TestDIYOrganic

For a long time, there was no manufacturer selling an organic starter fertilizer product and to be honest, not many people cared. The only benefit of having something marketted as an organic starter fertilizer is to help those that are transitioning from synthetic fertilizers that are accustomed to grabbing something with that label when it's time to seed. In this post I'll discuss the one new product that's labelled as an organic starter fertilizer and the role of starter fertilizers in organic lawn care.

What is a Starter Fertilizer

In the synthetic fertilizer world, anything labeled starter fertilizer has one unique characteristic. It contains a higher proportion of phosphorous than the other fertilizers. Phosphorous is the middle number in the NPK guaranteed analysis on the bag of fertilizer. A starter fertilizer might have a guaranteed analysis of 11-23-10 where another fertilizer from the same like would have an analysis of 26-1-12.

Why is Phosphorous Important When Seeding Lawns?

Phosphorous is an important nutrient for your lawn. Phosphorous is important for plant cell division and aids in root development. When soil is low in phosphorous the grass will not grow roots as deep as it would if there phosphorous levels were adequate.



Getting your new seedlings to grow and establish strong roots is exactly what you want which is why there is such an emphasis on starter fertilizers high in phosphorous.



An individual grass seed actually contains all the nutrients it needs to get started. Other than water, it doesn't need anything to go from seed to plant. The nutrients stored in the seed get depleted quickly and by the time the roots are forming it will need to get nurtrients, including phosphorous from the soil. If it doesn't find enough it will slow or halt it's development.

Why Are There No Organic Starter Fertilizers?

So if starter fertilizers seem to be so important in the synthetic fertilizer world, why has there been little development in the organic lawn care industry or demand from consumers until recently?



It's pretty simple actually. Organic lawn care isn't just about buying something that's not synthetic. It's also about maintaining a healthy soil. Once you have a healthy soil, you'll have a healthy lawn and adding phosphorous may not be necessary.



Phosphorous isn't used up as quickly as something like nitrogen. It also binds to the soil and doesn't leach out as much as nitrogen does so a little phosphorous can go a long way. Excess phosphorous serves no purpose, unlike excess nitrogen that will darken the grass and cause it to grow faster.



If your soil already contains an adequate amount of phosphorous, there is absolutely no reason to add any. The best way to find out what nutrients your soil needs is to send a soil sample to your local university cooperative extension office for analysis. Many people will find that they have adequate or even excess phosphorous levels in their soil. Unless your soil test indicates that you need to add phosphorous then adding it may not do anything.



Many organic lawn fertilizers are also already high in phosphorous compared to synthetic fertilizers. For example, Ringer Lawn Restore, which is a popular organic lawn fertilizer, has a guaranteed analysis of 10-2-6. Compared to the synthetic fertilizer mentioned above, that's more than 5x the amount of phosphorous by weight in relation to nitrogen. If you've been following an organic lawn fertilizer program chances are you don't have a phosphorous deficient soil.



There are also some environmental concerns regarding phosphorous, especially if you live near any body of water. Your local municipality may have also banned or restricted the use of phosphorous containing fertilizers. From what I've read, phosphorous doesn't seem to be so bad if used properly. Once it's applied and watered in it doesn't leach out much unless there is a large excess in the soil.

Organic Phosphorous Soil Ammendments

Not every soil is perfect and many people do need to add phosphorous to their soil after consulting their soil test results. There are very few organic soil amendments that are high in phosphorous. The most readily available high phosphorous organic soil ammendment is bone meal. It's one of the more expensive soil amendments but as stated previously, it's not necessary to apply as often. Espoma Bone Meal (pictured right has a guaranteed analysis of 4-12-0 which means it's 4% nitrogen by weight, 12% phosphorous and contains no potassium. If your soil test indicates you need to add 1 lb of phosphourous per 1,000 sq ft to your lawn, you would need to apply about 9lbs of Espoma Bone Meal per 1,000 sq ft to reach the achieve the appropriate level of phosphorous.

Finally An Organic Starter Fertilizer

I recently noticed that the Espoma Company has 2 organic starter fertilizers, Pro Granular Bio-Tone Starter and Pro Granular Bio-Tone Starter Plus. They are essentially the same except the Plus version contains endo and ecto mycorrhizae fungi, which I'll discuss further down.



