Interesting article thanks for posting. I've been wondering about sugaring my lawn and garden for some time. Tried it in one place and the following year got a rare mushroom called a phallus on the spot - coincidence? I wanted to quickly build my sometimes sandy sometimes calcified clay into a living soil and thought of the dark soil under the wild apple trees. This story reveals what the sugar is actually doing. I thought sugar would increase nitrogen and humus. That it would indirectly feed the worms but I worried about a yeasty over bloom. At one pound per yard without damage I see I can be very generous with the sugar. It strikes me as very useful. The microorganisms that fix nitrogen do so best in a low nitrogen environment. Therefore soil once treated can help nitrogen fixing plants and their fellow bacteria get back to work sequestering carbon. For myself I think I will try sweeting some compost tea + nitrogen because I want to get life deep into my ground. The real down side is sugar is the energy and inputs and subsidies that went into producing and transporting it. As far as weeds go - its the grass that is the weed. I have a grass that grows roots down more than a foot and infiltrates my perennials. With the exception of dandelions I like all the broad leaf plants in my lawn: johny jump ups, lupin, clover and crocus please.

I've been using the GH Dry nutrients. Not that I have much experience, they were the cheapest at the store where I found them. I have been really happy with the Maxi Grow for the vegitative stage and my lettuce system. I have also used the Maxi Bloom for several flowering/fruiting plants I have grown. Later I was wondering if I could find a more general purpose product that would work for everything without needing seperate mixes and I found Flora Magic which is their general purpose dry mix. I haven't used it much yet but I definitely like the cost benefit of going with a larger quantity of dry mix. I do notice with the dry mix that you need to keep it sealed up well since the salts in it will absorb moisture from the air and leaving the bag open in a humid environment will quickly turn your powder into a nasty block. This might be my only reservation about buying a large quantity. If you go for the economy of buying a large amount, you might want to scoop out a jar for regular use so you don't need to open the large bag as often wich might help it keep dry longer. As to mixing your own from scratch. If you are a bit of a chemist and like mixing and such, perhaps it would be worth it but if you don't have a good way to measure and weigh dry ingredients (as well as a good way to keep large quantitys of the salts dry) then it might not be worth your trouble. I suppose it depends on how much nutrient you are mixing. I still haven't finished off the first 1.5 lb package of Maxi Grow I bought last fall. Granted I'm dealing with smaller systems. One resivuar is about 5 gallons and the other is perhaps 15-18 gallons. Good luck!!!!!

I originally posted this on the lawn care forum a year ago. I didn't get around to posting it here, but someone was looking for recently, so here is the belated experiment posting. My bluegrass germination experiment (long-sorry) Posted by quip 5 WI (My Page) on Wed, Sep 1, 04 at 11:11 I recently posted a question about people's experience priming or pregerminating seed. I didn't find a lot of homeowner level (vs golf course, sports field). So I did a little experiment and was asked to post results. Here are the early results. Situation: Seeding a sloping shallow drainage swale (newly installed), loam soil, pH 7.3, high nutrient levels per recent test. Seedbed soil loosened with hand tools and raked. NK Kentucky bluegrass seed was used. Lawn located in SE Wisconsin, highs temps 68-80. Rain or watered 2-3 times per day as needed. For some test plots, I mixed seed with used coffee grounds from local coffeehouses--damp, not wet. I used 2# seed to 3.5 gal grounds (proportions were randomly selected) in covered 5 gal bucket. Seed/grounds were mixed initially and then inspected and mixed once a day. First plots were seeded by hand after 5 days of pre-treatment, lightly raked and lightly mulched with more coffee grounds. At the same time as pre-treated seed was sown, "control plots" were hand sown with untreated seed straight from the same box. Lightly raked and lightly mulched with coffee grounds in same manner as pretreated plots (in case the grass seed was responding to coffee in some way). Pretreated seed plots (5 days in coffee grounds): First germination seen 5 days after planting. Brisk germination by 7-8 days after planting. Now, at 12 days after planting (17 days including pre-treatment time), I have 90+% coverage with small bluegrass seedlings averaging 1 inch tall. Control seed plots: First germination seen at 7 days, with gradual and continuing germination to date (12 days). As of day 12, I have about 35% coverage with seedlings ranging from just visable to 1 inch (average about 5/8 inch). Hopefully these plots will continue to fill in over time, as germination is continuing. I also did pretreated plots with longer pretreatment times (8-12 days pretreatment). These are still early, but so far I have seen no great difference (good or bad) from behavior of 5d treated seed. This is, of course, very limited data, but here's how I feel about my early results: 1. Ease--The pre-treatment was easy for me to do on my small scale, and seed was easier to care for in the pre-treatment bucket than on the lawn. Minimal time and water used during pre-treatment. Seed/coffee ground mix was easier to spread by hand evenly than plain seed was (could see where I'd been and control mix easily). But I didn't need to try a spreader, so I dont know if it would have worked or not. A really large scale seeding might need a different treatment protocol to keep it easy (I did see a pre-germintion protocol from Milorganite on the web after the fact :-(. Don't have the url- you could google it.) 2. Germination rate-The pretreated seed germinated faster and more evenly than the untreated seed as measured from date sown. Allowing for the days the seed spent in the pre-treatment bucket, the improvement may be unimpressive (that is comparing 5 d pre-treated at 7 d post sowing to untreated at 12 days post sowing). But it is still early. 3. Would I pre-treat bluegrass seed again? More time may change my mind, but here's how I feel today. If I had the seed, but the seed bed was not ready (as in my current case), I would not hesitate to pre-treat again. If I were going away and could not care for the seedbed, I'd pretreat and ask a friend to mix daily in my absence. If the area were hard to water, I'd pre-treat to save several days of watering the bed. If the time was right for seeding, but the weather conditions were predicted to be adverse for a few days, I'd pre-treat. On a slope (like mine), I'd pretreat to reduce wash out. If I wanted mostly bluegrass, I might pretreat only the bluegrass, and not the other quicker seed types to give the blue a head start. But, if I had the perfect, level, easy-to-care-for seedbed all set with favorable weather forecasted, heck, I'd probably just seed it straight. If I were using a quicker germinating seed (like rye), I'd probably just seed straight.

