Maintaining a lush, green lawn is a common goal for homeowners. While store-bought fertilizers offer a quick solution, many people are exploring homemade alternatives, seeking eco-friendly and cost-effective options. However, it's crucial to understand the pros and cons of both approaches to ensure the chosen method is genuinely beneficial for the lawn and the environment.
Understanding Fertilizers
Fertilizer is any natural or synthetic substance applied to the soil to provide plant nutrients and improve soil fertility. The three essential nutrients for grass growth are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). These are usually displayed on store-bought fertilizers as an N-P-K ratio. For example, a 20-0-3 fertilizer contains 20% nitrogen, 0% phosphorus, and 3% potassium. Nitrogen is the most crucial nutrient for grass.
Why Fertilize Your Lawn?
Fertilizing your lawn is essential for several reasons:
- Improved Growth: Promotes healthy and robust grass growth.
- Enhanced Soil Health: Contributes to a healthier soil ecosystem.
- Recovery Support: Helps the lawn recover from foot traffic, heat, cold winters, and drought stress.
- Pest and Weed Resistance: Strengthens the turf's ability to ward off weeds, pests, and diseases.
Homemade vs. Store-Bought Fertilizers
Homemade Fertilizer
Pros:
- Organic Ingredients: Some recipes use organic ingredients that naturally exist in the environment.
- Accessibility: Ingredients are often readily available at home.
- Cost-Effective: Homemade solutions can be cheaper, especially if you already have the ingredients.
- Convenience: Saves a trip to the store.
Cons:
- Synthetic Chemicals: Some recipes contain synthetic chemicals that can pollute the environment.
- Lack of Information: Most homemade recipes lack product labels detailing health risks, environmental harm, and application safety.
- Unknown Nutrient Content: The content of available nutrients is often unknown.
- Nutrient Deficiency: Many homemade remedies do not provide the three essential nutrients: nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.
- Concentration Issues: Creating the proper fertilizer concentration can be difficult, and a concentration that’s too strong can burn the grass.
- Time-Consuming: Some recipes can take a long time to make.
Store-Bought Fertilizer
Pros:
- Essential Nutrients: Most contain the three essential nutrients needed for turf growth.
- Known Nutrient Content: The available nutritional content is known.
- Safety: Both inorganic and organic fertilizers are safe for plants and the environment when properly used.
- Effectiveness: Typically provides more effective results than homemade remedies.
- Product Labels: Contain product labels detailing proper application and the risks of misusing the product.
- Organic Options: Some organic store-bought fertilizers are safer for the environment than homemade recipes that contain synthetic chemicals.
Cons:
- Environmental Impact: Heavy rains and overwatering can cause excess fertilizers to contaminate water bodies, leading to harmful algae blooms.
- Cost: Can be more expensive than home remedies.
Homemade Fertilizer Ingredients: What to Use and What to Avoid
Many DIY home remedies for fertilizers can be found online, but not all are beneficial. Some can burn the grass, while others provide beneficial nutrients without risking the lawn’s health.
Compost Tea
Compost tea is not for drinking, but lawns and garden plants love it. Applying compost tea helps spread beneficial microbes onto soil and plants and protect the turf from disease. The organisms in compost tea consume available food sources and outcompete disease organisms, increasing soil water retention. Studies suggest a correlation between decreased irrigation water use and the application of compost tea.
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Risks:
If you make your tea from your own compost, you have control over the compost's quality. However, commercial compost tea lacks regulation. Composting done the right way eliminates most pathogens, but deviations from the proper process could result in pathogens from animal feces surviving. To prevent pathogen exposure, only use compost tea on non-edible plants.
Compost Tea Recipe:
- Fill a clean 5-gallon bucket with 4 gallons of chlorine-free water.
- Aerate the water with an aquarium pump and two aquarium bubblers set in the water.
- Fill a fine-mesh bag with one cup of compost per gallon of water.
- Tie the bag, place it into the bucket, and squeeze it to help infiltrate the water.
- Brew the tea for 24 to 36 hours, stirring the water and rearranging the bubblers a couple of times each day.
- Apply the fertilizer with a pump sprayer or Ortho-Dial-N-Spray applicator within four hours of completing the brew.
- Re-apply the tea every two to four weeks in the early morning during the growing season.
Dish Soap
Dish soap is often included in homemade fertilizer recipes to help the soil absorb the fertilizer down to the plant roots, kill pests in the lawn, and remedy dog urine stains. However, dish soap can burn your grass, and many detergents contain synthetic chemicals that won’t break down in the environment. Instead of using liquid detergent, opt for a store-bought insecticidal soap that’s gentle on plants. The Colorado State University Extension warns that the only “product” that can minimize the urine’s negative effect on grass is water.
Household Ammonia
Household ammonia is often applied to lawns as ammonium nitrate for its high nitrogen content. Many homeowners use household ammonia (commonly used as a cleaning product) to create a fertilizer tonic. While ammonia can provide a nitrogen source for your grass, there is a risk of killing your grass because the chemical concentrations of household ammonia vary depending on the brand. Over-applications are more likely, which can harm your turf. Apply the diluted solution to small parts of the yard and pay close attention to your turf’s health. Ammonia can reach toxic levels in the water and kill fish. Ammonium hydroxide is also toxic to humans.
Household Ammonia Recipe:
Dilute one tablespoon of household ammonia in one gallon of water and apply the liquid solution to the lawn with a garden sprayer.
Epsom Salt
Epsom salt might benefit your lawn only if your turf is magnesium deficient. Keep in mind that Epsom salt alone isn’t always enough to achieve a dense, carpeted lawn because your turf needs nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to grow, and Epsom salt does not supply any of those nutrients. Magnesium is an essential plant nutrient, and small amounts are needed to form chlorophyll. The Washington State University (WSU) Extension states that there is no scientific evidence supporting these benefits.
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Epsom Salt Recipe:
Dissolve two tablespoons of Epsom salt per gallon of water and spray it on the lawn in spring.
Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds contain nitrogen, carbon, and other compounds that feed organisms in the soil and can help suppress some plant disease-causing microbes. They also make a great addition to the compost pile. Coffee beans have not been shown to consistently lower soil pH.
Coffee Grounds Recipe:
Mix half a pound of coffee grounds with 5 gallons of water to spray on your lawn. You can also sprinkle the coffee grounds on the lawn by hand and then rake them into the soil.
General Application Tips
- Apply to a dry lawn using a drop or rotary spreader.
- Create header strips around the edge of the lawn to provide convenient start and stop points for each pass.
- Always push the spreader, never pull it, and walk at a moderate pace to ensure even application.
- If returning grass clippings to the lawn while mowing, reduce the spreader setting by half.
- Apply the product only to the lawn, sweeping any product that lands on driveways, sidewalks, or streets back onto the lawn.
- Store the product in a cool, dry place.
- Avoid applying near water, storm drains, or drainage ditches.
- Do not apply if heavy rain is expected.
- Consult your local Cooperative Extension Agency for specific information on local lawn management best practices.
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