The NPK of Bio-Tone Starter is 4-3-3. While not as high a concentration of phosphorous, it has a higher percentage of phosphorous than most other organic lawn foods. The full guaranteed analysis lists:



0.6% Water Soluble Nitrogen (N)

3.4% Water Insoluble Nitrogen

3.0% Available phosphate (P2O5)

3.0% Soluble Potash (K2O)

4.0% Calcium (Ca)

1.0% Total Magnesium (Mg)

0.6% Water soluble Magnesium (Mg)

2.0% Sulfer



These nutrients are derived from feather meal, dehydrated manure, bone meal, alfalfa meal, greensand, humates, crab meal, cocoa meal, and sulfate of potash magnesia.



In addition, they contain the following 15 strains of bacteria which are beneficial to your soil and plants:

Bacillus subtilis

fights fungus and is the main component of Seranade Garden Disease Control, an organic garden disease spray. According to Serenade it controls bacterial spot, powdery mildew, rust, gray mold, leaf blight, scab and more.

Paenibacillus polymyxa

is a bacteria that colonizes in the root zone and promotes plant growth and helps fix nitrogen.

Bacillus licheniformis

Another fungus fighting bacteria and helps cycle nutrients in the soil.

Pseudomonas alcaligenes

A bacteria used in bioremediation because it can degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon which is found in fossil fuels.

Bacillus megaterium

Used in bioremediation of soil.

Pseudomonas chlororaphis

An anti fungal bacteria.

Bacillus marinus

I believe it helps break down organic matter into nutrients plants can use.

Pseudomonas putida

Used to degrade organic matter and in bioremediation.

Bacillus coagulans

Secretes acids which helps make phosphorous soluble and more readily availible to plants.

Acidovorax facilis

I think helps fix nitrogen.

Bacillus thuringiensis

A bacterial pesticide.

Arthrobacter agilis

This one's neat it can biodegrade a number of common herbicides such as glyphosate (RoundUP) and 2,4-D. (source)

Bacillus pumilis

Helps decompose organic matter.

Rhodococcus rhodochorus

I think is used in bioremediation.

Bacillus lentimorbus

Similar to Bacillus popilliae which is used in Milky Spore Disease type products which help control grubs.

I'm not a microbiologist but I have been looking into some of these bacteria that are found in some of the Organica products I use regularly



Bio-Tone Starter Plus also contains endo and ecto mycorrhizae. These are fungi which attach to the roots of plants which helps increase the root mass. They help the plant get water and nutrients from the soil.



Even though I decided to get Bio-Tone Starter Plus instead of the regular Bio-Tone Starter fertilizer, I'm not completely sold on the benefits of mycorrizae especially in the context of this organic starter fertilizer.



From what I read, when the plant needs the help of mycorrizae it secretes carbohydrates from its roots. These carbohydrates attract and feed the mycorrizae. If the plant is growing in a soil that already has adequate phosphorous levels, it will grow large, deep roots on its own and not need the help of the mycorrizae. Since the starter fertilizer is already high in phosphorous.



These microorganisms should already be in your soil and some people feel adding them is a waste of money. I think that they are beneficial, especially when it comes to soil that has been previously treated with synthetic fertilizers. I have personally seen good results with microbial containing products such as Organica Plant Growth Activator Plus which I now apply regularly to help prevent lawn disease.



Bio-Tone Starter Fertilizer seems like a good product to use when you're laying down new sod or seed. It can also be used for transplants and other areas of your garden. This is an interesting account of Jesse Eldrid that used Bio-Tone Starter to help boost his Amaranth plant's growth so he can acheive the world record height.



The smell isn't too bad, it smells a lot like ORGANICA BIO-MATRIX which is my favorite organic liquid fertilizer. The smell goes away in a couple of days.



There are no spreader settings on the bag or on Espoma's website. I just did what I usually do. I know the approximate square footage of each area of my lawn so I just determine how many lbs I need to apply to each area, set my spreader to a medium setting and make multiple passes until it's done. After the first pass I see how much is left in the hopper and adjust the spreader up or down accordingly. With organic fertilizers you don't have to worry about burning the lawn. Making multiple passes also helps insure even coverage. I start going north to south, then east to west. The bag has a couple of holes that act as a handle which I found convenient. Other big bags of Espoma products have the same built in handle. After spreading the fertilizer it's important to water it in.



The best time to apply Bio-Tone Starter Fertilizer is 2 weeks prior to seeding or sodding because organic fertilizers need to be broken down by the soil microorganisms before their nutrients are readily available to plants.



Before deciding to use Espoma Bio-Tone Starter I would recommend you do a soil test and see if you need that much phosphorous. If you don't, but you still need to add nitrogen and would like to add the bacteria found in Bio-Tone Starter you can use Espoma 30LB 7-2-2 Lawn Food which contains less phosphorous and all the microbials in Bio-Tone Starter, except for the mycorrizae in Bio-Tone Start Plus.

