Chickens & Weed & Feed

[papeine]

I just started letting my chickens out of the coop.. they love it!! I jus tput down fertilizer and crap grass preventer.. How long do I have to leave the chickens off the lawn?



Pam

 

[mkearsley]

Here's a few shots of the back yard:

It's crazy how many dandilions I have! I've got a few in the front yard, but not enough to bother with. Since Dandilions are taproots, they bring nutrients from below the grass roots up to the surface, so they provide a little extra nutrients. I hate killing them, but they've taken over

 

[ralleia]

I went in to get my allergy shot yesterday, taking my new book about soil biology to peruse during my 30-minute wait.

There was a section on natural dandelion control--I'll re-read it after sundown tonight and post the details. In short, it suggested that dandelions formed in calcium-poor soil, and that the dandelion's taproot was a mechanism for drawing the calcium up from the depths.

I won't even SHOW a picture of my yards (though they are MUCH better than they used to be!). I plan to try natural microbal/fungal methods of improving the soil. I'll post the dandelion stuff when I get finished with outdoor stuff in a few hours!

 

[mkearsley]

Quote:
What I did was look at the active ingredients and then looked up the label on the internet. Somewhere on the label it'll say how long to keep grazing animals off the field. I'm using the longest time-frame, which is 7 days for lactating animals. And I'll probably get rid of the first 2-4 days of eggs after I let them out.

 

[RaZ]

mkearsley
Personally, I don't think it looks that bad. When I moved to this house my yard was so much worse.
I would like to offer a couple of suggestions (if you don't mind): mow off the flowers before they go to seed and get a soil test to see what nutrients your lawn really needs. Contact your county Extension office for a soil test kit. It will tell you exactly what you need.

I am not a fan of weed & feed or any other herbicide and I don't recommend the commercial fertilizers as advertised on TV.

There is scientific study that suggest that mulching oak leaves on your lawn repress the growth of dandelions. Next best for that is maple leaves. It was an MSU study over several years. I'll have to look it up for details.

Sorry if I'm getting "preachy" but man made chemicals are not the quick fix they claim to be.

 

[ralleia]

Sorry I didn't get back last night--cooked dinner late and then got sleepy.

Here's a summary what the book "Teaming with Microbes" by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis has to say about dandelion control:

They suggest boosting fungal activity in the soil, because fungi tie up calcium better than bacteria do.

The leaf mulch that RaZ suggested may work in this way--chopped up leaves help support soil fungi.

They also suggested applying corn gluten as an organic pre-emergent weed suppressor. Put it on the lawns as the dandelions are coming to seed to prevent the new seedlings from developing secondary roots. The corn gluten also acts as a food for soil fungi.

 

[mkearsley]

Quote:
I had mowed shortly before these shots were taken. Within two days of mowing, the flowers bolted & had gone to seed. Dandilions are one of the quintessential "weeds." A disturbance (i.e. mowing) will cause them to almost instantly go to seed, they produce numerous seeds that can sprout the same year if conditions are right, and if mowing occurs frequently, they will simply change form & rather than growing tall (like the ones in my bottom picture) will grow short (like the ones in the top picture). The only way to mow the flowerheads off about 1/2 of my yard would be to mow the lawn less than 1" & I prefer to have my grass as tall as possible, because that encourages deeper root growth, stronger plants, & requires less watering.

I would love to use the leaf mulch that you suggest, unfortunately, we don't have either of those trees growing nearby and I don't know of anybody who'd let me borrow their leaves. (That might explain why my mom's yard doesn't have too many dandilions - she had 2 maple trees in the front yard.) All I've got growing in my yard is Chinese Elm, another quintessential "weed." (I'm using "weed" because like Niss said "a weed is a plant that is growing out of place.")

Both my husband & I like to see the pretty yellow dandilion flowers scattered in our yard. Normally, I'm not one to use chemicals until there are no other options. I suppose if calcium is a problem, I could always spread limestone throughout my yard.... it binds to the calcium, making it less available (aka chelation). I guess I'll call the extension office & find out what they charge for soil tests....

 

[mkearsley]

Quote:
You wouldn't happen to know where to get corn gluten? Do you think that the local farm supply store might have it?

 

[ralleia]

Quote:
You wouldn't happen to know where to get corn gluten? Do you think that the local farm supply store might have it?

Here's an article I found from U of Minnesota extension regarding corn gluten use--they recommended checking garden and farm supply stores. I doubt my own local farm supply would know what it was and would probably look at me like I was squirrely.

Whenever I try to find non-mainstream garden stuff I usually just order it off the web. You'll probably want to call around to a few places before driving to them.

Here's the link to the extension service article: http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h531cornglutenmeal.html

 

[RaZ]

Regarding corn gluten from the source:
http://www.espoma.com/p_consumer/newsletters_03.html