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The Lawn and Landscape Season Begins In the Fall

The Lawn and Landscape Season Begins In the Fall

Many homeowners think of fall as the end of the gardening year and begin to neglect their yards.  However, lawn pros and organic gardeners see the fall as the beginning of lawn season.   They do what they can to improve the lawn and garden soil quality at this time.  Preparing your lawn for the winter season, (winterizing your lawn), is an important necessary maintenance task.  Because grass goes dormant during the winter, any preparation for a healthy spring must be made in the fall.  When the weather turns warmer in the spring, turf grass needs to be primed and ready to go.   Winterizing your lawn is an ongoing job, at least until the lawn goes dormant.

In the fall, especially in the North, lawns have the opportunity to re-build, repair and thicken up after going through the stresses of summer. The lawn attempts to expand its root system at this time, digging in and getting to more of the soil nutrients. It also increases blade growth, making more carbohydrates (food) and some of this food is stored for spring and summer use.

SOIL IMPROVEMENT

Even when you are doing everything else right, clay and soil compaction can prevent your lawn from being healthy.  With a porous, bioactive soil, the grass roots can become fuller and can grow deeper.  When the soil has better structure, the naturally occurring soil nutrients, as well as the nutrients from your fertilizers and amendments, become more easily available to the grass and other plants in your yard. 

There are three early fall ways to help your lawn dig in deeper and get more nutrients right now:

1. Liquid Aeration with Nature's Magic +Aerify or Nature's Magic + Aerify for Clay Soil.  This not only opens up the soil, it also adds trace elements that stimulate root growth. There is still time for two more applications in the North. Don't forget to hit all your garden beds too when you make your applications. If your soil is sandy and well-drained you can use Nature's Magic instead to get the benefits of root stimulants and increased organic matter.
2. Depending on turf type, fertilize the lawn with a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen. In our lawn service business, we save our heaviest fertilizing of the year for the early fall with the exception of Centipede grass (no nitrogen fertilizer over 5-1-1 should be used). This stimulates growth and helps the grass send out tillers and runners to fill in thin spots. You can use our 16-4-8 For Lawn Turfs for both the early fall fertilizing and as a late season winterizer. Apply at 10-12 oz. per 1000 sq. ft.
3. Super Compost Tea.  Super Compost Tea

Components found in our Super Compost Tea transition your lawn to a true organic lawn instantly.  Appling in fall, spring and summer will detoxify, aerate, dethatch, control insects, control weeds, supplement, and actually build healthy, living, soil.  Using this as a lawn winterizer will greatly improve next season's lawn.

What is in it?

Biological and Function

B. Subtilis    Plant growth promoting soil inoculant

Bacillus licheniformis       A bio-fertilizer

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)         A naturally occurring bacterial disease of insects

Bacillus polymyxa  Growth Promoting, nitrogen fixing

Enzymes      Protein catalysts

Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM)                 Improves drought resistance

Auxins         Growth hormones

Cytokinins   Growth hormones

Gibberellins Growth hormones

Vitamin B     Growth Regulator

Amino acids Function as chemical messengers and as intermediates in metabolism

Folic acids   also known as vitamin B9

Humic acid   Also known as liquid humus

Neem oil       Insect Controller

Garlic oil      Insect Controller

Fungi Ectomycorrhizal fungi also have the potential to positively affect plant growth. Ectomycorrhizal fungi can change the growth form of plant roots by promoting root branching and restricting root extension. Ectomycorrhizal fungi can increase the uptake of phophorus by plant roots and some species of fungi also improve nitrogen uptake. They can decrease the susceptibility of the plant to disease and drought.

Fish Emulsion        Our Fish Emulsion is derived from ocean fish that feed on mineral rich plankton. The result is a 5-1-1 fertilizer loaded with Trace Minerals, Macro and Micro-nutrients. There are over forty suppliments in our Fish Emulsion, such as iron, boron, zinc, calcium, manganese, vitamins B1, B2 to name just a few. Most of these are in a chelated form, meaning they are readily available to the plant or turf which increases plant brix levels.

Seaweed      Provides numerous trace elements and growth stimulants. Helps generate and feed soil building microbes. Adds both "Green" and "Brown" organic material.

