# Lawn tonics



## Darrell (Mar 22, 2018)

While looking at lawn care YouTube videos (many of yours'), Jerry Baker's vid on his "lawn tonic" come up where he mixes up beer, cola, ammonia, soap, etc. for foliar application. Is this hogwash? Ever done it?


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)




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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

Sounds like alcohol abuse to me.


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)

FATC1TY said:


> Sounds like alcohol abuse to me.


And what kind of psychopath would waste beer like that? :shock:


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Mixing Cola (Acid) with Ammonia (Base) is pointless.


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

I just put some beer on the lawn this weekend. I mixed some molasses, an Aldi IPA, and RGS together to make a homemade N-Ext D-Thatch copycat. In the above recipe the cola would be a substitute for the molasses. Some people also add mouthwash to kill insects (no idea if that works, I'm already on a bifenthrin schedule so didn't care to try). The soap is just intended to be a surfactant.

I was skeptical of the D-Thatch product, so I asked about it on @thegrassfactor's weekly show. Apparently it's an old agriculture trick that is supposedly effective in composting thatch.

Side note - your whole yard smells like beer after doing this. My neighbors had some friends over and I'm pretty sure they thought I was spraying the yard while drunk as a skunk. This doesn't fare well in conjunction with me applying wetting agent in the rain a week or so ago.


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> Mixing Cola (Acid) with Ammonia (Base) is pointless.


Yes and no. That generates small amounts of Ammonium Phosphate. 12-61-0 or 10-52-0 depending on the ratio of Ammonia to acid. Jerry Baker's lawn book is one of the things that got me interested in taking turf to the next level. Not an easy thing in Hawaii. People here, do not think there is more to turf care than a string trimmer and a screwdriver or old kitchen knife.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Greendoc said:


> SCGrassMan said:
> 
> 
> > Mixing Cola (Acid) with Ammonia (Base) is pointless.
> ...


Story time... I can see how they would use the string trimmer to hack their lawns, but how do the screwdriver and old kitchen knives come into play?

An I did use the Jerry Baker tonic years back, and had pretty good results. I also nearly broke my neck wearing those damn aeration spikes. Never again.


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Digging out weeds over and over again. Day after day week after week. I am too far advanced for Hawaii. Any weed infested area gets Barricade+Gallery or Specticle. Most people here cannot believe that a lawn can be treated for weeds without killing the grass.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Phillips or Flathead?
Lol


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

I tried these in the past with little to no noticeable results.


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## Rackhouse Mayor (Sep 4, 2017)

Only time I put beer in the lawn is after it's been filtered by yours truly.


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> Phillips or Flathead?
> Lol


Flathead. They can figure that out. But they cannot figure out that digging does not get rid of weed seeds and that certain weeds with extensive root systems grow even more furiously the more you touch them. I have known people sitting down at the same place digging as long as I have been alive. Same weeds are there and the grass does not look any better for it. That same type of area I spray and fertilize for a few months. No weeds and green grass. Not to mention, as hard as many of us have worked to get an area flat and mowable, digging makes divots.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Greendoc said:


> SCGrassMan said:
> 
> 
> > Phillips or Flathead?
> ...


I wish I had taken before and after pics... but there were three houses in a row on my block with what you'd call a chopped salad lawn. I decided to help them out and get them on the right path. Maybe 2-3 treatments with stuff like Atrazine, then 2,4D and then 2,4D with Celsius mixed in, and 2 rounds of fertilizer, and its like a completely new lawn for all of them.

Now if I can convince the rest of the HOA board that no, putting two bags of fertilizer in our entire common area for the first time in a year minimum isn't "Going Crazy".


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