Organic and you'll blow your neighbors out of the water.. Alfalfa found at a feed store at 20lbs per 1000 sq.ft.

I just don't trust any of these companies. One thing that jumps out is "Liming" scheduled every fall...

Test your own, Logan Labs, and apply accordingly. Doing it yourself will save money and result in a much nicer lawn..

I'm short on time but I'm sure you'll get great responses from Tiemco, Grass1950, and Dchall

Your grass type or cultivars could be lighter. Your soil could be locking nuitrients (too high a ph can cause yellowing), You may not have enough available iron. Lots of possible reasons.

You would have to have your own soil test to know what might be the issue. I saw the fall lime, too. That might be completely unnecessary. On the other hand, the rest of their program sounds unnaturally customized. They are saying all the right words. They make it sound complicated, but it really isn't. You can do a better job because you are there every day. Proper watering and mowing is 80% of the game.

It looks like they do a soil test at UMass. That school is the only university soil test approved by the National Association of Internet Lawn Gurus...of America. The NAILGA has recently switched allegiances to Logan Labs in Ohio for a slightly more reliable test.

Alfalfa might be all you need. It certainly does improve color if there is any color to improve upon. But if you want to take this on yourself, send a sample to Logan Labs and check back here with the results. There is another lawn forum where they really specialize in reading soil tests. You might look around for that. Tiemco, Andy, and MorpheusPA are the guys your looking for.

That summer fertilizer drop is a big no no, unless it's organic, but I have a feeling it isn't. Also, two feedings in spring is not necessary either, but it's hard to tell without knowing any of the amounts they are using. This shouldn't affect the color however, so my first step would be getting a copy of the soil test, or doing your own test to make sure you get the results.

Dchall and tiemco, No comment on the regularly scheduled insect and grub suppresion applications? How about the organics in the winterizer-maybe for those hungry cold season micro-herds?

Thank you all for your imputs. It sounds like all of you use organic fertilizers. Is it a difficult program to follow? Specifically what is the schedule starting in the spring? ie. what is done for pre-emergent crab-grass suppression, broadleaf weed suppression and grub / insect control? Of course this would be followed after getting the soil tested and analyzed.

Thanks again for all of your help.

I don't use either insecticides or grub prevention, never had that problem. Don't really see the need for insect control unless you have a problem.

I use synthetics and organics. With organics you use more, and it costs more, but they can be put down anytime. The main thing with any fertilizer program is putting the right amount down for your grass at the right times. With synthetics, the effects are almost immediate. Organics take time since soil microbes need to break it down so the nutrients are available to the plants. Synthetics can stress the grass in times of heat and drought, exactly why you want to avoid them in the summer. Overfeeding in spring can cause the grass to use a lot of nutrient stores that are needed for the summer period. One synthetic feeding around Memorial day is all you need, and some people don't even do that. The late summer and fall feedings are the most important ones, the winterizer is also important. For synthetics, it's around Labor Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving feeding should be all quick release nitrogen, and should be applied when top growth has stopped but the ground isn't frozen. Organics you can apply monthly or weekly, whatever your budget and time allow. I will defer organic feedings to others who are more experienced with them, but basically there are really no rules like there are with synthetics.

Not true. I use a combination, but lean towards synthectic. Synthetic fertilizer in Spring with the CG pre-emergent (just because most pre-emergents are combined with fert. and it doesn't hurt). Then organics throughout the summer late spring through August--mostly milorganite or whatever is cheap. I'm afraid due to the national drought most crop based organics are going to be prohibitive for a while. Then back to the synthetics early fall to late fall.

I only use insect and grub control when I see a problem. I'm not a touchy feely type, but dchall and others have convinced me that promoting micro-organisms is beneficial.

grass1950, what is not true? I agree with both y'all.

