Question
Charlotte,
  I read with great interest your info about sugar for lawns. I need to put down new seed on some bare patches and and wondering what you would recommend for fertilizer. Can I use sugar on new seed before it germinates? Thanks. Lily

Answer
Hi Lily;
You can use sugar anytime.
The only thing sugar does is nourish the beneficial microbes that enrich and improve the soil. THEY do ll the work, all you do is make a healthy enviornment for them to stay alive in. Chemical fertilizers kill them. The chemicals also kill the toads, lizards, and grass snakes that eat all the harmful insects that invade your lawn.
chemical insecticides kill all the good stuff, and only some of the bad stuff, so the chemicals really CAUSE the poroblems, they don't cure them.
The microbes work at enriching the soil, and the rich soil is what does away with the weeds.
Weeds like poor soil, and will not thrive in rich soil, so as soon as they come up, they start dieing out. The richer the soil gets, the faster the weeds die out. When they soil is really rich, about the second or third year, any weeds that do come up in the spring will die out, usually before they even get big enough to see.
I just think of all the years I worked so hard, and spent so much, and had such mediocre results, and since I have been on the organics, I have worked so little, and I spend less in a whole year, than I used to spend every month, and have all this thick grass, no weeds, no nasty insects ever get enough of a population to do any damage, before my little lawn critters eat them all up.
NO aphids on my roses!!!!!  Love those little lizards.
My toads, grass snakes and lizards don't bother me, even though I cannot abide the sight of a snalke, of any kind, and would have a fit if a toad touched me.
I do see the lizards, running along my deck railing, along the fence and in my trees and shrubs. I talk to them, and they stop and listen to me, and look at me like they understand whayt I am saying, but they don't come toward me. I make toad houses so my toads have a nice cool damp place to live and to ambush the slugs from.LOL
If I am going into the area where there is ground cover and other places the grass snakes are apt to be, I run a broomstick across the tops of the plants a bit, so the grass snakes will skedaddle, and I will not lose all my dignity when I come into contact with one.
Put the sugar down at the rate of about 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. and water it in well. Water deeply to establish a deep root system.
I use baking soda disolved in water for molds and fungus. I read that Corn Meal Gluten is a very good weed and feed, but I can't find it, and it really does what the sugar does.
Horticultural corn meal is a good fungicide, but the soda works on the black spot and powdery mildew, and any mushrooms that used to come up, but none do now..
We have had a lot of rain and later than usual cold weather, my back has been bothering me a lot, and I still don't have my spring feeding of sugar down. No problem, it will wait until I have the time and my back isn't hurting as much. If I were using chemicals, I would have had to have a lot of stuff down now, or it would be disaster for the whole growing season.

This is my program, along with info about corn gluten meal etc that you can use if you want, and if you can find it, but it isn't vital. Sugar and baking soda will do the same things.
I DO like the alfalfa meal. It makes blooming plants put out more and larger blooms, and the lava sand adds a lot more nutrients.
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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