed etc.
a couple of weeks after I put down the sugar and watered it in, I had about half as many weeds. Nobody had pulled a weed or anything. My husband had just mowed.
I went nuts, like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and ran out and bought more sugar, put it down and waterewd it in.
A couple more mowings, and there were so few weeds. In a few more werks they were all gone.
The next spring about half as many weeds as before came up, but in a few weeks they were gone.
All I had done was the sugar in the spring, and I did that again in the fall.
I used baking soda disolved in water for black spot on my roses and powdery mildew n my crepe mytrtles. That works much better then the chemical fungicides I had used before.
I started getting a nice herd of lizards, toads and grass snakes in my yard.
I had a BIG grub problem every year. I haven't had that since, nor do I have those nasty tent catapillars dropping on my head from the trees.
I see lizards running in the trees and along the fence. I never see the grass snakjes, which is fine with me. I seldon see a toad, but they are all there.
Sugar; I use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well. If you spill a blob in one spot, no problem. No burning or other damage.

Watering; I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. Deep watering like that encourages a deep root growth. That protects from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch. I water with soaker hoses, and run them till the water is close to the edge and is about to start running off the yard. then I turn it off and wait an hour or so for it to soak in, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is wet down to a depth of 6 inches at least. Even here in our Texas heat, I water only once a week, unless it stays well above 100 for a week or more, which it sometimes does. then I look at the grass, and if my St. Augustine is folded up, lengthwise, I know it needs water. It folds the blades up to reduce the area exposed to evaporation. Burmuda, when it gets thirsty, bends it's little blades a little, like it is bowing.
My earthworms and cock roaches etc tunnel through the soil, and that keeps it aerated. Their castings add nourishment. Cockroaches are beneficial. They normally live in the soil and feed on other harmful insects. We put down pesticides, and kill their food supply, so they come in our houses to get food and hide from the pesticides.
I use fresh rosemary to keep them out of my house.

Baking soda disolved in water, about 2 TABLESPOONS per gallon of water, sprayed on top and underneath all the leaves, prevent molds and fungus on plants. You can also use it for fungus in the soil, or you can apply agricultural corn meal and water that in. About 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.

Corn gluten meal is an organic fertilizer and weed killer.
It won't interfere with the sugar.
None of the organics calcel each other out.
Alfalfa meal is another good food to add. Just sprinkle it on in about the same thickness the sugar goes on, and water. It is full of nutrients. So is lava sand. Yopu can add it to the top of the soil, dig it into the soil, or add it when you are adding soil, or putting soil in a comntainer for a plant.
Alfalfa meal, as well as generally nourishing the soil, helps promote larger and more blooms in blooming plants and house plants.
You can also make a tea of it for foliar feeding or for watering house plants.
Put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let steep overnight. Still and use to water plants, or strain it and put it in a garden sprayer for foliar feeding.  Be sure, if you strain it, to dump the dregs on the soil somewhere, it is still full of nutrients.
You probably won't need more fertilizert than that. I didn't use anything but sugar for about 8 or 9 years, and last spring, I leartned about the alfalfa meal and lava sand, so I use them.
If you have more questions, write to me.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am learning.
Charlotte



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QUESTION: This is great.  Where do you buy all the other stuff, corn meal? lava sand? alfalfa?  Do you use the sugar in your flower beds also?  I have been using Treflan in the flower beds to keep the weeds down but our grass is fairly new so I haven't used much in the grass.  Does sugar work alone without any of the other organic products?  I guess once you start using sugar, the good things, insects and such start coming back into the soil eventually?  That would be so great to water once a week as we pay dearly for our water not to mention the whole environment thing.  Thanks for all your help.

Answer
I didn't use anything but sugar for about 9 years. I just learned about the alfalfa meal and horticultural corn meal last year, and I started using them then.
I have to go to a feed store in the little town nearby to get the alfalfa meal, and horticultiral corn meal. they also carry a lot of organic products for lawns and crops. Of course, you use the same things for crops as for lawns, just in larger bags.
M<y husband got some lava sand and Texas green sand at the feed store too, but most nurseries that carry organics should have the lava sand and hort corn meal and corn gluten meal.
I don't see that much of an advantage for corn gluten meal, so I haven't used that yet.
Before this year, I used baking soda disolved in water to spray for fungus and molds. I have a lot of roses, and black spot fungus is prevalent here.
I just spray the bushes on top of the leaves and under them. I saturate the plants well, at the first sign of growth in the spring, and if we have a lot of cool damp weather after that, I spray them again.
horticultiral corn meal cures fungus. If you have toenail fungus etc, you can soak your feet in a water bath with a handful of the horticultural corn meal in about a couple gallons of water. I go barefoot a lot, and get calouses on my feet, and my doctor throws a fit at me, because I have Diabetes and it is not good to go barefoot. I soaked my feet in it, and it did make the bottoms of my feet softer.LOL
You want to start compost.
You can buy a compost bin, or make one.
There is some good information on composting at

  www.gardeners.com

Most say to use a certain percentage brown stuff ( dried leaves etc) and certain percentage of green ( lettuce leaves, fruit and veggie peels etc), but we don't always add the brown stuff.
We get the leaves our neighbors rake and throw out. Some of them aren't on an organic program and don't compost, so they bag the leaves and my huisband picks them up, instead of the garbage men. It is handier for the naighbors because he will come and get them whan they call, and they don't have to have the bags on their sidewalk until pick up days.
I keep the leaves and trims from fresh veggies and fruit from the kitchen, and when my container is full, he dumps in in his composters.
I found the composters on sale at the site I recommened above.
I have been ordering from them for years, and have never had a bad experience.
they sell a gadget to stir the compost with, and that makes it much easier for him to keep it turned so it won;t sour. In a few weeks, it has turned all that waste into good soil. He throws a handful of sugar in it sometimes to feed the microbes growing in there.
I use the sugar everywhere. I put a tad in my potted plants too.
The sugar is safe on anyhing, and you want the rich soil everywhere you have anything growing.
I got rich soil and weed free with just the sugar alone. You can also use organic fertilizers too. some of the other organic products have alfalfa meal in them, but I buy the pure stuff. If you can't find any of those products ( I am getting quite a few letters that people can't find them in their area) then an organic fertilizer is only going to help, not hinder.
the ONLY thing the sugar does is feed those microbes.
Charlotte