Macro Nutrients and Function

Nitrogen       New, green growth

Phosphorus Essential to turf grass root growth and vigorous growth overall

Potassium    Builds cells and tissue for more durable plants that are usually more tolerant of temperature extremes and are more pest- and disease-resistant

Organics and Function

Black strap sugar cane molasses        Food for microorganism colonies, brix value increaser

Complex corn sugars      Food for microorganism colonies, brix value increaser

Micro nutrients and trace elements    

Boron (B)     Facilitates nutrient uptake and it helps plants to grow new tissue

Calcium (Ca)          Promotes new root growth and facilitates overall plant vigor

Copper (Cu) Contributes too many natural processes including plant metabolism and reproduction

Iron (Fe)       healthy, dark green growth, essential for photosynthesis and chlorophyll formation

Magnesium (Mg)    Allows food production thru photosynthesis, necessary for seed production

Manganese (Mn)    Necessary for chlorophyll formation

Molybdenum (Mo)  Grasses need molybdenum to produce essential proteins

Sulfur (S)     Creates essential proteins, produces dark green color, essential for nitrogen-fixing nodules, aids in the production proteins, amino acids, enzymes and  

Zinc (Zn)      Plants use zinc in conjunction with other elements to carry out many natural processes including forming chlorophyll.

Nitrogen enters the soil in organic forms such as plant roots, leaves, and other plant materials, in addition to dead animals, insects, and microorganisms, manure, and compost. As these decompose, the once recognizable plant and animal materials are transformed into soil organic matter called humus, which contains organic nitrogen. Living plants cannot use these organic forms of N.  This is why microbes living in the soil are so important, because they convert organic N into forms of N that plants can then use.

There are typically 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of soil.  Bacteria are vital in recycling nutrients, and many important steps in nutrient cycles depend on bacteria, such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere.  Beneficial bacteria and fungi are needed in the soil to make nutrients available to the plants.  Bacteria occupy most of the leaf and/or root surface and thus are effective at consuming the food resource that the disease causing organisms would otherwise consume.  In soil, bacteria have additional function beyond consuming; they also retain nutrients (N, P, S, Ca, Fe, etc.) in their bio-mass. Bacteria also decompose plant-toxic materials and plant residues and build soil structure.  The smallest building blocks of soil structure are built by beneficial bacteria. Without these bacteria, the bricks to make the "soil house" will not occur and further development of soil structure will not happen.  If the organisms are not present, water holding capacity cannot be improved. Most of the bacteria in the compost tea will not be the right ones when you apply the tea, so they go to sleep in the soil, and wait for the right conditions that will allow them to wake up, suppress their competitors, retain nutrients, decompose residues and build soil aggregate structure.

As you apply these, immediately plant available, nutrients to the soil, they melt and drop into the top soil. If you ever dig in your yard you will notice that the roots really do not go down that far. Why would they? All of the nutrients are in the top 2 inches of soil. During times of low moisture and high heat, which is known around here as SUMMER, the roots do not penetrate far enough into the soil to be able to reach cooler wetter soils and suffer the consequences. Mechanical or "Core" aeration removes a 3" plug every 6 inches while our liquid aerator in the Tea penetrates several inches over 100% of the lawn. If you begin a program that encourages increased root mass and penetration into the soil you dramatically increase drought resistance and overall health for turf.

 

 

MOWING 

Keep the grass fairly high into the early fall (unless your lawn is mostly Bentgrass-which needs to be cut shorter). This will help the grass root deeper, thicken up and build up food reserves

Give your lawn what it needs to safely survive the winter and renew itself in spring. Take steps beginning in late summer to winterize your lawn and prevent problems next season.

Lovely fall days make you want to be outside, so why not prepare your lawn for winter and get some exercise. The fall air will invigorate you, making the task more enjoyable. You know you have to do it, so make the most of it.

Police your yard thoroughly several times before the lawn goes dormant. It is important that nothing is lying around on the lawn, so walk around carefully and make sure it is clear of anything covering the grass. Children are notorious for forgetting where they have left their toys. One forgotten Frisbee can give you an ugly old spot come next spring!  Pull all of the weeds from any landscaped areas. These weeds will rob your plants through the winter months, and they will be the first thing to sprout in the spring. Grab them by the roots and get rid of them.

