# Microbial program?



## The Lawnfather (May 2, 2020)

What are you doing to promote microbial activity. Looking to develop a program to promote microbial activity along with organic matter.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Mulch your grass and fall leaves.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

It is an interesting question. Never thought of having a program for them. Like gm560, I leave clippings on the lawn and mulch mow fall leaves. I water when there is not enough rain. But for the most part the microbes have to fend for themselves. They multiply when there is a food supply and die off when it's gone. Thank goodness they can maintain a balance themselves so there is enough but not too much. The earthworms and beetles and fungi and other soil life all help out too. Mycorrhizae are another soil life form doing important work that we are hardly aware of.


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## M1SF1T (Jun 1, 2021)

I don't have a program, but I started with several products this spring on my lawn to get something going and I am happy with the result after only a few months.

This is my second year in this property and my lawn has come back from the dead from when we took over. Last year it was thin, weed ridden, bare, and it had a super thick and dense mat of thatch. The soil was in horrible shape, dry and thin.

Now it seems the thatch has almost completely broken down, the lawn is way way thicker and filling in, moisture retention is better. I'm seeing handfuls of small mushrooms pop after rains which I take as a good sign for soil activity.

I applied an effective microorganism product and a biological trigger mechanism. I'm spraying kelp, humic, fulvic, sea minerals, and molasses. For organic fertilizers, I put down Sustane 8-2-4, kelp/alfalfa meal 5-1-5, and pelletized chicken manure 5-3-2, all that to get organic matter building the soil as much as feeding the grass. I have done a Scotts turf builder application and sprayed some urea also.

Granted this was a lawn that was starved and neglected, so it would have responded to any attention... but I've gone from dead lawn, dead soil, to best lawn on the street in a season... that's not saying much on this site I know, and it's far far from being there, but still, I absolutely see a night and day improvement in the soil and I think that's the biggest part of it.


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## Groundskeeper Willie (Feb 22, 2019)

Microbial program? I spit frequently in the grass or flower beds. Something gets up my nose or caught in the back of my throat while I'm edging, or maybe I catch a strong whiff of something I've been spraying, possibly wicking in off my sweat or whatever and so I spit. Yeah it's impolite, but since this _isn't_ public property I can't be arrested for spreading TB or C19 or Skoal Banditry or whatever.

Lately I've taken to spraying some microbes that I don't make myself: Bacillus Amyloliquefaciens and B. Subtilis. It's alleged they can predate on and compete with diverse fungal pathogens, mostly those in the soil but allegedly they are also antagonistic to dollar spot which is my number one nemesis. So, if I have burgeoning colonies of these microbes in the soil / crown zone of the turf, and I lightly roll with a 250lb lawn roller frequently in the mornings, then maybe it all gets mixed together thanks to the squeejeeing effect of the roller and the dollar spot fungi will find life just too painful and difficult, or so we fondly hope.


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