Given the consistency between tests, I don't see too much chance that all four are off, no. Let's begin at the beginning. All recommendations are for everything except the holly, which actually likes soil like this (there are plenty of plants that actually prefer poor soils). For the most part, I won't quote the holly bed in the stuff below. Big point: stop using the compost. It's probably got way too much phosphorus in it. Standard depth of soil testing is 4 inches, so some numbers aren't quite as bad as they look. I'll adjust recommendations accordingly. ME 10-13: Sand with silt, and a nice place to be. Once we stabilize this--in a few years as it's really far off--you can probably test every 2 or 3 years and be fine. pH 4.8 - 5.5: Very low, but not the lowest I've ever seen by a long shot. My own initial test was below 4.8--4.3 if memory serves. We'll fix this under calcium, magnesium, and potassium below. OM 5-12%: Good to extraordinary, and you don't need any more at this time. While I wouldn't mind seeing the Right Bed area come up to match the others, I don't want it badly enough to add more phosphorus! Sulfur 13-15: Completely normal numbers and entirely appropriate. Phosphorus 1282-2187: You don't quite take the crown for highest phosphorus I've ever seen (that was over 2,400), but it's close. Avoid any and all phosphorus sources (hence the recommendation to avoid the compost). Soybean meal is OK as it only contains 1% P versus 6.25% N. However, even with organics, never use anything that's above a 1:4 P:N ratio. That pretty much means soybean meal. Calcium 37-54%: The Right Bed is actually not awful, while everything else needs a serious boost. In this case, with your low pH, I don't recommend dolomitic limestone--use a good calcitic like Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. But don't throw out the dolomite, I want you to use that as well to raise the magnesium levels at the same time (just very slowly). Magnesium 4.3-7.1: Low to low-ish. 30 lb/K of dolomitic this year will very slowly work to raise this. It's not an emergency, most plants do OK at 4%, they just prefer around 10 in a soil of your EC. Potassium 1.0-1.5%: Quite low, the floor value would be around 2.5%. I'm actually a fan of being in the 4-5% range. We use potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash) to fix this, which you can get from some garden or landscape stores, or they'll order it for you. Minor Elements: I wouldn't mind fiddling with boron, but you have so many other issues that I don't wish to do that--and I'm not completely sure what will release from the organic matter in your soil. So hands off that for this year. Iron is great, none is needed. Copper 36-60 PPM: These are through the roof...and there's not much we can do about it. Some types of organic matter (manure compost, I'm looking at you, here) will contain large amounts of some elements. Apparently yours had excessive copper. I have to do some research to be sure, but this shouldn't be much of a problem...I hope...however, avoid any copper source, no matter how small. Zinc is also quite high, but that's not a problem. Aluminum is extremely high, but raising your pH will overcome any possible problems from that. It's not an issue unless pH is below 5, and not a severe issue until under 4.5. Recommendations: Now: Apply 9 pounds per thousand square feet Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. Apply 15 pounds per thousand dolomitic limestone. June 1: Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet potassium sulfate. September 15: Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet potassium sulfate. October 15: Apply 9 pounds per thousand square feet Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime to everything except the Right Bed--apply 3 pounds per thousand there. Apply 15 pounds per thousand dolomitic limestone everywhere.