This is the tough part. I've completed my fall lawn overseeding project and have been watering it regularly. Now it's a waiting game to see if I did enough things right to have a great looking lawn.



It is agonizing. When I used to wake up in the morning and look outside my bedroom window I would smile because I had the nicest lawn I could see from that vantage but now it's the worst. Dethatching, pulling weeds and mowing the lawn very low in preperation for overseeding has really left the lawn looking terrible. My lawn has never looked as good as it did this past seson and now there's this sinking feeling that I might have been better off leaving things the way they were.



I have a couple of things going against me. I started later than I wanted. Because of other circumstances I overseeded a few weeks later than I would have liked. The primary areas were overseeded with Jonathan Green Sod Maker Kentucky Blue Grass Seed Mix which takes about 6 weeks to germinate. The weather has been quite unusual this year and I was expecting the warmer days to continue for a while, unfortunately that's not the case. These past few days, and for the next few, the temperature is going to be quite low.



Luckily it's going to warm up again for a bit and hopefully stay that way until the seeds have germinated. Soil temperature also tends to be warmer than air temperature so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



I was also planning on topdressing with compost but time and cost became a factor. It really sucks when you don't need enough to have it trucked in and buying that many bags of compost is expensive and would require multiple trips or renting a truck.



I shouldn't expect to see results so soon but until I start to see small new shoots of grass sprouting up I'm going to be anxious. In a short while I should start seeing little green hairs popping up in the shady areas where I used a shade mix that germinates faster and then a while after that start seeing the same in the areas that were overseeded with KBG. Worse case, a good portion of the seeds survive the winter and start to germinate in the spring if they don't germinate now. I didn't completely kill the existing lawn and it will start to recover from the very low mowing soon too.



Maintaining a healthy lawn is very difficult these days where we point, click and expect to see instant results. I had similar fears last spring when I aerated and overseeded and things turned out fine. That should be the case again but waiting for grass to grow is frustrating.

One of the nice things about using organic lawn fertilizers is that their safe and natural. Many of the ingredients are used in animal feed. If you're storing your organic fertilizer in your garage or shed you might be concerned about your pets or the local wildlife (mice, rats, squirels, racoons, skunks, deer, bears) sniffing it out and breaking through the bag. It is also important to keep the organic fertilizer dry so that it doesn't spoil.



The best and most affordable items I've found for storing dry organic fertilizers are the Iris Pet Food Containers. It makes sense since these fertilizers are essentially pet food. The Iris pet food storage containers are durable and airtight. They'll keep the fertilizer fresh and prevent any animals from smelling the "food" and getting in to it. Use the link above to order from Amazon which has the best prices I've seen and free shipping on most of the sizes you would need. It also looks like Iris products are made in the USA.





They also makes storing the products easier and neater. You can stack them and unstack them quickly. You should label the containers so next application you know what's inside or you can just throw the whole bag inside the container which will make it obvious what the contents are.



If you're like me and you buy fertilizer for the entire season all at once, or sometimes have products that will last more than one season and need to be stored you will appreciate having the Iris pet food containers. The only difficult decision is which size you'll need. Organic fertilizer and ammendments are sold in lbs and these containers are sized in quarts.



What I have discovered that 1 lb of organic fertilizer is roughly 3 cups. It's not exact but it's close enough for most organic soil ammendments that with a little room for error should help us make the right size decision. The container doesn't need to be filled to the top to keep the fertilizer from spoiling.



For your convenience, below is a table listing Iris pet food containers and the amoung of organic fertilzer or soil ammendments they should be able to hold.

Container	Size (qts)	Holds (lbs)	Comments
	8 qts	9 lbs	Good for storing one or two bags of the Espoma Organic Tones small bags
	12 qts	14 lbs	Good for storing left over fertilizer or amendments from larger bags or 3-4 of the Espoma Organic Tones small bags
	15 qts	17 lbs	Good for left over fertilizer for large bags or mixing multiple small 4-5 lb bags.
	21 qts	25 lbs	Good size for holding common 25 lb bags of organic fertilizer or ammendments. Not quite easy to just throw an entire unoppened bag in it but you can empty out the bag in this container.
	28 qts	32 lbs	Has wheels to make it easy to move around. You can throw an entire 25 lb bag in this, bag and all or half of a 50 or 60lb bag.
	30 qts	35 lbs	Also good for storing whole 25lb bags or 30 lb bags as well as left over fertilizer from larger bags.
	46 qts	51 lbs	Good for storing 2 25 lb bags or one 50lb bag emptied.
	55 qts	62 lbs	Good for storing large 50-60lb bags of organic fertilizer or amendments or 2 25lb bags.
	60 qts	68 lbs	Good for storing large 50-60lb bags of organic fertilizer or amendments or 2 25lb bags.
	67 qts	76 lbs	This is the largest size they have, good for storing large bags of fertilizer or a couple of smaller bags.

