Question
I was reading about using sugar on the lawn not as a fertilizer but a nutrient enhanced, and was wondering if you though that would be a good alternative to things like scotts fertilizers?  I was concerned though about using sugar and having a massive ant problem. And will just any type of sugar due?  I live in the north am tired of fighting the crabgrass, clover and other weeds among my lawn, help! What else is also helpful and is needed to maintain good soil composition, when moving away from synthetics?

Answer
Nutrient enhancer?  Pullll-eeze... What nutrient are you going to give it?

Sugar is incapable of getting past the Casparian strip of vascular plants -- the specialized wall of cells that filters nutrients in and out and makes them grow UP, unlike plants like mosses, which have no Casparian strip and can only grow SIDEWAYS.

Sugar is a HUGE molecule.  Fructose plus Glucose.  It has to be split up to be small enough to do that.  Who's going to do that?

Comprendez?

Ants could be a problem, I would think that wasting all your money on bags of sugar would be a problem too.

Crabgrass is easy to fight, Scotts is expanding into non-chemical markets with companies like the organic-soil Rod McClellan and the Smith and Hawkin chain (yes, that's owned by Scotts now).  But there's major money in those fertilizers/herbicides/pesticides and they'll keep selling them as long as we keep buying them.

If you REALLY want to learn about Organic Gardening, buy a book called Teaming With Microbes.  You can get it at a discount on Amazon.com.  The authors are newspaper garden columnists who explain how good Fungi and Bacteria work together to build great gardening soil.  MOST Fungi and Bacteria in our soil are GOOD.  There are chapters on Earthworms, Compost, all the basics.  It's not too difficult and the Index is great.

They should teach this stuff in schools.

There is no Organic Program that is based on Sucrose.  It does not kill weeds.  It does not fertilize plants.  It MIGHT do some damage, but that's a long story and if you are curious send me a private question and I'll address it for you.  It's a long story, too long here and we have to get back to your questions:  How do you build up your soil? How do you get rid of weeds?

As you already have figured out, great soil is necessary for great grass.  You cannot grow great grass unless you're growing it in great soil.  People forget that.  Scotts would love you to forget it permanently.  ALL their Scotts lawn products steer you AWAY from great soil.  NO EXCEPTIONS.  Every single Scotts product is BAD for your soil.

So you can never get a great lawn using it.

Plain and simple.

Great soil is a mix of the soil you have right now PLUS Organic Matter PLUS 'x'.  What is 'x'?

That 'x' is a MAGIC NUMBER, Chris.  You get the answer by getting a soil test.

Most people moan at this point.  They fast forward down, and skip the lecture about a soil test.  But Chris, HOW WILL YOU EVER KNOW WHAT TO ADD if you don't know what you have?

As I've said before, it's just like making a cake.

You're standing in the kitchen and you want to cook something.  OK, instead of a cake today, we'll make scrambled eggs.  You're in the kitchen, it's midnight, tomorrww morning you want to make scrambled eggs for Mom.  Breakfast in bed.   What do you do?  Do you go to bed and set the alarm clock?

NO!

You go to the refrigerator, and you check.

Do we have eggs?

Milk?

Butter?

Salt and pepper and seasoning?  Maybe a little cheese?

You check the refrigerator, you make a list, you run right out to the 24 hour supermarket and BUY WHAT YOU NEED, then when you get up in the morning, you can ... grow the most beautiful Grass on the block.

See?

You need a soil test.  You need to check the refrigerator.  Because odds are, you need 'x'.

Since most people are not really that devoted to their lawns, they don't want to bother with a soil test.  They think, I have average soil.  I'm growing typical grass.  I'll try this without a soil test.

Then the Grass comes up, maybe it is ok, maybe it isn't, but it will never be fantastic because they have never in their life heard of this 'soil test' and they can't see why it should suddenly be such a big deal.

If Scotts was advertising for Soil Tests on national TV, you can bet you'd all be out there buying them at Home Depot and Lowes.  But that is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

Scotts doesn't care about your soil.  They care about their stockholders.  They have to sell Fertilizer.  Your healthy soil won't make them any money.

Because putting Scotts Fertilizers into your soil IS BAD FOR THE SOIL.  It kills those microbes in the book back there I told you about.  It destroys the Fungi.  It wipes out Bacteria.  Sometimes it wipes out the Earthworms.  Bad, bad, bad.  But Good for Scotts!

So get a soil test.  You can get one from your Local Cooperative Extension Service.  They'll charge a modest fee and you'll get REAL INFORMATION about your soil.  You'll know EXACTLY what's in that refrigerator!

And for weeds, I have another long story but I'll shorten it here.

After you have your great soil, you plant your great grass, and whatever grass you have, you mow it at the perfect height.  You keep it that perfect height, and mowing is one of your favorite things to do.  You mow and mow and mow because mowing your Grass is VERY GOOD for your Grass.

Scotts won't tell you that on National TV.  They tell you that using their Fertilizers is very good for your Grass.  And when you're done with those, they'll sell you Weed Killers.  Then Fungus Killers.  Then Grub Killers.  I saw a commercial this weekend for Lysol, we're all going to run around our houses spraying Lysol all over the place now to kill germs.  I can't wait.

But they make money.

Keep reading this AllExperts column this summer, Chris.  Summer is not a big time of year for the internet, but check in every week and watch all the Lawns questions pour in:  I put down Scotts XYZ 123, my lawn is dead, what happened?  I have yellow dots all over my grass, there are red spikes coming out of the ground, what's going on?  All these are chemicals problems.  Nice people, responsible adults, people who care about taking care of their things, people who do not have money to burn and they spend it carefully, and they trust Scotts.  I have a problem with companies who take advantage of people like that.

But I digress...

Back to weeds.

Mowing at the right height eliminated 90 percent of the weeds in one university study.

Fertilizing with Nitrogen -- this would have to be an Organic Nitrogen to build up the long term, slow dose Nitrogen generating microbes -- contributes to Grass vigor and eliminates many weeds.

Corn Gluten Meal stops seeds from Germinating.  Iowa State discovered this by accident.  Lots of things get discovered that way.  Penicillin was discovered by accident.  CGM is also a great Nitrogen fertilizer and it builds up your soil.

The majority of Crabgrass plants are annuals.  If you wait, they will be out of commission next year.  Remember that as you stare at them this year.  Too late for this year, but if you don't let them seed, you may see the last of them.  Corn Gluten Meal applied in the spring will stop that from happening again.

Let me see, have I covered everything?

It is late... I must be going to bed now, please feel free to followup with any questions as this is terribly long and AllExperts computer tends to dislocate my very long answers at times.  Thanks for writing.  Pleasure meeting you.