GAScott – posted 30 October 2004 06:10
I’m curious if many of you turf pros have seen or heard of Jerry Baker’s home-concocted turf tonics, and what your opinion is of them.
Here’s a link: http://www.jerrybaker.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=2#tonics
His tonics include many commonly found items, such as ammonia, beer, cola, epson salts, antiseptic mouthwash, tobacco juice, etc. I believe I understand the concepts: ammonia introduces nitrogen into the turf, beer, cola and epson salts introduce other nutrients and sugars into the soil. The mouthwash and tobacco juice (a natural insectiside?) discourage pests and disease.
Plus, all of his tonics include some kind of mild detergent, such as dish washing soap or baby shampoo (nothing with lye or anything harsh), which are supposed to cleanse foliage, help the plants take in the nutrients, and discourage pests and disease, etc.
I doubt there is any university research on these methods, and Baker is kind of a weirdo. Some of the tonics I’ve seen on his TV show crack me up. But there seems to be some common sense merit to them, and the people in his forums seem to report good results.
Do any of you pros have any comments or insight?
cohiba – posted 30 October 2004 11:15
GAScott,
Just as you have said, they do have some merits. I have never tried them myself. Although I have used beer(sugar), epsom salts(manganese), cola (sugar) and ammonia separately on turf. Either as a nutrient or as a food for the soil. I have also used kelp, and composted turkey manure. Soap is regularly used as a wetting agent to disperse water evenly over the ground. I would like to see some university testing on the various concoctions prior to trying on a larger scale.
One point to consider is cost. I wonder what the cost of all the materials would be per 1000 sq.ft. Individually in small quantities is ok. But to do larger areas might run into big $.
Also, would this be considered “organic”?I would not think so. When you add ingrediants such as Borax, ammonia, and detergents.
Just my 2 cents………………….
GAScott – posted 31 October 2004 08:24
Thanks, cohiba.
It’s weird that Baker never tells you how much to apply per 1000 sq. ft. He instructs you to apply to the point of runoff.
I did mix up his clean-up tonic and apply it to a section of my front yard (grass and flower beds), which is about 1000 sq. ft., and it seemed about right. Doesn’t make sense to apply a green-up tonic to my warmseason grass in Oct/Nov.
With a trip to the dollar store, one can get the ingredients inexpensively. I would be curious to see a cost comparison with more traditional methods.
The cleanup tonic seems like it would be the most beneficial if the ingredients really do discourage pests, molds, and fungus. But I wonder if it’s more economic and less labor intensive to simply apply a slow-release fertilizer or organic fertilizer 2-3 times a year rather than applying a green-up tonic every 3 weeks.
cohiba – posted 31 October 2004 10:40
GAScott,
The cornerstone to all these tonics is to make the grass healthier. Therefore the turf will be able to fend off attacks from disease,weeds, and insects.
I believe that feeding the soil goes along way to accomplishing this but that good old chemicals have to be the last resort.
take care…………………