Back in 2001 I got the organic bug when a local radio talk show guy suggested using ordinary corn meal to get rid of powdery mildew on roses. That sounded like a dumb idea but a harmless one. He seemed pretty convinced. I tried it and was shocked at the results. Not only did the powdery mildew stop and disappear quickly, but that rose bush has not had a single aphid on it in the past 10 years. For the 10 years prior to that I called it an aphid hatchery because it was always covered. Having had that experience I came here, joined, and learned a lot from the gurus on the organic gardening forum. Organic lawn care wasn't even a thing back then. Why? Because of the triple stigma of being extraordinarily expensive, stinky, and might kill your lawn. And why was that? Because back then the only things to use were compost (expensive and might kill the lawn) and manure (cheap, stinky, and probably would kill the lawn). I'll speed through the rest of the history...in the 90s it was discovered that microbes were the reason organic fertilizer worked. Then I made the discovery that expensive organic fertilizers were made of food like alfalfa, corn, wheat, soy, cottonseed, etc. Anyone who wants to dispute the claim that I discovered that is free to counter claim. I just never saw or heard it anywhere prior to that. Anyway I brought it to the public here by writing the Organic Lawn Care FAQ. Search the Internet for that and read it. Then gradually organic lawn care became a thing. Forums popped up and I was usually asked to be the forum moderator. I have since dropped a few, but I still moderate two actively and one very passively. Organic lawn care became such a popular thing that folks who never would try it, tried it. Now most of the moderators I am aware of have at least tried it. Some are mostly converted, but I believe most follow a mix like tiemco and grass1950 do. The most important thing to know I believe is that if you use only chemicals on your lawn from now on, your soil will never be as healthy as it is today. The microbes in the soil need to be fed with real food periodically. Chemicals are not food.

Is it hard to follow? No. There are people on other forums who are trying to make mistakes with organics. The only mistake you can make is pouring a bag out in one place and not shoveling it out and washing it away. That smothers the grass. Otherwise it is extremely hard to make a mistake. I guess underfertilizing is a mistake I am guilty of. The more organic you use the better your lawn will look. What makes this work is you can use it all summer whereas you cannot use chemicals all summer.

Is it expensive? If you want the yard of the month every month all summer long, then you will probably pay a little more. Why? Because with chemicals you cannot use them in the summer and with organics you'll be really tempted to just to show those chemical guys!!! The other thing with organics is I believe you use less insecticide - and that costs money. Proper care should take care of weeds so there is no herbicide cost benefit one way or the other to chemicals or organics. At the end of the year you might have paid a little more per 1,000 square feet, but not by a huge amount. Had you used compost, then yes you would have overpaid by a very huge amount.

Is it smelly? Not like manure was smelly. If you overuse a high protein organic fertilizer, then it will smell sour for a week. If you start gradually and let the microbe population grow into it, then you will only notice a faint aroma. That smell is the loss of ammonia gas (NITROGEN!), so you don't want that smell.

Is it effective? Surprisingly effective but you have to wait 3 weeks. It will make your lawn more dense and improve the color. This is one aspect you have to see in person to really believe. I can show you pictures all day long but you need to see it. Try this: drop a handful of dry dog or cat food on the lawn and moisten it. Don't scatter it out a lot, just put it in a hand sized area and water it. Come back in 3 weeks and take a picture for posterity.

What about organic pest control? There are very good organic controls for caterpillars (sod webworms, army worms, etc.) and for grubs. BT Worm Killer (a bacterial disease affecting only caterpillars) works immediately on contact to stop the caterpillars from feeding. It does not affect real worms like red wigglers and fishing worms. I believe spinosad (a bacterial disease in insects) products would be effective on the other soil/sod insect pests, but I don't like the fact that it is non selective. The Fire Ant Control with Conserve (spinosad) is extremely effective as a bait. A pinch will kill an entire fire ant mount mound overnight. I have been very successful using corn meal against fungal disease in the lawn.

Hope this helps. These forums use to be rife with bitter arguments about which was better, organic or chemical. With more people trying organic, at least the discussions come from experience instead of ignorance.

David Not ture to the OP's statement about all of us being organic people. tiemco's post beat mine.

dchall,

Nice post. Couldn't help but read it.

Just two questions:

1. On the section I'm redoing, should I use organic fertilizers instead of sprinkling (expensive) compost?

2. Does organic fertilizer draw hungry animals into a yard?

3. What's the deal with gypsum?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for all of the information everyone. I think I want to give the particle organic fertilizer system a try (using some syntheics). Is there a certain kind you would recommend? Is it too late in the season in Massachusetts to use an organic fertilizer?
I have been reading about milorganite; does it work well?
It is sold at our local HD.

thanks again

Organics don't work well in lower temperatures. Most organics need micro-organism participation to break them down and they go on strike once temperatures get cool--dchall can give you the specifics. You can add Milorganite now and the iron will help your color. As most synthetics are not temperature dependent they can be used later into the fall/winter.

If you could please list what you would recommend as a good organic fertilizer and the date(s) to apply.
You guys have confinced me I should give it a try.
I was looking at my neighbors lawns again last night and although my lawn is thick, it is by far the lightest in color. Same soil, lawns were planted at the same time. I pay for a lawn service my neighbors are DIY'ers using over the counter synthetics. I realized there is something wrong with this picture (my lawn program).

Thanks

I'd defer to dchall on what and when.