They have different lid colors and you can choose to get them all to match or use the different colors to help identifiy different organic ammendments. There is a price difference between colors so I just went with the cheapest ones.




Iris also makes a 2 cup scoop to help empty the containers into your spreader. It also has free shipping from amazon so if you order a container add the scoop for 2 bucks more, it will be well worth it.




If you want to be super neat and organized, Brother makes and affordable label maker that will help you identify what you have in each container.



Hope you found this information useful and that it makes it easier for you to use organic products on your lawn. One of the difficulties in using organic fertilizers and ammendments is you can't always find what you want locally. So you either order it online or have to drive quite a ways. To save money on gas and shipping I tend to buy more than I need. I also don't have a huge lawn so in some cases one 50lb bag might be good for 3 or more applications and I need to be able to safely store what was left over.

Over the past few years I've been overseeding my lawn with better quality grass seed to improve the appearance and disease resistance of my lawn. Along with proper mowing, watering and a good organic lawn fertilizer program I have seen big improvements in my home lawn. I just completed overseeding my lawn for the fall and hopefully it will be the last time I need to do so for a while.



I got off to a late start but the soil temperature is still above 65 degrees which is very important. Normally I would have liked to start around early to middle September.




I've found a couple of seeds that I'm very happy with and decided to stick with, both are from Jonathan Green & Sons, Inc. They also contain no weed seeds or at least less than similar mixes from Scotts and have good germination rates in my lawn. I have one small area that receives very little direct sunlight which I have been using Jonathan Green's Dense Shade mix with good results. It contains the following varieties of seeds

• 39.25% Eugene Creeping Red Fescue


• 14.75% Hood Chewings Fescue


• 14.75% Carmen Chewings Fescue


• 9.83% Frontier Perennial Ryegrass


• 9.82% Darkstar Perennial Ryegrass


• 9.82% Blue Sapphire Kentucky Bluegrass


• 1.71% Inert Matter


• 0.04% Other Crop Seed


• 0.03% Weed Seed

For the sunny areas I used Jonathan Green's Sod Maker Kentucky Bluegrass mixture. This is their highest quality bluegrass mix and from searching around it appears that a number of sod farmers use it. It was a toss up between Sod Maker and Galaxy Kentucky Bluegrass Blend 10lb Sack but since I got a late start this fall I decided to go with Sod Maker because I've used it in the past with good results and it was available at my local garden center. Pound for pound the Galaxy blend is a little cheaper. The Sod Maker label lists the following grass seed cultivars:

• 39.40% Deepblue Kentucky Bluegrass


• 29.55% Blue Sapphire Kentucky Bluegrass


• 19.70% Blue-Tastic Kentucky Bluegrass


• 9.83% Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass


• 1.52% Inert Matter


• 0.00% Other Crop Seed


• 0.00% Weed Seed

Preperation

Before spreading the seed there was a bit of work to get the lawn ready. After edging with my Black and Decker Edge Hog I dropped the deck of my mower down to the second lowest setting possible and mowed the lawn collecting the grass clippings. This was a drastic reduction in height. The reason was to give the new grass plenty of light once they start to germinate. Cutting the grass so much would also stunt the existing grass' growth which would give the slow growing Kentucky bluegrass seed some time to establish without having to compete with the existing grass as much.



After mowing the lawn I used my thatch rake. I didn't have a lot of thatch build up but it is important to have good seed to soil contact and dethatching helps in that matter. There were also some areas where I had to use the thatch rake to remove ground ivy and clover. The thatch rake took care of it quickly and easily. The thatch rake is adjustable and I tilted the head back to make deeper cuts in the soil. Not only was I dethatching and removing ground ivy and dutch white clover but I was loosening and cultivating the soil which would help the seeds germinate.



The thatch rake also makes it easier to spot some weeds such as crabgrass that you might other wise miss. As I went along with the thatch rake, I kept my Weed Hound handy to pull out any weeds I found. Sometimes I could just pull them out by hand since the thatch rake had loosened the soil so much. I also pulled out some of the tall fescue that has grown in one portion of the lawn but I don't think I got it all.

