Sugar and Dog Pee

Jimmy-GA – posted 29 August 2003 12:49

I’ve tried the sugar on dog pee idea on my Emerald Zoysia, and it seems to work. I was wondering if I could use sugar in a preventative way. We have two dogs who usually pee in the same area. Could I generally apply sugar on a weekly basis to this area with out messing up the soil? Thanks.

On another note: I also have a lawn area planted to St. Augustine (mostly Mercedes), which seems almost impervious to dog pee.

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 30 August 2003 23:47

That’s a good question. Wish I had a specific answer. Excess sugar can shut down the nitrogen production while the soil microbes turn their attention to multiplying. Once they have used up the sugar, they will return to producing nitrogen, so nothing is really lost, but just delayed. So sugar acts like a growth regulator as it works its way through the soil food web.

I use corn meal as an organic fertilizer. Since I started doing that my dog pee problems are fewer but still there.

Jimmy-GA – posted 01 September 2003 07:26

I’ll give your corn meal a try, because it seems my dogs’ pee burns the grass much more in hot weather. Maybe the pee, fertilizer, and very warm air temperature all contribute to the burned spots. Thanks.