Question
QUESTION: Charlotte B,

I have been reading many of your answers to some of the questions posted about ST Augustine and using organics. I think I will go exchange the weed and feed I got today for a bag of 'organic fertilizer' I almost got instead and will try it and probably the sugar. I just wanted to get rid of the weeds in my front lawn... a few here and there. Main reason I am sending you this is to ask about my pasture. I have this continual fight against weeds. I have much more grass than last year. I let my two horses eat on the grass daily for short periods of time. Is it safe to use the sugar and will it work to kill the weeds in my pasture ? I don't want it to hurt my horses. I have wild coastal bermuda mixed with some tifton 85 as my pasture grass. (the pasture area is mostly sandy soil)

Thank you for your help,

Rebecca
in South East Texas

ANSWER: Hi Rebecca;
Organics is TOTALLY safe for your animals. SO much better than chemicals.
throw sugar all over it at the rate of 4 to 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. ( you could do a section at a time, and do it several days apart, or weeks apart).
You don't have to get total and even coverage.
You just have to keep chemicals off that area, and make ita safe enviornment for the micro-organisms and beneficial critters like toads and lizards. These little \critters will eat all the bad bugs, and the micro-orgamisms in the soil will enrich the soil, and the rich soil will not allow weeds to thrive. Weeds like poor soil.
Soon, you will just have thich, sweet grass for your horses.
Your horses are continually putting more micro-organisms into the soil ( every time they poop), and the sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish thesemicrobes.
They do all the work, enriching the soil and improving it.
If you live in an area that gets enouygh water for Kentucky Bluegrass, I would plant some of that in that pasture.
Your horses will love you for it.
It is a cool season grass, so it doesn't last in our hot Texas summers, but it will grow in the spring, and do well until the temps get up past the upper 90s and stay that way too long. We have a lot of 100 + temps here.
I would toss out some seeds every year anyway. It will come up, an they will have to lovely stuff to eat until the heat gets it.
I smell Kentucky Bluegrass fresh mowed, and I jusy know it would taste great. It smells so sweet, and ;last time I drove through Mo,and they were kowing it on the median strip of the highway, I had a compulsion to stop and get some. It made me hingry.LOl
I am a salad person anywhay, and thay grass has such a sweet, delicious smell.
Do you water your pasture grass?
That would help, if you put the sugar, water it in, and then water well, at least till the grass gets a good start, thickening up.
You could even get a couple of goats or sheep, to come in behind the horses, and nibble that bermud off really short. That causes the food to go to roots, and they will send out new runners and thicken it up faster.
Get some alfalfa meal.
I get mine at a feed store, and throw that down with the sugar. Alfalfa meal has so many nutrients in it, and it will boost the nutrients in the soil a lot.
Use it in yoyr St. Augustine too.
Alfalfa meal in the flower beds and planters encourages more and larger blooms. It is great for house plants too.
You might section of the pasture to improve one section at a time, if you have more that 3 acres, it can be a formidable job, trying to do the whole area at once.
When you get that organic program going, the little beneficial critters and microbes move along the bounderies, so they do extend the area some themselves.
Don't fence the horses off the area you are treating. they benefit the area as well as it benefiting them..
Watch your pasture for signs of burring animals that could cause injury to your horses.
If you see a hole, sprinkle ceyenne pepper down in it. That chases all critters that breathe through their noses.
It irritates their noses just like it does yours.
You don't want to broadcast that widely, as it will do the same to the horses noses. I would stick a funnel in the hole so all the ceyenne would go in the hole, and none of it stir through the air.
Charlotte

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

QUESTION: Charlotte,

Thank you so much for your advice. I actually put out rye seed in the fall and the horses eat the grass from it until it dies in late May or early June depending on when the temperature gets hot enough. That is what I use instead of the Kentucky Blue grass ~ had not heard that one for horses down here in southeast Texas. I have already put out some organic fertilizer on the pasture and plan on trying the sugar. We have plenty of toads and lizards on our property ~ no problem there.

My follow-up question is in regards to the "Pre-emergent" corn gluten product which I have read about. If I put that on my pasture too as a weed deterrent (at the right time) is it safe for horses and dogs. I know the information says it is safe for animals... is that just for walking on it and digesting the grass in the area of it later or does that include if they ingest some of it straight ? dogs like to sample stuff sometimes when you are not looking ...What are your thoughts on that product for my pasture and around our animals ? Thanks again for your input,

Rebecca  

Answer
Hi Rebecca;
Howard Garrett strongly recommends Corn Gluten Meal, as a weed and feed.
Actually, I think it does the same thing as the sugar does. Corn has a lot of starch ( sugar) in it.and other prts of it act as Horticultural Corn Meal, because while hort corn meal is the husks of the kernel, corn gluten is to who thing, so it should kill fungus too.
I have never used the corn gluten meal because using the sugar and getting the soil rich, does away with the weeds.
alfalfa meal and lava sand add so many nutrients, you shouldn't need anything else for nutrition in the soil.
The microbes work on enriching the soil, alfalfa meal and lava sand add nutrients the vegetation uses, and it gives the grass, flowers, veggies etc the same benefits the fertilizer gives.
Really, the alfalfa meal and lava sand would fit into the category of fertilizer.
I dunped some in my comntainer tomatoe plants, and I am getting larger tomatoes.
As far as it being safe if ingested by the animals, I can't see where it would hurt them any more than eating corn. All corn gluten is, is the whole kernel of the corn before anything is scraped away.
Charlotte
Charlotte