Forum

Replies

• 

  Graeme Brown July 23, 2017 at 8:40pm

  Why compost and not dry top dressing. Would the compost not cause too much growth later in the year and be hard to handle as your post suggests. Dry top dressing or cricket loam and a lute would be much less work and may give a better finish.If poor nutrients are an issue maybe some blood fish and bone under it would give a gentle nudge
• 

  Russell Cobley July 23, 2017 at 8:50pm

  What about a top dressing with less sand content say 60/40 rather than usual 70/30 mix? Will hold a bit more moisture if overseeing. 

  Out of interest, when you mention "compost top dressing" could you elaborate as to the product details on that? 
  • PRO

    Michael Green > Russell Cobley July 23, 2017 at 9:04pm

    Hi guys thanks for the replies it's a compost sand dressing basically lawns suffering from heat stress in summer had drainage installed but has caused problems. Secondly has had incorrect feed treatments which has sterilised the microbial life and scorched large sections of the lawns. 50 percent of the lawn has really bad brown patch and needs completely restoring. Soil is sandy silt that's acidic so I'm going for an 8ph sand compost mix. Sites acidic so plans to boost the microbial life retain water in summer and increase fungal and bacterial populations to manage each other. Hence the compost dressing.
• 

  Mark February 13, 2018 at 11:07am

  Hi Michael, out of interest what machine did you go for in the end?
  • PRO

    Michael Green > Mark February 13, 2018 at 6:50pm

    I didnt get the job in the end the customer decided to not do anything to the lawns and continue with the person that caused the damage boggles the mind. There are great self propelled bits of kit in the USA designed just for this but in my case it was about increasing mcrobial life long term. Compost is a diffcult one unless its screened its a bugger to spread. I tend to do most by hand to be honest even on large areas all comes back to the product quality.   
    • PRO

      dan > Michael Green February 14, 2018 at 9:02am

      would it have been easier to use an organic soil improver in micro pellet size and/ or a compost liquid tea ? 
      • PRO

        Ben Mallow > dan February 14, 2018 at 4:22pm

        Compost tea has been proven to have basically no use, from what I've read. But pellets sounds good.
        • PRO

          dan > Ben Mallow February 14, 2018 at 4:25pm

          really ? i havent tried it but thought the basics sounded right -- its just transfering amounts of micro organisms from compost to water ?
          • PRO

            Michael Green > dan February 14, 2018 at 5:17pm

            Hi Dan there's a bit more to it. I did a course with symbio on brewing compost tea it's a bit of an art and science. But you are correct in the above. Obviously in my case I had multiple reasons for applying compost based solely on the site. Yes you can use products such as green circle but again as you probably know you have to do alot of work to ensure those organisms survive. So back to soil pH salt index getting oxygen into the soil. Compost teas do work I've seen that for myself and use them regularly to verify you need a microscope. But you need to completely change the way you work for it to be effective it's a completely different way of working. 
            • PRO

              Ben Mallow > Michael Green February 14, 2018 at 6:02pm

              Have a look at this - http://gardenprofessors.com/tag/compost-tea/

              The researcher is from a university in the US, and does a lot of testing of these types of things. I'm inclined to go with her lab results on it, but I've not heard of green circle so cannot comment on that. It may be we're at cross-purposes with what compost tea actually is of course, but the kind I know of, has no basis in science at all.

              compost tea – The Garden Professors™