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Soils Alive Blog
EARTH DAY, 2010: Soils Alive presents . . .
Posted by Soils Alive Administrator on Tuesday, April 06, 2010
WHAT: A Free Premiere Film Screening & Benefit
WHERE: The Angelika Film Center, Mockingbird Station, Dallas
WHEN: Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2010
TIME: 7 p.m.
RSVP: greencarpetdallas.org
Could this happen in Dallas? Fueled with medical evidence of the detrimental effect chemicals were having on patients in her practice, one lone physician took a stand—and the results were astounding. A Chemical Reaction chronicles one small town’s heroic quest to protect its people and its local environment from the dangers of chemical pesticides and herbicides. Ultimately, a tale of perseverance and triumph over big business chemical lawn treatment companies and their lobbyists, A Chemical Reaction questions the role and safety of services and products we use today on home landscapes.
Join Soils Alive and Preservation Tree Services for a Dallas premiere screening and discussion with the film's director, Brett Plymale, on Earth Day. Seating is limited and will be honored on a 'first come, first served' basis and according to RSVPs received prior to the event.
Visit greencarpetdallas.org for details and to RSVP.
Katy Trail Goes Organic with Soils Alive
Posted by Soils Alive Administrator on Monday, September 21, 2009
Soils Alive has been chosen as the exclusive provider of organic fertilization services for Dallas' Katy Trail. Soils Alive will be employing the same eco-friendly and safe organic fertilization practices on the Katy Trail as used for Soils Alive customers.
“We’re excited that the Katy Trail is environmentally responsible to its patrons and that we at Soils Alive are able to be a part of feeding the trail landscape organically,” commented Michael Bosco, Soils Alive Founder.
Open year-round and free to Dallas residents and visitors, the Katy Trail is a Dallas city park. Built along the now defunct Katy Railway line, the trail extends 3.5 miles from Airline Road to the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. The trail is supported and funded by the nonprofit group Friends of the Katy Trail.
Webworms? Bagworms?
Posted by Michael Bosco on Friday, June 26, 2009
Soils Alive can effectively and organically treat your trees for webworms. We use an active ingredient from a naturally occurring soil bacteria called spinosad, which is deadly to webworms, and has minimal impact on the surrounding biology. Contact us now for a quote, and to schedule a webworm treatment.
About Webworms
Webworms will not kill a large tree, but they can defoliate a tree, requiring it to put more energy into regrowing leaves. While webworms have several generations a year, controlling early generations can slow subsequent ones and decrease overall tree damage and stress, while improving aesthetics.
A Guide To Overseeding With Ryegrass
Posted by Michael Bosco on Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Overseeding with Ryegrass - a good idea or bad idea? To answer that question you might first consider the following:
1. Do you have Bermuda grass?
2. Is the area you want to overseed a full sun area?
3. Are you trying to use fewer herbicides?
4. Are you okay with mowing in the winter?
5. Are you prepared to use more water?
If you answered yes to all of these questions then you are an excellent candidate for overseeding with ryegrass.
Considerations
1. Bermuda is the best grass to overseed because it is the easiest to prepare to be seeded. Bermuda can be scalped so that the seed will make good contact with the soil, which is critical for germination. St. Augustine, on the other hand, is the most difficult to prepare because you cannot scalp St. Augustine without damaging the stolons. Also, St. Augustine is thick, reducing the germination of ryegrass and requiring a higher seeding rate. Finally, Brown Patch can be very damaging to St. Augustine in the fall — a result of overwatering. Unfortunately, when overseeding with ryegrass, frequent watering is a necessity to allow for germination, which often causes a severe outbreak of Brown Patch in a St. Augustine lawn.
2. It is recommended to only overseed ryegrass in full sun. Shady areas will transition slowly back to perennial summer grasses causing it undue stress.
3. Overseeding with ryegrass requires less use of herbicides. Overseeding will reduce the need for a fall pre-emergent herbicide. Weeds are at their worst in the early spring before the summer grasses green-up. A healthy stand of ryegrass will keep spring weeds to a minimum, thereby reducing chemical usage.
4. Overseeding with ryegrass requires more mowing. Ryegrass will need to be mowed every 10 to 14 days when temperatures are under 50° F and every seven days when temperatures are over 50° F. A benefit of regular mowing is keeping weeds down, thus containing them.
5. Overseeding with ryegrass requires more water. Germination will require watering three to six times daily at anywhere from 30 seconds to one minute at a time until germination occurs. Then a watering schedule of one to two times daily for seven days will keep the newly germinated seedlings from drying out. After one week, cut back to watering three times per week over a two week period at three minutes per watering. The ryegrass should then be established enough to go to once-a-week watering.
Perennial or Annual Ryegrass?
If you decide to overseed you have one more decision to make: Perennial vs. Annual. Perennial is typically preferred by professional grounds keepers for its superior dark green color and slower growth. Annual is a cheaper option and germinates three to eight days faster than perennial ryegrass. Also, annual ryegrass has a tendency to be very wet and hard to mow.