Seeding and Spreader Settings

I use a Scott's Accugreen Drop Spreader. Jonathan Green has appropriate spreader settings for Scotts Rotary and Drop Spreaders on their website. They have rates for overseeding and for seeding a new lawn. Since I exposed a lot of bare area with the thatch rake and low mowing I decided to use the new lawn setting, in fact I went even heavier with the grass seed. Birds will wind up eating some and some won't germinate so I didn't mind adding a little extra seed just in case.



I set my spreder to a little more than half the new seeding rate for the seed I was using then made two passes over the lawn, one north to south, the other east to west. After that I went over some of the bare spots a few more times. This ensured I got even coverage at a rate slightly higher than the normal seeding rate.

After Seeding

Once the seed was down I used the back of a regular leaf rake to help work the seeds into the soil. Then it was time for a good watering to soak the seeds and soil. After which I mixed up a batch of Organica Plant Growth Activator Plus
in my Orth Dial-N-Spray hose end sprayer and applied it to the newly seeded lawn. Organica's Plant Growth Activator contains a number of beneficial microbes as well as other ingredients that I found seem to help when seeding. It's something I apply every month throughout my garden on everything.




It's a good idea to apply a fertilizer at the same time and lime if you need to adjust your soil's pH. My soil pH is finally in a good range but I just ordered some Espoma Bio-Tone Start Plus to apply to the lawn. In addition to being a 4-3-3 organic fertilizer it contains many important microorganisms including mycorrhizae which are fungi that colonize on plant roots which help them absorb water and nutrients. It is applied at 25lbs per 1,000 sq ft of lawn.

Top Dressing

The next step would be to add a 1/4" layer of a good, screend compost over the lawn. That's about 1 cubic yard per 1,000 sq ft. This will help cover the seeds, keep them moist and provide nutrients. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be doing it this year because of time and cost considerations. I don't have a large enough property that I can get bulk compost delivered cheap and buying bags of compost would be expensive. I might change my mind if I can get some extra time and set aside the extra money.

Watering

Keeping the seeds moist is crucial. If the seeds dry out they won't germinate even if you water them the next day. Up until the seeds begin to germinate, the first 4 weeks or so, I will be watering for 10 minutes 3 times a day at 9:30 AM, 12:30 PM and 4:30 PM. After the first 4 weeks I'll cut back to 2 times a day at 9:30 AM and 3:30 PM and slowly work my way back down to a normal lawn watering schedule. This time of year in this area there should be quite a bit of rain and in between I'll be using my hose end sprinklers and timers.

Fertilizing

In addition to the starter fertilizer, I'll be applying an organic fertilizer once the lawn has established to provide it with food that it can store up over the winter so that come spring time, the lawn is thick and healthy.

I preffer to use manual lawn and garden tools whenever I can. Especially when it's a tool that doesn't get used frequently. Not worrying about oiling, gassing, tuning, the amount of space it takes up and how much it costs are some of the benefits.



One drawback however is that I'm fairly tall and a lot of tools seem to be designed for people shorter than me. While I actually enjoy the exersize I get, sometimes my back tires out before the rest of my body. That little bit of extra bending I might have to do can really slow me down.



Ames True Temper, who recently bought Hound Dog Products, have released a new version of the popular Weed Hound called the Weed Hound Elite. One of the big differences is the new Weed Hound Elite is now 3" taller. Those extra 3 inches make it more comfortable to use by reducing the amount I have to bend over when using the Weed Hound Elite.

Another new and noticable feature is the lack of a plunger on the top. To release the weed after pulling it with the new Weed Hound Elite, you use the slide handle on the shaft. This gives you a little better control of the Weed Hound if you're trying to eject the weed in a small pail or bag but I feel the old plunger was easier to use, especially if you really needed to apply a lot of force to eject the weed.



Other new features include a non skid rubber cover on the step plate and a foam rubber grip on the handle. Both of which make the new Weed Hound Elite easier and more comfortable to use.



The new Weed Hound Elite works in a similar way to the old Weed Hound. Just position the prongs centered over the weed, step down on the foot step to drive it into the soil, twist and pull.



The new Weed Hound Elite also features a twisting action in the prongs. This reduces the size of the divot when pulling weeds. This is great for weeds with a tap root such as dandelions but may leave some of the root behind for weeds that have a fiborous root system such as crabgrass and tall fescue.



For that reason you may want to stick with the older model Weed Hound if the extra height isn't as important to you, it's also $5 cheaper. In local stores you're likely to only find the newer Weed Hound Elite but you can still get the older Weed Hound from Amazon and it includes free super saver shipping.