alfalfa meal question and my lawn
v1rt
16 years ago
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lawnkidd
16 years agolou_spicewood_tx
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Alfalfa Meal vs. Soybean Meal
Comments (43)Thanks for the link, Gary. I started down that road a while back, trying to find someone who would do a test for me. Some of the places I found online wouldn't do it because I was not in their zip code. I was like, "Huh???" It didn't make sense to me. I don't know if it was a regional funding thing or what, but geeze, no one would take my dirt. :( I found one place on that list you sent that's at least in my area code, so that's the first place I'll call. Thanks....See MoreAlfalfa tea/meal question
Comments (4)There aren't any rules, Alfalfa is a low-analysis, slow release 3-1-2 fertilizer. The pellets are around 80% as dense as granular fertilizer--I don't know if meal is less dense but I'd guess so. Since nitrogen is the main concern, a cup of pellets is roughly comparable to 2 oz 10-10-10, except the N is released over a year or two instead of immediately. You could apply tea in spring as soon as the leaves green up. I don't know where the after-bloom rule came from. There is no "should" about how many times to apply it, but most people aren't going to mess with it more than a couple times a season. As for meal/pellets, each cupful could replace an application of regular fertilizer. If I wanted an organic lawn fertilizer, I'd used pelletized chicken manure instead. Alfalfa laying on the turf would take forever to break down and release nutrients....See MoreAlfalfa Meal Pellets for Lawns
Comments (3)I would put it down now. I usually put down the organic feed type fertilizers a couple weeks before I think the lawn needs feeding, because it will take that long for them decompose. I try to time my alfalfa spread before a rainfall, but its not necessary....See MoreAlfalfa meal question.
Comments (13)It's true that organic materials like alfalfa meal don't do much in cold soil. That's part of their beauty. Organic materials have to be processed by soil microbes, whose activity is temperature dependent. You could wait til it's warm enough and then add alfalfa, but the plant won't get the nutrients until the soil microbes have had time to work it over. It seems best to add organics in fall, giving soil microbes plenty of time to process and break down the material into plant nutrients, before the plant actually needs the nutrients in spring. I've done this for years with my lawn - spread an organic-based lawn fertilizer in late October, and I get the thickest greenest lawn in the neighborhood in spring. (which also means I'm out there mowing before anyone else, but oh well.) Where chemical synthetic fertilizers wash away quickly, especially in cold rainy weather like we get all winter long, the organic materials don't wash away but are ready to go as soon as the plants are ready to grow in spring. It doesn't even matter if your soil freezes in winter or not. Fall additions of organics will still work just fine. Go ahead and put the alfalfa in the planting hole. It's not going to go bad, or wash away, or be wasted. It will just sit there all winter long until the soil starts to warm up in early spring. You can also use the tea in spring although I wouldn't use tea now....See Morev1rt
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