Transitioning back to warm-season grass
Ryegrass will die when the weather becomes hot in late spring, but the warm-season grasses will have suffered due to increased competition for water, nutrients and light. There are several management practices that encourage transition back to warm-season grass. Do not fertilize ryegrass in early spring, as this promotes competition with warm-season grass. Once the underlying grass greens up in the spring, mow the ryegrass as closely as possible (without scalping the underlying grass.) This opens up the ryegrass canopy and allows light to reach the warm season grass. Once the warm-season grass begins vigorous growth, resume your normal lawn care program.
Organic Mosquito Control and Treatment
Posted by Michael Bosco on Friday, April 11, 2008
As things heat up during the summer months in North Texas, the spring rains can pave the way for a fairly robust mosquito season. In case you've not visited or seen our newest treatment program, Soils Alive is now providing a season-long mosquito control program using a USDA organic compliant called Eco-Exempt IC. It is safe and effective, containting as its active ingredients, 10% rosemary oil, 2% peppermint oil and oil of wintergreen. This naturally derived botanical provides quick knockdown/kill and residual protection against mosquitoes.
Signing up for this program will give your property two applications per month from time of sign up through the end of October. Best of all, Soils Alive can do it all for less than conventional methods. Season long control can be provided for about 1/3 the cost of a mosquito misting system, and there are no ugly tanks to refill, exposed hoses or nozzles to plug.
Learn more about application options and pricing for organic mosquito control and treatment.
The Corn Gluten Meal Question
Posted by Michael Bosco on Wednesday, March 12, 2008
About every fourth yard we visit, the homeowner has applied corn gluten meal the previous Fall, and is completely puzzled about why he or she has so many weeds. The most common comment from is, "I think I caused a bigger weed problem, look I have more weeds than my neighbor and they didn't apply anything". The sad thing is I know exactly how they feel. Soils Alive used cgm for more than 5 years trying to get it to work. We always thought our timing was off or it was not a good product so we would change suppliers, but every year we had many client calls wondering why their weeds were so bad.
The reality is they are absolutely right; they did cause a larger problem when they applied corn gluten meal in the fall. Why you ask? To answer that we have to understand how corn gluten works. Dr. Nick Christian at Iowa State University discovered the pre-emergent qualities of cgm and later Dianna Liu as a graduate student at ISU eventually isolated the five individual dipeptides (combinations of two amino acids) that had the ability to inhibit root formation of germinating seedlings.
It is important that we understand that cgm does not inhibit germination, it inhibits root formation. For cgm applications to be successful it must be applied 2-3 weeks before seed germination, watered in sufficiently then all irrigation shut off to allow the soil to dry out. This allows seeds to germinate then given time to desiccate before the next rain/water occurrence. If the soil is moist after the point which the cgm's effectiveness is degraded then the weed seedling will produce roots and will "grow out" of the cgm. If this scenario occurs then the weed seed will have the benefit of the cgm's10 nitrogen allowing it to grow faster, taller, and stronger than if nothing was applied.
The fall/winter application of cgm in my opinion is not a good horticultural decision, and does not provide effective weed suppression. The reason it is not a good horticultural practice is because 20 lbs of cgm per 1000 sq. ft. is the equivalent of 2 lbs of nitrogen at a time when plants are naturally going dormant. That amount of nitrogen will stimulate freeze prone tender growth instead of allowing the plant to harden-off for the winter. Also high nitrogen applications increases the chance St. Augustine grass will succumb to fungal disease, such as brown patch. The weed suppression does not occur as advertised because in the DFW area weeds germinate for several months in the fall and late winter. This would require an application of cgm every 3 to 4 weeks to effectively inhibit the roots from forming. When you add on the challenge of needing a dry period to allow for the desiccation of the weeds then chances are cgm is not going to deliver as advertised.
When should Corn Gluten Meal be used? The only time I would recommend using cgm would be in the spring as the grass is greening up. This application supplies the grass a shot of nitrogen so that it greens up quickly, increasing its density and height so that it can physically out compete the weeds. This approach is the most effective weed suppressing tool there is, physical competition. Any weed suppression the cgm offers is a bonus and thus not a waste of money or labor. I still have a but to inject here. Cgm is composed mostly of nitrogen, containing little to no phosphorus, or potassium. This makes cgm a very "white bread" sort of diet for the plants, and not a well balanced product that feeds the soil and plant in a holistic manner.
I am not a fan of corn gluten meal; it is a by product of the corn syrup industry, and is sold as an animal feed commodity so the price is always higher than products that are waste products that should be used as fertilizers. I think cgm was born out of advertising hype, and a need for an organic weed control. My hope is that we will soon have effective tools that stand up to field trials and not just laboratory studies. Maybe ISU will be able to isolate the effective portions of cgm and create a stable organic weed preventative that has longevity in the field.
The Soils Alive Blog
Posted by Michael Bosco on Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Welcome to Soils Alive's new blog - a place for stories, anecdotes, questions and answers to organic lawn care related issues. Please sign up to comment or to ask a question. We welcome your input. Thanks!
- Michael
About this blog
Welcome! Soils Alive's blog was conceived as a method for Soils Alive to provide the latest and most up-to-date information for those who are curious or are seeking answers to common Organic Lawn Care issues.
Within this blog you will find anecdotes, issues and answers from Soils Alive's founder, Michael Bosco. Please comment on any entry or ask an organic lawn & landscape care related question.
