Skoot, I donÂt know how long it would last or if it does much of anything to be honest. This all came about a few years ago when my Son was in college they burned a sample of Nitron A 35 in a gas chromatograph to see what was in it. Turns out to be water, beer, soap (mild like baby shampoo or bath), and a common enzyme found in human saliva, papaya seed, and the yucca plant (meat tenderizer ADOLFÂs) No I wouldnÂt use it in sandy soils since the product is made for heavy clay soils. It is suppose to soften them up and make them absorb water better. Same thing any surfactant will do. No it wonÂt hurt soil microbes as long as you donÂt over do it like anything else. The beer and enzymes will feed microbes. Problem could be the shampoo if you used the wrong kind or too much. No I donÂt use it, I have rich sandy loam yard. My personal thought is it wonÂt do any harm. On the other hand I do not know or claim it would do any good. Only thing I do use once in a while is use a potion like Jerry Baker published of using ammonia and a lemon scented soap to hose end spray around the patio plants and surfaces before a party of guest like a BBQ. Seems to run the bugs off, makes things smell fresh, and puts a shine on the potted plants and ivy growing. I originally posted this a couple of years back because I seen a lot of folks buying the Nitron A 35 product, and knew how to make your own for pennies rather than buying for dollars. If you have ever had the product it smells, looks, and taste like dilutted soapy beer. That is what it is.

Plug aeration and shampooing--pros and cons. First, they are tools/aids that are available to serve a purpose. Just because they are available doen't mean they need to be used. I own a hammer-drill but I don't go out once or twice a year and drill holes in my sidewalk. I also own a bottle of Clorox liquid bleach, but I don't add a cup every time I do laundry. Identify the problem, find a solution, and use the correct tool to impliment the solution. Plug aeration. Removing cores/plugs from the the soil. The machines typically available for homeowner use remove a plug either 5/8 or 3/4" in diameter from the top 3-4" of the soil Usually the spoon is fixed to and rotates on an axle. These aerators are available as self powered walk behind models or riding mower/garden tractor pull behind. In very rare circumstances, a cam style serator can be available for rental--but vary rarely.Professional aerators (used on golf courses) have a variety of spoon sizes available ranging from less than 1/2 to almost 1", both hollow and solid tine, and can remove plugs over 8" deep (some solid tines can penetrate 24") and are usually cam actuated. This discussion will be based on home-owner style aerators. Pros: Will reduce the effects of soil compaction, thatch, hydrophobic soils allowing the turf to thrive or at least, recover. With topdressing and possibly the addition of dragging/raking, ammendments (peat moss, lime, gypsum, OM, sand, etc). can be added into the root zone. Water and air can be intoduced deep into the soil. Improved drainage in areas of standing water. Rhizomes can be cut separating daughter plant from mother and inducing the daughter to "mother" its own daughters. Cons: To be effective, a minimum of 20 holes per sq ft is recommended. As most home-owner available aerators produce 5-10 holes per sq ft per pass, that can be a lot of passes to get a bare minimum of 20 per sq ft. Even at 20 holes, you are pulling up soil cores and creating holes in less than 10% of the soil (although the collapse of the hole and the pivot action of the spoon as it travels through the soil will effect a greater area than the area of the hole for purposes of counteracting compaction or for aerifying the soil.) The plugs look like a flock of geese reside at your home. The aerator just dosen't pull up soil, it pulls up turf that will not survive and the action of the spoons puts significant stress on the turf--this is an aggressive action, Unwanted plant seeds (both weed and grass) can be brought to the surface and germinate. Aeration can spread nutsedge and rhizomeous (sp?) weeds like poa triv, and quackgrass (if present, either don't aerate or avoid those areas when aerating.--while most unwanted plants can be controled with post or pre emergents, these have no cure short of "maybe" RU) It can be expensive, especially if you rent or hire it out. Shampooing (aka (erroneously) liquid aeration) The use of a surficant to reduce water surface tension and allow water to easily penetrate soil, to remain in soil voids for future use by the turf, and keep the soil moist to improve absorbtion of subsequent waterings. Shampoo is recommended as an inexpensive surficant source. Pros. It's cheap. It effects 100% of the soil surface. It's easy- can be applied with a hose-end sprayer. It's fast to apply and if it's the right tool, will show results within a couple of weeks. Nearly everyone who has tried it, reports improved screw-driver test results over extended periods. Creates very little stress or damage to turf/grass. No unsightly residue and your lawn smells like a baby. It may be the only action needed to resolve hydrophobic conditions not due to compaction. It's practicaly idiot proof. It's CHEAP. Cons: It's cheap and easy--you'll need to convince yourself it can work. People will ask why your lawn smells like shampoo. (Questions can be reduced dramatically if you have a doobie hang outa your mouth.) It does little if anything for compacted soil. It can be counter productive if used on sandy soil. Personally, I have had mixed results. I have sandy-silt soil. I applied 36oz over 3k sq ft over a 3 week period. (so above the recommended rate). I had inproved turf reults on the hill section, but completely lost the turf on the flat areas. It could be that there is the possiblity (contrary to what the advocates say) of over applying shampoo, or the surficant effect adversly increased the leaching of water through the already sandy soil, or it's possible that the surficant treated water when obsorbed by the turf plant has an adverse affect on capilary function or other biological processes. If used in modration, shampooing may have a positive affect on hydrophobic soil (due to crusting or microbial causes) with little to no adverse affects. At 20 cents per thousand plus the cost of water--there isn't much down side even if it fails to work. My philosophy is: Do whatever it takes to create healthy turf and roots. Strong prolific rooting will eventually take care of soil compaction, OM, and water penetration and retention issues.

