Chicken Manure on Buffalo lawn

6banga · Feb 20, 2017 6:08 pm

Hi Everyone.

Tempted to try the old chicken manure fertiliser bought straight from a local person who has chickens etc. The ongoing cost of maintaining my lawn using unorganic fertilisers and also dynamic lifter seamungus etc is starting to add up. I have been happy with these fertilisers but also want to go organic. I can grab 3 40 litre bags of chicken poo for $10. I have heard it is good to use but my only quarm is there any chance I get weeds.... Ie chicken fam chickens eat weed seeds poo them out I spread chicken poo seeds germinate weeds grow. Anyone got any experience this is my main reason for not diving in and trying it to date.

Thanks

TheGardenWhisperer · Mar 09, 2017 1:46 am

Best buffalo Ive ever seen never had fertiliser.
Stop using a catcher and cut it to 40mm.
As long as pesticides and fungicides are not used, thatch will not occur and the lawn will constantly make use of the nutrient from the clippings. You use less water too.

6banga · Mar 09, 2017 4:29 pm

Hi Fu.

I have been awaiting for your reply to this it seems you have gone dormant for quite some time on this forum but well respected for turf prep and care. Everything I have ever read about buffalo lawn it advises you should always use a catcher otherwise you get thatch. Is this correct? I basically did no soil prep I cracked onto this forum after I laid my sapphire buffalo lawn. I have clay soil but did put about 50 to 60mm of turf underlay soil on top. My buffalo seems to be going ok except for my black beetle problem. I'm trying to go full organic hence the reason for chicken manure. I have used muns fertiliser before it worked awesome however I would like to take the organic approach. I have sprayed my lawn for lawn grub though

wish I didn't I used the richgro one from Bunnings hope I didn't kill any worms or good microbes. I know my beetle problem is massive as I see them surfacing after rain I have also seen hundreds land on my lawn on a hot summers evening. I also now have set my lawn mower deck height to 90mm as evertime I mow the grass looks lime green and crap it takes a while to recover. I think the lawn looks best when its long so my new rule is to cut it as high as possible which means setting my mower one notch over its factory highest setting. Can you help me out with any other tips to make my lawn thrive I have checked ph with a cheap ebay soil ph meter and it seems to be 6 which is strange for a clay soil not sure about the integrity of the meter. Happy to send you some pics if you pm me and give your advice about my lawn and what I could do to improve it. I also use molasses in spray bottles every couple of weeks not sure how its going I usually don't see much change in grass colour but ants go crazy all around the house after the spray I also sometimes see a few black beetles surface after spraying it.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers

Crazyk · Mar 26, 2017 10:54 am

So I've got a lovely lush Sir Walter buffalo been down since Oct 2016.
It grows great but is very spongy. Should I be top dressing with sand to firm it up?

Like you 6banga I cut it relatively high prob 60mm because when I cut lower it looks scalped. I feel I need to cut it this high because it is spongy. SO if I did cut a little lower would that force the lawn firmer and I just need to be persistent?

On the point above about not using a catcher. I have done this also but I have to cut it every week so the clips add up. I've now resorted back to catching.

TheGardenWhisperer · Mar 26, 2017 11:49 pm

Munns is an organic based lawn fertiliser.
Munns is now owned by Yates.

Lawn Beetle as a problem is bollocks.
They are beneficial for turf. You will almost always see beetles come up with rains, or soapy water.
This is an opinion shared by many in senior turf management, however at the lower end of horticulture it is commonly diagnosed as the problem. We should be looking instead better lawn care programmes, better fertiliser programmes and better use of wetting agents and being more selective of the brand of wetting agent.
It would be rare to get this standard of advice or awareness from a garden centre or lawn contractor.

A healthy lawn with the right management will easily handle hundreds of beetle per square metre. Sports surfaces would rarely (if ever) have pesticides used to treat.
Not aware of any turf farms in WA that treat them either. Why? Because they are not a problem

6banga · Apr 06, 2017 6:47 pm

The Garden Whisperer

Munns is an organic based lawn fertiliser.
Munns is now owned by Yates.

