milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
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- Posts: 29
- Joined: May 10th, 2017, 11:03 pm
- Location: Roanoke, TX
- Grass Type: Zoysia
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milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
had no problems finding some a few months ago at Home Depot/Lowes/Walmart.. went to pick up some more bags and it's nowhere to be found at any of the above now? this is the first season I've used it for the lawn. is this something that typically goes out of stock in the summer months?
- andy10917
- Posts: 29739
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
No, but it is having shortages this year. You'll have to be far more creative to get your hand on some right now - use the FAQ/product finder on milorganite.com for smaller garden centers, etc near you.
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
Excellent! I was just going to ask this as well - can’t find it in Austin right now either.
Thanks Andy!
Thanks Andy!
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
for those wondering in the DFW area, Mike's Garden Center in Southlake had around 20 bags left this week when I dropped by.
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
I had problems earlier this year, but it seems to have been restocked at a number of the Home Depots in DFW.
- Dchall_San_Antonio
- Posts: 3339
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
zachhorn, look for Dillo Dirt at the nurseries. Or visit John Dromgoole's nursery - he developed Dillo Dirt.
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
May I ask what will Dillo Dirt do? Is this an alternative to milorganite?Dchall_San_Antonio wrote: ↑August 15th, 2018, 11:15 amzachhorn, look for Dillo Dirt at the nurseries. Or visit John Dromgoole's nursery - he developed Dillo Dirt.
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
It is biosolids composted with yard waste. It will have less nitrogen availability since the mineralization rate decreased over time. I suspect that it would still have a decent iron content.
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
Home Depot in Roanoke has 38 bags...
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
Thanks for this Dchall. This place looks awesome. Might be my new go to store.Dchall_San_Antonio wrote: ↑August 15th, 2018, 11:15 amzachhorn, look for Dillo Dirt at the nurseries. Or visit John Dromgoole's nursery - he developed Dillo Dirt.
With a calcareous soil (pH ~8.4), Andy advised not to add any K this year, until we see how the souls reacts. However, I’m very interested in their all purpose Lady Bug fert. Also, the product they call Magic Sand looks very interesting. Have you used it before? Not sure if you have the same issues I have with the pH or not, but this product claims to acidity soils (however, I suspect that may work for a a small raised flower bed and not an entire lawn sitting on a limestone bedrock). Thoughts?
- andy10917
- Posts: 29739
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
The "let's not add Potassium this year" statement was for two reasons:
(1) Potassium can raise the pH level, and we want to see what happens with the soil when we do the existing changes before getting more aggressive. My plans are generally conservative at first, as we want to guide newbies to do things in ways where even a single mistake is tolerable.
(2) Enormous reserves of Calcium tend to displace Potassium, and we don't want to waste money.
Now, about the "Magic Sand" and "Ladybug All-Purpose Fertilizer"...
Alarm bells ring in my head when I see the word "Magic" on products. One of my most-common phrases is "there is no magic in the world" and "avoid any temptation to buy Miracle-In-A-Bag products/promises". Always buy ingredients, not marketing fluff.
The Ladybug All-Purpose Fertilizer is an organic combination of feather meal, turkey compost, sulfate of potash and molasses. Here's the official analysis:
Total Nitrogen (N) 8.0%
0.5% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
0.5% Water Soluble Nitrogen
7.0% Water Insoluble Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P205) 2.0%
Soluble Potash (K20) 4.0%
Calcium (Ca) 2.0%
Sulfur (S) (combined) 1.0%
Iron (Fe) 0.25%
0.1% Water Soluble Iron
No special ingredients, for $45 a 4K bag.
The "Magic Sand" is probably Texas Greensand, by the claimed nutrients. That is not going to do the claimed pH decrease, by a long shot. Trace amounts of Sulfur won't change much of anything.
(1) Potassium can raise the pH level, and we want to see what happens with the soil when we do the existing changes before getting more aggressive. My plans are generally conservative at first, as we want to guide newbies to do things in ways where even a single mistake is tolerable.
(2) Enormous reserves of Calcium tend to displace Potassium, and we don't want to waste money.
Now, about the "Magic Sand" and "Ladybug All-Purpose Fertilizer"...
Alarm bells ring in my head when I see the word "Magic" on products. One of my most-common phrases is "there is no magic in the world" and "avoid any temptation to buy Miracle-In-A-Bag products/promises". Always buy ingredients, not marketing fluff.
The Ladybug All-Purpose Fertilizer is an organic combination of feather meal, turkey compost, sulfate of potash and molasses. Here's the official analysis:
Total Nitrogen (N) 8.0%
0.5% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
0.5% Water Soluble Nitrogen
7.0% Water Insoluble Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P205) 2.0%
Soluble Potash (K20) 4.0%
Calcium (Ca) 2.0%
Sulfur (S) (combined) 1.0%
Iron (Fe) 0.25%
0.1% Water Soluble Iron
No special ingredients, for $45 a 4K bag.
The "Magic Sand" is probably Texas Greensand, by the claimed nutrients. That is not going to do the claimed pH decrease, by a long shot. Trace amounts of Sulfur won't change much of anything.
