With Spring just around the corner, I'm getting ready to start
applying fertilizer and crab grass control. I've used Scott's 4 step
program with very good results, but thinking of trying something new.
Has anyone had any experience with Frank's Nursery & Crafts 4 step
program, or can recommend another brand that they have had good sucess
with?

wrote in message
...
With Spring just around the corner, I'm getting ready to start
applying fertilizer and crab grass control. I've used Scott's 4 step
program with very good results, but thinking of trying something new.
Has anyone had any experience with Frank's Nursery & Crafts 4 step
program, or can recommend another brand that they have had good sucess
with?

Dumb question, but if you've been successful with Scott's, why change?

KB

On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 17:47:57 -0600, wrote:

With Spring just around the corner, I'm getting ready to start
applying fertilizer and crab grass control. I've used Scott's 4 step
program with very good results, but thinking of trying something new.
Has anyone had any experience with Frank's Nursery & Crafts 4 step
program, or can recommend another brand that they have had good sucess
with?

I just don't get it with the 4-step stuff--it's nonsense. Apply what
your lawn needs and in accordance with your zone and grass type. My
grass is different than yours, but I typically apply (inorganic)
fertilizer at half rate and apply an organic fertilzer in June. What
you apply, how much, and when is far more important than a brand.
Using a provided schedule is better than nothing at all, I guess.

I've used Scott's 4 step program with very good results,

Dumb question, but if you've been successful with Scott's, why change?

Well, one reason is that products that are just as good can be found
at lower prices.

vince norris

On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 17:47:57 -0600, wrote:

thinking of trying something new.


how about one step organic fertilizer and have a healthy soil and stop
sending those 4 step chemicals to the ground water?

http://www.sankey.ws/ipm.html


"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson

OK...any recommendations on organic fertilizers?

On Tue, 11 Mar 2003 17:25:29 -0600, wrote:

OK...any recommendations on organic fertilizers?

Milorganite
mushroom compost
manure
fish emulsion
soil

Sustane is one of the better products on the market and certified organic. In a
recent study (I will post the URL when I get it) at Texas A&M, they found this
product along with another product made by the same company but with a molasses
coating on the prill were better than any other product where synthetics were
concerned. Follow the recommended rates on the bag.

It may take a while for your lawn to recover from the poisoning it has been
getting. What synthetic fertilizers do to turf is make the turf dependant on
the product to survive. It encourages shallow root development, causing thatch.
I'm sure Scotts sells a dethatch product to go with the 4 Step, over
fertilization program.

To produce an independent turf you need to build the soil and encourage micro
and macro organisms. By feeding those organisms and beginning to propagate
those, in turn the roots will go deeper for water and not lay on the surface.
There will be more available forms of elements after they are digested by
organisms in the soil.

I am not sure since I have not been there in a while, but www.dirtdoctor.com or
better www.naturalgardeneraustin.com may have a program you can follow.

Fall feeding is paramount, in my opinion. It helps turf develop a good root
system over winter and helps the turf green up in early spring. I would never
recommend anyone fertilize a lawn before it has about two mowings. In Texas,
that would be April 1-15. Further up north, it may be late May to June. It's
different in all regions, and with the different turf grasses. We grow cool
weather turf all winter in Texas. Up in New York, they grow cool weather turf
in spring through fall. So consider that when you fertilize.

Television commercials are saying NOW is the time to fertilize, and clearly
based on studies (which I will produce when I know where it is posted) the early
spring before mowing is not the time to fertilize.

Victoria

On Tue, 11 Mar 2003 17:25:29 -0600, wrote:

OK...any recommendations on organic fertilizers?

expounded:

OK...any recommendations on organic fertilizers?

Espoma Organic Lawn food is my favorite. I apply it twice a year.

--
Ann, Gardening in zone 6a
Just south of Boston, MA
********************************

Get a good, organic fertilizer and start fertilizing weekly. You'll
outcompete the weeds and have the stoutest grass on the block. Try this
for one season. Next spring, spread 1/2 inch of compost on your lawn in
February and start organic fertilzer apps in March and see what the
soilfoodweb will bring you.

J. Kolenovsky
http://www.celestialhabitats.com

wrote:
=

With Spring just around the corner, I'm getting ready to start
applying fertilizer and crab grass control. I've used Scott's 4 step
program with very good results, but thinking of trying something new.
Has anyone had any experience with Frank's Nursery & Crafts 4 step
program, or can recommend another brand that they have had good sucess
with?

-- =

J. Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - commercial
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html