lawn turned brown after humic/kelp/soap/yucca application help

[dan99]

I used this article for my soil condition

https://aroundtheyard.com/index.php?opt ... Itemid=117

however my ratio was 1 gal of soap to 6 gal of water mix w yucca and the next day my lawn turned brown. I did apply at 1pm when the weather was very hot. Did i burn my lawn somehow w incorrect mixtures or did i apply it when it was too hot, or is it not burn but dyed brown from the solution?

[MorpheusPA]

(cracks knuckles) On the case. So you applied 1 gallon of soap in 6 gallons of water, plus yucca, to your lawn with no further dilution? In very hot weather? Is that correct?

If that's so, it's not burned, it's badly burned, I'm afraid, and may not be rescuable in terms of saving the grass. Soap is a salt, although a fairly weak one (salts can, like acids or bases, be strong or weak, for exactly the same reason). The correct dilution is the soap mix diluted in water...and then that dilution put in a tank at a rate of 2 ounces per every gallon of water. Your solution was 21 ounces per gallon.

As soon as you can, start irrigating your lawn and wash the soap through. Put out an empty can and make sure you apply at least two inches of water--and I'd really recommend three inches--to try to flush the soap through the soil. Fortunately, soap does flush out easily and does not cause too many problems (and the sodium left behind is, contrary to some rumors, quite negligible).

That will stop any increasing burn immediately, but won't mitigate anything that already happened. At that point, it's strictly hands-off for a while. Let the grass recover. And definitely no soil conditioner for the rest of the season!

Grasses that died can be reseeded in August.

[dan99]

(cracks knuckles) On the case. So you applied 1 gallon of soap in 6 gallons of water, plus yucca, to your lawn with no further dilution? In very hot weather? Is that correct?

If that's so, it's not burned, it's badly burned, I'm afraid, and may not be rescuable in terms of saving the grass. Soap is a salt, although a fairly weak one (salts can, like acids or bases, be strong or weak, for exactly the same reason). The correct dilution is the soap mix diluted in water...and then that dilution put in a tank at a rate of 2 ounces per every gallon of water. Your solution was 21 ounces per gallon.

As soon as you can, start irrigating your lawn and wash the soap through. Put out an empty can and make sure you apply at least two inches of water--and I'd really recommend three inches--to try to flush the soap through the soil. Fortunately, soap does flush out easily and does not cause too many problems (and the sodium left behind is, contrary to some rumors, quite negligible).

That will stop any increasing burn immediately, but won't mitigate anything that already happened. At that point, it's strictly hands-off for a while. Let the grass recover. And definitely no soil conditioner for the rest of the season!

Grasses that died can be reseeded in August.

Wow I just realized you are the person that wrote that article, what an honor. Yeah I just now realized how badly I messed up on my dilutions. Fortunately, the browning is light and most of my grass is still alive https://i.Broken image.com/cJxFV0x.jpg. I'll be watering my lawn like you recommended. Thanks again!

[MorpheusPA]

(tips hat) Yep. One of these days, I'll update that article with my new brew. I've gotten the price down by 80% from its already low level and adjusted the surfactant for efficiency and ease of handling. And because I'm super-cheap, of course.

Unfortunately, I can't see the image, but I'm glad it didn't burn it too badly. Wash it through and it'll be fine--if the soil was already damp or wet, it's far more resilient in terms of what it can handle and maybe you just got lucky and it didn't eat through the waxy cuticle on the plant. That's what causes the burn--it removes the coating that protects the grass leaf, the leaf dries out, and then browns and dies.

But if it's light, it should recover pretty quickly as soon as the soap is washed out. And if it does, then I'm OK with you using the conditioner again at the proper dilution once at the end of the season. You really don't need to--you've effectively done 10 months of applications all at once--but you can if you really feel you must. I'd still suggest you table it until next year and call it done until at least April 2021.