Ok, I put down 4,000 SF of common St. A in San Antonio 1 year ago. Unbeknowst to me at the time, I did this 48 hours before the first watering restrictions hit. After a very, very long and very, very expensive summer, the grass survived and I'd say it's doing pretty dang well all things considered.

I'm about 99% sure there is no way that new sod is established very deep after how extremely hot and dry it was. My plan is to aerate it today or tomorrow, but I want to know what the lawn guru's have as far as advice for nutrients and fertilizers. I know I want to put down some Ironite to help it green up since that was an issue last year and it's only about 75% of the way there, but what else?

The ironite I have is 1-0-1 and I have some old left over bags of Scotts Southern Lawn Starter 24-24-4 and Scotts Southern Turf Builder 26-2-13.

Have you considered topdressing your lawn with a high quality compost following aeration? Would be the best time to do it and with another scorcher summer ahead, additional OM will help retain moisture.

I have aereated the last two years and covered the yard with compost afterward. I feel like I have had better results with compost over fertilizer. As mentioned above, the compost will help hold in moisture later in the season.

hm, sounds like that's a good idea. Just ot be sure, OM is organic manure?

organic matter

I live in College Station and buy the sewage sludge compost from the Bryan recycling center or whatever that is out by the lake. It's good and the odor really isn't too bad. Not sure what San Antonio offers.

[This message has been edited by sims05 (edited 3/8/2012 3:13p).]

But yes, composted manure would be good. I put down Class A Biosolids (sewage sludge) and had great results

What sort of compaction do you think you have after only 1 year? Skip the aeration and just go with 1/4 - 1/2 inch of good quality compost. Gardenville will have all you need.

Is now a good time of the year to do this or would it be better to wait until closer to Summer?

it is surprisngly compacted here. the soil in SA is not great to begin with, and we just moved in a year ago, but the house was built in 1937...it's some ancient topsoil.

I used a sod cutter to get rid of the top layer which was all weeds and had it hauled off; about 10-12 cubic yards total. I should have tilled it or something at that point, but didn't think about it b/c there was a layer of ground up dirt left over from the cutter and I thought it was ok. I figured it out later also when I tried digging out holes for shrubs and plants and the pile of dirt was lots of shovel shaped clods, not a loose mound.

Stone and Soil carries manure compost and bio compost from SA treatment plant. The manure runs $36ish a yard

Other suggestion instead of aeration- Medina soil activator.

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Medina soil activator.

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Snake oil. Pissing in the ocean.

Old Army: now's the time to do either of those things. You could aerate whenever, but you could more easily burn your turf topdressing during summer

B-1: Can you go info more detail? I don't like wasting money. Would love to hear more. Was suggested to me to help new sod.

There's about 5000# of microbes in an acre of soil 6 inches deep. There's also about 20,000 pounds of organic matter that these microbes feed off of. How much good do you think that gallon of "microbe food" is going to do? You are better off spending your money on compost.

No University study has ever shown a benefit of soil activators at labeled rates.

MEDINA SOIL ACTIVATOR MSDS:

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Magnesium Chloride (MgCl) 0.5%
Iron Sulfate (FeSO4) 0.1%
Zinc Chloride (ZnCl) 0.05

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Low amounts of fertilizer is the only thing it provides. It's not the magic product they market it to be.

Iron deficiency overcome by a foliar application is only benefit I could see out of this product.

[This message has been edited by AgResearch (edited 3/10/2012 1:23p).]

Why does Randy Lemon pimp it so much then?

He's usually pretty even handed at product recommendation.

Thanks for the info. The half gallon I have left is the last I'll purchase.

Top dress with compost instead?

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Why does Randy Lemon pimp it so much then?

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Answered your own question. My soil micro prof (Dr. Dave Zuberer) spent the better part of an hour one day explaining the fallacy of this stuff.

Any Medina products worth the $?

Zub.

Their Hastagrow liquid plant food is good for indoor plants, and their pelleted organic fertilizer is good on lawns and veggies.

If your grass survived past year, I would venture to guess the roots are pretty deeply established. Overwatering is usually what causes shallow roots, to my limited knowledge.

Where to go in Houston for topsoil, compost, or whatever I should apply?

I could go to Lowe's and buy bags and bags of stuff or to a garden center and get it in my pickup.

Can I use a spreader or should I use a shovel and rake?

By my calculations using online calculators I "need" about 2 yd^3.

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My soil micro prof (Dr. Dave Zuberer)

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had same prof, love Dr Rerebuz. But damn, `83 - `03

My neighbor and I are renting an aerator this weekend and he is planning on spreading peat moss over his yard after using it. Would that be better than top dressing with compost?

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Noooooooooooooooo! Peat moss is darn near sterile as far as microbes and nutrients go.

B-1 83 doesn't get PMs so I have to post here and hope you respond. I put it on this thread and apologize if its a hijack, but its related to the OP.

B-1 83 - I'd appreciate your advice (you've always provided sound lawn advice). I'm buying a new house and they are just now laying St. Aug sod. I know I need to water it heavily, but should I fertilize it, or is that too soon for sod? Any tips. Should I put down compost? I have a GREAT lawn at my old house thanks to your advice, so I want to start this lawn with a good start. I've had to deal with new sod before.

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Where to go in Houston for topsoil, compost, or whatever I should apply?

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I'd like to know this also.

Out of all the dirt places around I picked 529 Top Soil. Right behind Lowe's on 529 & 6.

$12 for 1/2 yd of topsoil. Pretty cool.

Bottlerocket - in the ideal world it would have been a good idea to have put down some compost and a good organic fertilizer like Texas T or Medina Pelleted before the sod was laid. Ther nutrients from thsoe would have been ready about the time the sod needed it. Sod comes in almost "raidoactive" with fertilizer since they need to push it heavily for dense growth for harvest and then regrowth of the harvested areas. It will not need fertilizer for 4-6 weeks. You will do no harm putting out some organics sometime in the few weeks following planting.