Question
I'm in the midlands of SC.  I've got an established centipede lawn.  My lawn had not been fertilized in several years so I hired a company to handle that for me this year.  Within days of them fertilizing I noticed yellow spots.  I had them to come back and they treated it for an iron deficiency.  That was four days ago and I see no improvement.  Do you think I should see improvement by now or is it too soon?  We had a good rain shower right after they treated. Thank you for any thoughts or suggestions.

Answer
Hi Gayle;
I think the problem is the company and what they do.
I have more letters from people that get yellow or brown spots after having a lawn care company aply fertilizer.
If it was an iron defiency, the grass would have started getting a pale green, and yellow would start showing up in the veins of the clades.
Sudden yellow spots sounds like a fertilizer burn.
Chemicals really DO cause the problems, they don't cure them.
The iron would have just washed into the soil, and thereby into the grass, with the rain, and if it were an iron defience, after the iron was applied, the change would be in one or two days.
hatever they put on your lawn, they got too heavy in spots.
Lots of water to wash that junk out of the lawn is the only hope you have,
Then, I would recommend swirtching to an organic program.
I struggled with that chemical lawn car bunk for 45+ years, before I switched to organics, and in less than 2 months, I saw what a mistake I had been making all those years.
It should take about 3 or 4 weeks of your lawn getting mush more water than it usually gets, to wash that stuff out.
You will not be able to get the beneficial micro-organisms into the lawn, because that fertilizer killed all that may have been there, and as long as there is any of that fertilizer in the soil, they will dis as soon as they are exposed to it.
However, there are some things you CAn do to benefit the lawn.
Apply alfalfa meal to the lawn, and that will help green up.
Those spots are probably dead or dieing, so there is nothing you can do about that, except to nourish the rest of the grass so it will spread and cover those spots in with good grass.
Alfalfa meal is full of nutrients.
Apply about 1 gallon per 1000 sq.ft.
It is very light weight, and there is no weight on the bag, but  large bag weighs about 25 pounds.
I bought that latge bag, and scattered it in my front and back yard once, the front yard a second time, and a handful tossed on the ground around my rose bushes three or four times, and put a handful in each containter I planted, and made 5 galoons of tea to water my houseplants with three times, and still had about 1/3rd bag left at the start of this spring.
It doesn't take much.
Here is the organic program I have followed for about 10 years now, and I spend about 2 to 4 hours per week working in the yard, garden and my house plants, where it used to be 10 to 20 hours per week, when I used chemicals.
and I spend about as much in a whole year, as I used to spend per month, with the chemicals, and since I have been on the organic program, I have the yard I always wanted.
Thick, lusj green grass, now weeds or harmful insects.
Since switching to organics, I have the best looking yard in the neighborhood.
Hers is the oprogram I follow.
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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


You probably will have to go to a feed store to get it.
Lava sand is also