I buy a product called Sea-90 which is harvested ocean salt. A lab found it contains 92 minerals, trace elements and organic compounds plus more than 50,000 organic substances in the just the right proportions. Crop production benefits from enhanced micro flora populations include: Enhanced nutrient uptake Significantly improved flavor Greater production and yields Reduced days to harvest Reduced transplant shock Reduced drought stress Reduced heat stress I add it to the soil and also use it as a spray for leaves. Aphids hate it and it will cure many diseases as well. I swear this i something you'll want to know about. There's years of research behind it. Read amazing and detailed info on the sea-90 website. [seaagri.com] Not an ad. I don't benefit from this, I just think our soil needs the minerals.

So you're the sad lawn poster child :-( The good news is that you're doing everything I was doing when I first came to this forum in 2002, everything, so there's hope for you. You're on your way with shampoo. Your moisture penetration will improve greatly. You'll feel it underfoot after it rains. You should never have to reseed with KBG. It spreads by itself to fill thin areas. Could it be your trees have grown up to provide too much shade for KBG? It needs a good bit of sunlight every day. Chances are you don't have clay, but we don't get many people from Denver on this forum. Maybe there is clay there. There are two ways to check that. One is the bottle test. Get a bottle with straight sides and fill it half full of soil. Take a picture with a ruler next to the jar. Then fill the jar with water and a drop or two of shampoo or dish soap. Shake the jar until the soil is completely incorporated in the slurry. Set it down and wait 2 minutes. Take a picture with the ruler at 2 minutes, 2 hours, and 2 days. Sand and gravel will settle instantly. At 2 minutes you'll have an idea of sand, gravel, and silt. Loam will settle in 2 hours. The really fine particles will settle in 2 days. If you can see through the water after 2 days then you likely have no clay at all. Clay tends to remain suspended in the water for many days. The other way to check for clay is to have your soil tested at an excellent lab like Logan Labs. You've probably read some of those soil test posts here. Clay soils will have an exchange capacity up above 15. Having gone through all that, if you have an imbalance of salts (sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium) then the soil can act just like clay in almost every respect. But this can be fixed by rebalancing the salts. The good soil tests will give you that information and morpheuspa (a member of this forum) can help you get the right stuff added. I don't know what will happen to your water bill, but you are not watering right. Get some cat food or tuna cans and place them around the yard. Turn on your sprinklers and time how long it takes to fill the cans. That will become your watering time from now on. What changes is how frequently you water. The basic rules are that you deep water once per month when temps are below 70 degrees F. Water once every 3 weeks with temps in the 70s. Water once every 2 weeks with temps in the 80s. Water once a week with temps in the 90s. The reason this works is you are deep watering every time. When water is deeper in the soil where the temps are cooler, the water evaporates more slowly giving the roots longer to absorb moisture. This also forces the roots to grow down deeper giving you better drought resistance. Going hand in hand with watering properly is mowing properly. You should be mowing KBG or fescue at the mower's highest setting. Tall grass grows deeper roots and provides more shade on the soil helping to keep it cool. Organic fertilizers are made from animal feeds, so I like to go direct to the feed store and get it at "wholesale." Seriously you save about 5/6 the cost of organic ferts by buying 50-pound bags of soybean meal, cottonseed meal, alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow), corn meal, or corn gluten meal. Call your feed stores and see what they have and get prices. The application rate is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Milorganite is fine if that's all you can find. That concoction of stuff you read about is, surprisingly, not all that bad. The guy who made that popular is Jerry Baker, "America's Master Gardener." Back when he was on TV everyone on these forums just laughed about his recipes. Now, however, with some more thought, there's really nothing wrong with those. You'll get better results from 15 pounds of alfalfa pellets, though. The same goes for compost. You'll get much better bang for your buck with organic fertilizer. If you want to fertilize, use fertilizer. If you want to kill weeds, spot spray with something like Weed b Gon or Weed b Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis Killer. Those won't kill grassy weeds. For those you'll need to identify them and get more specific help. Post pictures here and ask for help. Speaking of pictures, if you could post one that shows your shade situation that would help. You might be able to loosen the extra soil and get it out. Try loosening it with a rake and water washing to move it around or get it more level. Leveling is a different topic. You might search this forum for more info on leveling. That will give you more questions to ask. So essentially lawn care boils down to watering properly, mowing properly, and fertilizing. Those are in order of importance, by the way. If you're not watering properly, then the fertilizer choice is immaterial. Here are some motivational pictures. The first one shows the fertilizer effect of alfalfa pellets.Thanks to mrmumbles for this picture. The alfalfa pellets were applied in mid May. The picture was taken in mid July. You can clearly see the improved color, density, and growth. This next picture is morpheuspa's lawn. These lawns are all KBG in eastern PA. The big difference is that morph's is watered deeply once a week in the summer and he's mostly organic with fertilizer. This was taken in July several years ago. His neighbors water every day.