by Bill Scheffler

There are many products available in our homes or widely available in
stores that actually work very well for solving gardening problems. Or
I could title this; “Why every gardener should be using vinegar, yogurt,
ammonia and molasses!” Here are some recipes that will get results for you.

Happy gardening!

Liquid fertilizer that works better than Miracle Gro;
Two ounces household ammonia with two ounces blackstrap molasses
mixed into one gallon of water. Water the soil with this mix each week.
Please keep the ammonia off of the leaves. House plants and perennials can be fertilized every two weeks but annuals and vegetables absolutely
need to be fed each week. They are very heavy feeders.

Dry fertilizer for lawns and flower beds; One bag of gypsum, one
bag of Scott's Organic Choice fertilizer, and one bag of Milorganite.

Put a tarp in the driveway and pour all three bags together and mix with a shovel and use a bucket to scoop into your spreader. This will feed
4000 sq ft and should be applied every two months (eight weeks).This
mix produces very good results and can be used on; turf, annuals, trees,
shrubs, ground cover, perennials, bulbs, roses and all containers. For
vegetables I would remove the Milorganite and use it that way.

Dry fertilizer #2 for roses, vegetables, and flowers; One handful of rabbit pellets (alfalfa meal), one handful of bonemeal for each plant applied every two months and watered in with the ammonia- molasses mix.

Bio- dethatch and compost starter; Two ounces of yogurt or two ounces
of kefir per gallon of water. I recommend using a Miracle Gro sprayer
and we just put the kefir in the jar, add water so it will dissolve and spray away. Alfalfa sun tea; Put a few handfuls of rabbit food (alfalfa meal) in an old stocking and use it like a tea bag, soaking it in a bucket of water for a week or two. Mix equal amounts of the alfalfa tea with the ammonia and molasses and apply to the soil. For foliar feeding, use alfalfa tea by itself or mix with molasses (one or two ounces of each per gallon of spray.) This mix will prevent most insect and disease problems.

Starter fertilizer; alfalfa and molasses are world class starter fertilizers.
Much better than the chemical mixes. Use the liquid mix as described
above or the dry mix #2 that I described above. Also give each plant a
handful of gypsum.

Insecticide; Two ounces of molasses or powdered sugar per gallon of water sprayed on the leaves. Insects don't have a pancreas so they cannot make insulin.

When insects eat sugar, it ferments in their stomach. The byproduct of
fermentation is alcohol and the insect dies of alcohol poisoning.

Fungicide; The yogurt/ kefir mix described above is high in Lactobacillus bacteria which can out-compete bad microbes for food and space. It  doesn't kill the bad pathogens directly but it will take food and space away from them.

Vinegar is a good fungicide. Two or three ounces per gallon of water and sprayed on the leaves. Diseases are a calcium, potassium and copper deficiency so please do not rely on fungicides alone. Diseases are indicators of an underlying malnutrition.

Thank you for your interest in a natural approach to turf care.

The focus of my approach is plant nutrition.

Healthy plants are able to resist diseases just like our bodies are able
to do. For example, cell walls are strengthened by calcium, potassium
and silica. Plants use copper to make an enzyme that dissolves cell walls of harmful bacteria and fungi. When plants have the minerals they need, they can easily protect and defend themselves from harm.

Healthy plants taste bad to the bugs. Insects don't have a pancreas.
They cannot handle sugar. Healthy plants have high sugar content. When insects eat healthy high sugar leaves or roots, the sugars ferment in the stomach of the insects which produces alcohol and the insects die of alcohol poisoning. Insects know this. They take a bite of these plants and just move on.

Healthy plants, then, come from highly mineralized, biologically active
soils.

Also, these same soils can reduce watering by at least half. How?
Plants need electrolytes (minerals). When plants drink water, they
are looking for minerals. Once they absorb the minerals they need
they stop drinking by closing their pores. It's the same with us. When
we take mineral supplements in the summertime, we drink half the
water than we do without the minerals.

Insects and diseases attack plants under stress. Plant stresses include;
heat stress, dry stress and nutritional stress. Some natural products
like seaweed and alfalfa contain phytonutrients which destress plants.
This is a great tool in a successful plant nutrition program.

Biological activity aerates soils. Earthworms tunnel ten feet per week.

There is no better aeration than that. The food for earthworms is
bacteria. Bacteria need a high calcium soil and carbohydrates. The
bodies of bacteria are covered with mucus which attracts and
aggregates soil particles.

Soils on a natural program soften one inch per year. Five years on
a natural program will soften soils five to six inches deep. Water is
able to percolate faster and deeper, reducing runoff as well as plant
watering.

The organic approach doesn't have a way to kill dandelions or the
other “problem” broadleaf weeds. I have found corn gluten to be
very ineffective at controlling weeds. Most homeowners I work
with spot spray the weeds with herbicide or, on the larger properties,
call in a truck once a year (mid April) for a one time application.
Liquid is safer than dry, in my opinion, because it will be absorbed
by the leaves and stay out of the soil. Dry forms of pesticides do
a lot of damage in the soil and have a long residual life. In the real
world, this hybrid approach seems to work as it balances human
and biological needs with neighborhood norms for aesthetics.

In any case, the use of herbicides is under the control of the
property owner.

Crabgrass only germinates where there is salt. Gypsum neutralizes
salt. Gypsum is a better crabgrass preemergent than the chemicals
are. Same with quackgrass.

My program includes both dry and liquid materials. I adjust my
formulas according to weather and soil conditions. I purchase
materials as separates and custom blend according to conditions.
I usually do four applications per year. The bulk of my fertility
program is dry and I do fine tuning by foliar feeding (liquids) as
needed.

Dry materials include; gypsum, high calcium lime, alfalfa, molasses,
Milorganite potassium sulfate, ammonia sulfate, dry humates, and
kelp meal. Liquid products include; kelp, molasses, humic acid,
hydrolyzed fish, compost teas, enzymes, vinegar, calcium gluconate,
chelated micronutrients and probiotics.

The weak point of organics is that it doesn't work in cold weather.
Also, it releases its nutrients very slowly. Sometimes too slowly.
Interestingly, there are a few man made fertilizers that are very
friendly to the soil microbes. They work well in cold weather and
are available more quickly than the organics.

I use these products when conditions or plants call for it.

Thank you for your interest and for taking time to read my
comments!

Please call anytime you have a question or concern.

Bill Scheffler, owner

Pure Prairie Organics

pure-prairie-organics.com

Wheaton, IL.