help with large scale organic program

[iahawkz4]

I was talking with my neighbor a few days ago about going organic. He is the Facilities Mgr for a very large building at our local University. He mentioned that he is going to try a test plot on the grounds (huge, grass area, nicely landscaped) using only ogranic methods.

Currently a lawn care service takes care of the lawns using synthetic chemicals.

He has been doing a lot of research and is hoping it works so he can expand it to all his grounds and eventually, maybe, to the entire University (which probably has many square miles of lawn areas).

Most major Universities (and corporations) currently have 'green initiatives' in place and this would seem to fit in nicely.

I'm not sure of his exact plans, yet, but I'm wondering if anyone here would have any advice for a large scale organic program? Is anyone familiar with any other successful, large scale organic programs?

Is there any recommended reading / published info?

thanks,
Steve

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Large scale or small scale is all the same...at least it is the way I do it. If he is saving money now by buying chemical fertilizer in bulk, he can buy organic fertilizer in bulk. The secret to making this affordable is to not use compost all the time (if ever) but instead to buy your organic fertilizer from a farm and ranch feed store. If he is going to do huge acreage, he can probably benefit from setting up delivery direct from a feed mill where the materials are ground. He can also custom order his personal recipe for the fertilizer. When you calculate the cost per acre per year, the materials for my organic lawn care program cost about the same as for a chemical that would include herbicide, fungicide and insecticide.

Refer him to the Organic Lawn Care FAQ for a basic orientation. That is my program written about five years ago. Then refer him to the Showcase on the http://aroundtheyard.com home page for pictures of how well it works. Many of the lawns in the Showcase use that program with a little customized tuning up (some substitute soybeans for corn and some apply a late fall app of urea).

If his background is in chemical fertilizers, then it might help to understand that the reason organic fertilizers are made from food is that the microbes living in the soil are what really produce the NPK plant food. They also provide the 15 or so micronutrients that synthetic NPK fertilizers do not include. It is the process of decay of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that results in plant food. Soil microbes have been doing it for hundreds of millions of years and by now they do it pretty well.

You mentioned "organic methods." There aren't any methods used in organic gardening that are different from chemical gardening. The only difference is the switch from chemicals to food products. Instead of spraying pesticide for control of spider mites, he would spray molasses. It's still spray. I call it an organic "program."

[iahawkz4]

thanks, David, I guess you're right, homeowner lawn or huge park-like acerage, they're both treated the same!

The big difference would indeed be in the quantity of product needed, multiple bags or a truck load! We are very lucky here having many feed stores nearby that ground their own grains.

[turf_toes]

Hi iahawkz4,

Welcome to the site!

I was thinking the same thing (finding grains in Iowa ought not be a big problem)

[texasweed]

Unless you are taling about using something like Milorganite, as a sod farmer and landscaper biz owner I do not believe it will come to close to competing economically, especially on a scale this size.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Weed, I'm not doubting you but your situation might be different. Your grass is all in one field where farm equipment works well. Around a college maybe they can't use that equipment. I'm just thinking out loud.

Just out of curiosity, can you give us an idea as to what it might cost per acre for massively bulk synthetics?