Well a bit to late this year to start now. But you might have limited success if you live in some place like Florida where first frost comes in late November or early December. But in general you rip up sprigs and cut them into about 4 to 6 inch lengths so you have at least two nodes at the end of each sprig to work with. Excavate a small furrow, place sprigs in furrow and cover nodes and stem in soil. Leave grass blades uncovered or else it will die. Keep watered until sprigs set roots.

Bruce, Have you ever used compost recently? you can't expect quick result from soybean meal. It might take 3 weeks for it to work and it won't be dramatic green up like you'd get from synthetic fertilizer. The point of organic lawn program is to improve soil (nutrient cycling), more disease resistant, keep harmful insects under control and it goes on. You just have to be patient. It could take several years to get to the optimal level. Synthetic pre-em can disrupt nutrient cycling by killing protozoa and nematodes. They act like fertilizer spreader by eating bacteria and fungi releasing nitrogen and other nutrients. You might have to spread good quality of compost at the rate of 1 cubic yard per 1000 sqft to re-introduce fungi, nematodes, protozoa and bacteria into the soil to get the ball rolling. Basically light dusting on the lawn and just water them in. All you have to do is apply soybean meal at the rate of 15-20lbs per 1000 sqft every 3 months to keep feeding the microbes in the soil to continue and improve the soil. Soybean meal is fungi meal. It has good amount of protein that will be used to fertilize lawn, trees, etc. Synthetic fertilizer has salts that can ruin microbes in the soil. it's like pouring salt on snail. The spray application I came up with will greatly help for the first few years to improve nutrient cycling. They are food for microbes in the soil. Molasses is basically food for bacteria. Fish hydrolysate and Seaweed liquid are fungi food. I think the biggest problem is that we lack enough fungi in the soil. it is very easy to grow large bacterial population in the soil but not fungi. It just takes time. Over time, you will notice that you will water significantly less frequently because of larger fungi population. They are like sponge with all the holes in the ground. They will be able to absorb more water and hold them longer rather than letting them drain away. I've routinely gone 10-14 days before I've had to water again during the summer if there's no rain. And that's on rocky soil. I can imagine that I'd go 2-3 weeks easily if I had lived on clay based topsoil since they hold more water. A book called 'Teaming with Microbes' by Jeff Lowenfels is a good book to learn about organic practice. It's just not for lawn but how to maintain trees, garden, etc. They have different needs.

Vdels_1 I could see your pic in the link you posted! Thanks! nice palms! HTML is just one of many computer languages used on the internet. think of it as a programming language I guess. Its fairly simple once you learn to recognise the tags. the HTML part of the displaying the image is just the <.img. src.='."'> part, again, MINUS the periods. You put your URL of your photo in between the quotes in what I just typed, and your pic will show up here in the thread... like this EDIT: I think its just webshots. I used to use them YEARS ago when I first started posting here in like 2002, but have since found that photobucket is far better, especially for this purpose. It seems to me that webshots makes it hard to find the right URL for uploaded photos. The only one I could find for your pic that would work here was the thumbnail. (thats why its so small) The URLs i found for the large size photo just did not work at all, even when I added the .jpg file extension to the file name, which is pretty standard in the URL of a photo/ image. Since Ive become pretty good at this stuff, im going with that it has something to do with webshots, and not any real error on my part or yours. Good luck! Its not hard to learn like the poster above me pointed out.

Being fairly close like roselee, I'm curious about that as well. First I've heard of that. My guess would be because the typical homeowner isn't going to put in the time to research the different types of St.A. and just pick up whatever is cheaper. Nor will they spend the time to properly prepare, let alone maintain the more important soil. Cover all the bases by allowing none perhaps? We have a mix of floratam and raleigh in the front and I have a hard time telling the difference. It's mostly shaded by trees but both seem to do equally well in regards to drought until about day 8 or so of no water. Then I can really start to tell the difference. I dug everything out as deep as I cared to muster, screened it, added pure compost to the height I wanted then laid the sod. In early spring I add compost, sulfur, iron, alaska fish fertilizer, molasses, epsom salt, and some other goodies. My neighbors often jokingly tell me they are going to catch me watering on my off days because it's usually pretty lush and green in these rough months while theirs are brown. I chuckle because normally I only water every two weeks (thank you soil). A&M is coming out with another St.A in 2015 that's supposed to be even more drought resistant than floratam called DALSA 0605 so I'm waiting to re-do a section of the back until it becomes available to give it a whirl. I just took this picture. I didn't water this week (Tuesday) so it's been 9 days since it's had a drink. Can you spot the patch of raleigh? :D It used to be a lot bigger but the floratam is winning so I just leave it alone.