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Answers to Common Questions
Q: What are the Benefits of an Organic Lawn Program?
- No harmful pesticides or toxic metals
- Improved soil conditions
- Significantly improved drought tolerance
- Significantly improved frost tolerance
- Improved resistance to fungus, disease and insect pests
- Incredible improvements in root development
- Natural ph balancing, soil aeration, thatch
- Rain run-off water will not pollute streams and rivers
Q: Will organic lawn care cost a lot of money?
A: Typically, the cost is about 10-20% more for fertilization application.
Q: What do the terms "natural" and "organic" mean in terms of lawn care products?
A: There are no universally accepted definitions, but commonly accepted definitions of these terms are:
- Natural. A product derived from animal/biological, mineral, or plant sources, in a form substantially as it occurs in nature. The materials may be altered or manipulated to put them in a physical form that allows them to be efficiently used in the application process by homeowners or service providers.
- Organic. Any substance containing the element carbon is, by technical definition, organic. Both naturally occurring and manmade products may be organic. The common misconception that "organic" and "natural" have the same meaning may cause nontechnical consumers to believe that a manmade organic material is natural when it is not.
- Natural-based. This term is generally used to describe a mixture of materials that includes some materials that may be properly described as natural. The portion that is natural is frequently undefined. The other portion may be manmade pesticides or fertilizers.
- Organic-based. This term is generally used to describe a mixture of materials that includes some organic materials. The portion of the product that is both organic and natural is frequently undefined. The other portion may be manmade pesticides or fertilizers. It's important to understand that "organic" and "natural" products are not free from risk. If your service provider uses any of the terms above, ask what they mean. You also may want to ask some of the following questions:
- Do the products used or services rendered contain or use any materials that are subject to EPA regulation and registration? Any product claiming to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest, such as insects, weeds, or disease, requires state and EPA registration and is classified as a pesticide.
- Are these materials manmade or naturally occurring?
- Are weed, insect, and disease controls a part of the product or service?
- What proportion or percentage (25 percent, 50 percent?) of the active ingredients and of the total applications is manmade materials?.
Q: What's in a bag of synthetic fertilizer?
A: A bag of 10-10-10 lawn fertilizer, for example, contains 10% nitrogen, 10% phosphorus, and 10% magnesium. The other 70% contains inert material and harmful by-products from manufacturing companies. These materials are illegal to dispose of, but legal to give to fertilizer companies to mix in their product as trace elements. Twenty-nine fertilizers tested contained 22 toxic heavy metals.
Q: What is a typical organic fertilizer treatment?
A: Organic fertilizer treatment contains nitrogen from prepared fish compost
(tea, sea kelp, etc.).
Q: Will my organic lawn smell bad or fishy?
A: Once your fertilizer is watered in, there will not be a detectable odor. A pesticide treated lawn will have a much stronger odor.
Q: What are the negatives to organic lawn care?
A: There are two challenges to organic lawn care. The first challenge is that a little patience is required to correct the soil conditions in order to achieve a lush, green lawn. The second is that a few weeds and pests will mingle in the living eco-system of your lawn.
Fungus Condition
- Apply 10-20 lbs. cornmeal per 1000 sq. ft. to get a beneficial fungus to grow and fight a pathogenic fungus. The beneficial fungus is "trichodera" (try-ko-der-ma)
- Common brown patch fungus can be battled with a liquid lime treatment available online from several organic farming suppliers
Grub Infestation or Prevention
Grubs are the larvae of various beetles, including the Japanese Beetle. An application of beneficial nematode, which are parasites for insect larvae, will help keep the numbers of larvae under control.
Keeping Insect Pests Under Control
- Plant insecticidal flowers and plants - the flowers and leaves contain natural insecticides
- Plant trees and shrubs for a natural bird habitat
- Apply selective pesticides to kill only undesirable insects
Round Up
Wide use of the product "Round Up", when tested by the International Organization for Biological Control, showed that Round Up caused the mortality of live beneficial species: thrichgramma, a predatory mite, a lacewing, a lady bug and a predatory beetle. Canadian Studies have shown that as little as 1 part per million of Round Up can reduce the growth, or colonization, of mycorrhizal fungi.