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
Awesome. Thanks Andy (and totally get the reasoning for not adding K this year). It’s been a great plan (yard looks great) and I am very interested to see the soil test result again in the Spring. The Lady Bug was something that caught my eye in the event the recommendation shifts to a more all-purpose fert. However, the analysis shows a very small amount of Iron, which is another problem area for me (assuming it’s even available for use at 8.4). I have no concerns staying with Milorganite (assuming there aren’t additional shortages). It seems to be “just what the Dr ordered)
- andy10917
- Posts: 29739
- Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 10:48 pm
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- Level: Advanced
Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
There's nothing wrong with the Ladybug general purpose stuff as an organic fertilizer, but it is designed to be a slow-acting product and remediation is not something that most people want to take a decade. And it's far from cheap for $$$/K.
Just to reinforce, always read the ingredients, not the marketing claims on the bag. Talk is cheap.
Just to reinforce, always read the ingredients, not the marketing claims on the bag. Talk is cheap.
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- Posts: 56
- Joined: April 25th, 2018, 7:03 pm
- Location: Austin, TX
- Grass Type: Tiffway 419 Bermuda
- Lawn Size: 5000-10000
- Level: Some Experience
Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
Great point about the $$$. I'm sure there are far more cost effective options out there with equal or better ingredients.
As always...
As always...
- Dchall_San_Antonio
- Posts: 3339
- Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
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- Grass Type: St Augustine
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Re: milorganite - recent availability in DFW?
I agree there is nothing special about the Lady Bug fertilizer. It is available all around Texas due to well placed advertising stimulating demand for the stuff. I still use alfalfa pellets.
I had to look into why greensand was no longer available in Texas. Turns out green sand has been repackaged as Magic Sand. For anyone who knows more about chemistry, green sand is the mineral called glauconite. The best use of the product is to restore the green color following a prolonged rainstorm. I have used it with mixed results. Sometimes it greens up the lawn in 3 weeks and sometimes it does not green up at all. I have not figured out why it works in the first place and why it would not always work. I know exactly enough about this to be dangerous, so here is my interpretation of the issue: The problem occurs with every heavy rainstorm. Heavy means multiple inches over multiple days. I believe that the soil microbes take the winter to build up a slight acidity to the surface of the soil. The acidity is enough to release iron from the calcium in the soil to make it available to the plants. Up until you get the heavy rain, the grass will look deep green. When the rain comes, it has to be enough rain to wash away the soil acidity which causes the iron to bind to the calcium once again. It will remain that way until winter when the microbes build up the acidity again. St Augustine lawns which have turned yellow following the rain will return to normal the following April...unless the rainstorm comes in March. Applying greensand seems to reverse the yellowing and restores the color to the grass. If anyone has a better explanation, I am all eyes and ears. When I was in San Antonio one of our neighbors used nothing but greensand to "fertilize" her lawn, and it was always deep green.
I need to get some better pictures of the effect, but here is an unsatisfactory one I have on hand.
Here is the situation with that image. That spot is in the shade near the street in San Antonio - 0 hours of direct sunlight per day. The year the picture was taken that area was infested with a disease for months. I hit it hard with corn meal to resolve the disease problem. After the disease disappeared we got some rain but only enough to cause that very slight yellowing on a few blades in the center of the picture. Clearly there is no disease in the blades to cause the yellowing. That is the sort of issue that greensand seems to work on. There is no disease - just yellowing.
I had to look into why greensand was no longer available in Texas. Turns out green sand has been repackaged as Magic Sand. For anyone who knows more about chemistry, green sand is the mineral called glauconite. The best use of the product is to restore the green color following a prolonged rainstorm. I have used it with mixed results. Sometimes it greens up the lawn in 3 weeks and sometimes it does not green up at all. I have not figured out why it works in the first place and why it would not always work. I know exactly enough about this to be dangerous, so here is my interpretation of the issue: The problem occurs with every heavy rainstorm. Heavy means multiple inches over multiple days. I believe that the soil microbes take the winter to build up a slight acidity to the surface of the soil. The acidity is enough to release iron from the calcium in the soil to make it available to the plants. Up until you get the heavy rain, the grass will look deep green. When the rain comes, it has to be enough rain to wash away the soil acidity which causes the iron to bind to the calcium once again. It will remain that way until winter when the microbes build up the acidity again. St Augustine lawns which have turned yellow following the rain will return to normal the following April...unless the rainstorm comes in March. Applying greensand seems to reverse the yellowing and restores the color to the grass. If anyone has a better explanation, I am all eyes and ears. When I was in San Antonio one of our neighbors used nothing but greensand to "fertilize" her lawn, and it was always deep green.
I need to get some better pictures of the effect, but here is an unsatisfactory one I have on hand.
Here is the situation with that image. That spot is in the shade near the street in San Antonio - 0 hours of direct sunlight per day. The year the picture was taken that area was infested with a disease for months. I hit it hard with corn meal to resolve the disease problem. After the disease disappeared we got some rain but only enough to cause that very slight yellowing on a few blades in the center of the picture. Clearly there is no disease in the blades to cause the yellowing. That is the sort of issue that greensand seems to work on. There is no disease - just yellowing.
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