Organic lawn care products?

I'm about to blow $200 plus on Gardens Alive Wow Supreme. Has anyone tried this? Are there other organic alternatives??

Are you primarily after organic pre-emergent weed control, or are you more interested in general organic lawn care?

I was hoping for both....heee, of course. I at least want the fertilizer, and that seems relatively straightforward. I was wondering how the corn gluten works as a pre-emergent.

Well, let me rephrase that. I was wondering how well corn gluten worked. I realize that for some mysterious reason no one knows how it works, which is another reason I'm a little hesitant.

It's not really that mysterious...it was discovered in some research at Iowa State that there were compounds in corn gluten that would inhibit seed germination. Here's some info if you want:
http://www.turfgrasstrends.com/turfgrasstrends/Need+to+Know/Use-corn-gluten-meal-as-a-natural-pre-emergent-wee/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/12811

Have you ever actually used it for pre-emergent weed control? I'm after crabgrass control, a few dandylions and clover doesn't bother me. I'm just wondering if it would be more effective on lawn that isn't quite so weedy as mine. Like, most of my lawn is crabgrass at this point. Previous elderly owners didn't do anything.

I don't have a lawn and I have different weeds than you do--it's done fine when I've remembered to put it down at the right time, but most years I am lazy and don't get around to it! Crabgrass I'm pretty sure is a perennial, so it won't do anything about the plants that are already there, all it does is stop new seeds from germinating.

If most of your lawn is crabgrass at this point I think you probably need something beyond a pre-emergent...including probably reseeding some of your lawn once you get rid of the existing crabgrass, so if that's part of your plan then the pre-emergent is definitely not what you want since it'll prevent your grass seed from germinating too. But once you get rid of the crabgrass and have the lawn re-established it can help prevent the weeds from taking over again so it'll be good for preventative maintenance.

Crabgrass is only an annual around these parts, thank goodness, but I know what you mean, I'd have to hit it just right. I'm going to have to reseed, I'm sort of resigned to that I guess. My plan was to do the pre-emergent in, say, April, with the WOW Supreme, which is supposed to be a natural fertilizer as well, and then hit it with another dose of WOW in late August, then sow grass seed in October. It's going to take several years to bring this junk back to looking anything like a lawn. I was hoping to find someone who'd used it, I would really like to try to stay organic if at all possible.

I'm confused. If the yard's overrun with annuals, why wait for a pre-emergent to kill the annuals' seeds? Wouldn't a non-selective herbicide be better (and cheaper)? Nuke everything & start from scratch.

I agree, even if your crabgrass is an annual if it's already up then a pre-emergent's not going to do much good, you'll still need to do something else to get rid of the crabgrass that's already there before you'll be able to have a decent lawn.

Wellllll.....I was TRYING to go organic. I don't think there is an organic "nuke-everything" solution! The crabgrass is dead now, of course, so the preemergent would theoretically keep some of the crabgrass seeds that are out there from sprouting, but not all. Then I would do another round of WOW mainly to fertilize in late summer, and kill seeds from the current year. I'm sure it would take several years to make it look anything like a grassy lawn. *Sigh*, it's not easy being "green".

Horticultural vinegar is an organic non-selective herbicide. I've heard that it's even better when mixed with a bit of orange oil.

Also consider looking into stuff like this: http://www.royaltonsupply.com/products/index.php/categories/natural-weed-control

Thanks, good to know there are other products out there. I'll probably try one of these and report back. I just don't want to get into the chemical catch 22. It will be interesting!

If it makes you feel better about taking the green approach, using the nasty chemicals would take you the same amount of time to get a nice green lawn...you'd have the same steps of using a pre-emergent and probably having to get out regular weedkiller to take care of some things that do come up, etc so it wouldn't go any faster with the chemicals. If you want a green lawn in a hurry, you'll have to scrape up everything that's there, level the area and put down some topsoil and then lay sod (or seed)

You could also take the "nuke everything" metaphor more literally by using a flame weeder. It would certainly be satisfying to exercise one's inner pyromaniac for a socially-acceptable goal.

http://www.google.com/products?client=ms-rim&hl=en&q=flame+weeder&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=lY2pSeqYA5LEMYeGtdUC&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

Hm, the crabgrass issue is the most problematic. I guess it depends on how bad the crabgrass is, and how much you need to remove. For me, I accept a certain amount of it, and sacrifice the putting green for a decent stand of mixed grasses so that it is green all year (California climate). I regularly overseed with the idea of crowding out the grasses I dislike ( I have a mixed Bermuda / St. Augustine lawn now overseeded with a mixture of drought tolerant fescues that grow in sun and shade). I also have some crab grass, witch grass, dandelions, and a few plantains.

My regular regimen includes topdressing with steer manure / compost mix, annual dethatching, aeration biannually, hand weeding of dandelions, fall overseeding, and green mulching with a push reel mower. You could also water deeply, then spray on a mixture of fish emulsion if you need to green up the lawn.

I don't cut the grass super short, so it also conserves water in our parched part of the world.

If you must remove all of the crabgrass, I would agree that you need to do the scraping, topsoil, and new turf method - just buy something that will use as little water as possible (even in CT need to conserve!)

Best of luck!