Lawn Beetle as a problem is bollocks.
They are beneficial for turf. You will almost always see beetles come up with rains, or soapy water.
This is an opinion shared by many in senior turf management, however at the lower end of horticulture it is commonly diagnosed as the problem. We should be looking instead better lawn care programmes, better fertiliser programmes and better use of wetting agents and being more selective of the brand of wetting agent.
It would be rare to get this standard of advice or awareness from a garden centre or lawn contractor.

A healthy lawn with the right management will easily handle hundreds of beetle per square metre. Sports surfaces would rarely (if ever) have pesticides used to treat.
Not aware of any turf farms in WA that treat them either. Why? Because they are not a problem

Hi Fu

The area I live in is pretty bad for black bettle. Everyone's lawn got affected by it. I remember at least 4 summer nights were I was standing outside and the black bettles were smashing into me whilst fying. My lawn was littered in them to the point where you could hardly see any grass and I'm in no way exaggerating. My lawn faired pretty ok I had spots of damage probably because its buffalo but anyone in our neighbourhood with kikuyu there lawn is munched to bits looking like a dead decaying mat of cruddy carpet. I sprayed richgro lawn bettle killer I don't think it really did much although I did see some beetles surface after spraying... I'm also a massive molasses sprayer sometimes I also see the beetles rise when spraying molasses. Anyways it has poured for days here and I have seen a few black beetles rise from the ground as well as some big curl grubs so they are still down there even after spraying richgro and also molasses. My spots are on the mend and I plan on fully going organic this year so no spraying and I'm going to up my fertilising regime. I have a lot of respect for all your posts on this forum and agree lawn grubs probably aren't that bad but I think its our area as we get massive plague proportions. Its unbelievable seeing the amount of black on my lawn on those warm humid summer nights.

Also what would you recommend as the best organic fertiliser for a buffalo lawn?
Munns was my pick last year and I have been thinking of scotts which I have never tried. Lately I have just been using dynamic lifter and molasses while I go down my full organic path. What I have been noticing lately after rain is my driveway is covered in black worms they look like leaches but I don't think they are try searching the net about black earthworms and find nothing. Have you got any idea on black worms they look like leaches but I haven't had any latch onto skin....

TheGardenWhisperer · May 01, 2017 12:18 am

Lol. You have some cool stuff right there. They are wonderful worms to have.

Anyway, Munns Golf Course Green is one of the best value fertilisers on the market because of it's fertiliser efficiency.
Fertiliser efficiencies are lost on many professionals, let alone consumers.

Powerfeed Troforte Lawn Feed is the ducks nuts. New on the market, it's like owning a sleeper (A car that's crazy under the bonnet and looks like a regular car outside) I have converted my street's crazy lawn guy to it.

TheGardenWhisperer · May 01, 2017 12:20 am

Oh and the worms, Hammerhead worms.
They can be a bit sticky. Wonderful that you have them.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... e-creature

SteveMc · May 01, 2017 9:01 pm

Damn. I'd love to see one of those hammerhead worms in the wild. They are beautiful!
On the matter of mulch, I can vouch for that!
I have been dumping all of my lawn clippings onto my hard packed, builders scrapped soil for the last 4 months and it's done amazing things to my soil. Packed with worms, literally packed. Red sticky and hard clay is now dark brown and soft, weeds are simply pulled softly out. Water penetrates the soil very easily, where previously it would pond and pool.
I have never put any lawn clippings in my green bin since reading these forums and being inspired by contributors such as the whisperer.
There is a wealth of info here and online, but please watch 'back to eden'. Glaze over the religious connotations, and zone into the approach. My little experiment is precisely what is explained on that documentary. It works. The whisperer is definitely onto that one for lawns, which would be amazing. No need for wetting agents, fertiliser, hand weeding etc.
I'm going to invest in a mulching mower, but my madport (masport) won't fail so it's on the only if it's broken wish list.
Find a way to use that chook poo. Experiment and get back to us.

6banga · May 19, 2017 6:35 pm

The Garden Whisperer

Oh and the worms, Hammerhead worms.
They can be a bit sticky. Wonderful that you have them.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... e-creature

I dont think they are hammerheads thats the closest thing I culd find to them but they def. dont have the hammerhead they are just black and all flat pretty much identical to a leach.