One of the most important healthy lawn factors is the organic matter content in the soil.  Organic matter is the results of the breakdown of organic material.  Organic material consists of two components; green organic material (high in nitrogen), and brown organic material (high in carbon).  The ideal ratio is nitrogen to carbon at 20:1.  Your grass cannot uptake nutrients directly.  Soil bacteria convert these nutrients to a form plants can uptake.  Green organic material is the food for the bacteria and brown organic material is the home for the bacterial.

With people outside, enjoying their yards, playing sports and gardening, grass takes a beating.  Compaction is one of the worst problems inflicted on lawns with lots of foot traffic.  Compaction compresses the spaces in the soil where oxygen can be available to the roots.  Without oxygen, the plants cannot complete their metabolic processes (breaking down the sugars they have stored from photosynthesis) and will die.

It is beneficial to ensure that the grass has a good, healthy root system going into the fall and winter.  Aerate your lawn.  We recommend Aerify, a bio enhanced liquid aerating agent that is far superior to mechanical aeration.

Fall leaves (brown organic material) should not be raked!  Be sure your mower has sharp mulching blades installed into the lawn.  When you mow, the mulching blades turn the leaves into a confetti like residue that is quickly turned into organic material for your soil.

 

Depending upon where you live, you will most likely not want to fertilize past September or October.  Fertilizer too late in the season will cause the grass to keep growing, and could leave it susceptible to frost damage.

Over seeding and Topdressing the Lawn

The early fall is a good time to overseed a lawn that might need renovation.  Warm season weeds will be dying off, opening up space for grass and reducing competition.  Grass that can establish itself in the fall will come back in the spring, more vigorous. 

Warm Season Grasses

Fertilize lawns in late summer. Warm-season grasses go dormant in winter, so feed only with slow acting organic fertilizers such as Super Compost Tea, Fish Emulsion or cold water seaweed.  We supplement these with Nature's Magic - a solution containing seaweed, humic acid (one gallon of humic acid has the bioactivity of 7 tons of manure), trace elements, and blackstrap molasses to supplement the biolife.

Cold Season Grasses

Give cool-season grass what it needs to grow - fertilize with a slow-release, balanced organic lawn formula. We recommend Super Compost Tea.

Both

Control insects and fungus diseases to deny them overwintering privileges in your lawn. Cut down any weedy patches adjacent to the lawn for the same reason.  We recommend Wipeout.

Raise your mower's cutting height one notch for the last month of summer mowing. Mow in a different direction - if you usually mow east to west, change to north south.

After your lawn goes dormant

This is an excellent time to adjust soil pH to your turf's ideal pH.  Different grasses have vastly different requirements!

Ideal Grass pH

BAHIAGRASS– Ideal pH 6.8

BENTGRASS– Ideal pH 6.3

BERMUDA - Ideal pH 6.3

BLUEGRASS - Ideal pH 6.5

BUFFALO - Ideal pH 6.3

CARPETGRASS - Ideal pH 5.3

CENTIPEDE - Ideal pH 5.1

FESCUE RED & CREEPING - Ideal pH 6.2

ESCUE TALL - Ideal pH 6.3

ST. AUGUSTINE - Ideal pH 7.1

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ZOYSIA - Ideal pH 6.3

Place a good layer of mulch around small trees or bushes to protect their roots from the bitter cold.

Birdbaths need to be emptied and removed. If the pedestal is too heavy, leave it, but get someone to help you remove the top. Consider putting lawn ornaments in a work area of the garage where you can repaint them over the winter if necessary.

The most costly thing people forget to do when winterizing their lawn is to put up the hose. While you're at it, check to make sure that you have a freeze proof faucet on the outside of your home. If you do not, o you forget and leave the water on, either the faucet or the hose may freeze and bust. Your lawn will be a mess then, and so will your water bill.

Visit our website for tips, techniques and organic products

 

 

About the Author

Age: 62, There's a lot of experience in these gray hairs!

Education: Master of Science in Quality Management, Quality Control

Status: Married 38 years, 4 children, 10 grandkids

Company: The Organic lawn Care Store - http://www.theorganiclawncarestore.com/

 

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