Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Dec 21, 2010 3:09 pm Hi all, we layed our EZ turf about 4 weeks ago and it has taken off wonderfully. With the humidity Sydney had recently though we had heaps of mushrooms growing throughout the turf. That doesn't worry me so much as we have mowed and mulched them back into the turf. The thing that does worry me though is this yellow foamy growth that we have been getting in various spots, both on the lawn and in the garden. I have been scraping it off and putting it in a plastic bag into the bin. I presume it's some type of algal growth resulting from the molasses/seasol/powerfeed that I had been spraying onto the garden and grass but I'm not sure. I've left it alone in one spot of the garden and it dies off to a brown colour and then turns to dust if you touch it. I'll try to take a photo if another patch comes up but we've had quite a few of them and the curiosity is killing me as I've never come across it before. When it first appears it's a bit gooey when you scrape it. Has anyone got any ideas what it might be? Thank you. Re: Algal growth on new lawn 2Dec 22, 2010 12:18 am Fungal diseases will go hand in hand with a few things. The most major is locked up excess Nitrogen in the soil or from chemical fertilisers. You can be almost guaranteed a fungal problem in one form or another occuring on a turf that has had "lawn mix" or Mushroom Compost used in the soil prep. They add chook poo to it and nearly every time I have done research on the problems, I find the answer with those things. Always use a certified organic compost folks Avoid those problems. ...and there is a huge difference between "organic" compost and certified organic compost. They also require moisture in some cases. You would be seeing slime moulds of some sort. With all the rain you've had it hardly surprising. That will change in time once nitrates leach out into waterways and the soil drys later in the year. Please don't use fungicides to treat the lawn. It opens a whole world of hurt up on you Harms soil micro-organisms which are needed to make the lawn strong, is really bad for the environment, and they are super harmful to humans. There is one that is ok to use. Eco Garden Fungicide. Cert organic made from Potassium Bicarb. There isn't enough Nitrogen in Seasol, PF or Mol to create those issues but the problem would be far worse without them Re: Algal growth on new lawn 3Dec 22, 2010 9:53 am Thanks Fu. We used certified organic soils and compost from ANL and we didn't add anything else. The garden beds have also had outbreaks but again, we bought certified organic native mx so perhaps it's not all it's cracked up to be. I've just been hosing it off the lawn and scaping it out of the garden so won't be using any products on it. Certainly as our weather has cooled down this week we've had nothing in the last few days. Will keep up the seasol/PF/molasses though now that I know it's not from that. Thanks again. Re: Algal growth on new lawn 4Dec 22, 2010 1:20 pm Jeg all it will be then is from the moisture, all the rain. It will go and things will recover once the soil drys a bit the leaves that are now underground go yellow, the tips that poke through photosynthesise and have chlorophyll, same reason they grow rhubarb in the dark. 5 2912 Hi All, We are building in Maitland and considering between Vision Homes or New Edge Homes (part of Masterton). Anyone has experience with them especially in Maitland -… 0 3182 |