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Is Organic Fertilizer Better for Lawn and Garden?

I get this question a lot. My response attempts to clarify the point and reposition the question with a more appropriate one.

The answer is that it is not better for the plant; plants don't care how the nutrients were created and the nutritional value of produce does not change based on an organic fertilizer or a synthetic one. The better question is "Is the yard getting the nutrients necessary to be healthy?"

Organic fertilizer (like cow manure or fish emulsion) offers the same nutritional value to plants as do synthetic fertilizer (like urea) except that synthetic fertilizers are in a form that is immediately usable by the plant while organic fertilizer must be processed by small organisms in the soil before it becomes usable by plants.

Virid can deliver either organic fertilizer or synthetic fertilizer through its system. Virid optimizes use of synthetic fertilizer because it does not apply highly concentrated fertilizer during the heat of the day. We apply small amounts of nutrients, with water, during the cooler periods of the day when the pores of plant leaves are open and naturally apt to absorb nutrients. Virid injects 1 to 3 milli-Liters of nutrient solution per minute, based on sprinkler zone flow-rates. In order to get the same nutritional content Virid would have to triple the amount of organic fertilizer injected into the sprinkler system.

Perhaps the real concern is human (and pet) safety. We don't want to expose ourselves, our kids and our pets to a bunch of toxic chemicals. Virid feeds plants what then can use right away, without having to feed them a month's worth all at once. There is little to no Nitrogen (one of the main components in fertilizer) left to be absorbed by people or our pets, particularly when it starts out approximating the EPA standards for drinking water.

Organic fertilizer, on the other hand, is far less nutrient dense. It takes three times as much organic fertilizer to match the synthetic blend Virid uses. Think about what that means. Do you want to sit in a lawn full of cow manure? Fish emulsion? Or perhaps play in a lawn filled with pellets containing organic fertilizer that release it gradually over time so the pellets remain in the yard for a month or longer? Remember, just because something is organic does not mean we want to play in it, breath it, smell it or injest it.

Virid thinks both have their place and we should choose what is best for the plant (they don't care so long as they get fed the right amount, regularly) and what is best for the people who live in and around and on the plants. Organic and synthetic fertilizers; they both have their place in the yard.

Simple Denver Lawn Fertilization

Lawn fertilization isn't difficult. All you need is the right fertilizer applied in the proper strength as frequently as possible.

I was surfing through a few competitor's websites where they try to make it complicated with 5 or more different fertilizer types to meet the different needs of today's sophisticated homeowner. All they do is fertilizer grass. I think they make it sound complicated so they can charge more for it.

Virid takes a different approach. We feed lawns (and other landscape plants) automatically, naturally. We use the sprinkler system to feed and water at the same time a very dilute amount of fertilizer that encourages productive soils and healthy plants. Healthy plants crowd out weeds, fight off disease and are more drought tolerant so they require less water. In short, healthy lawns (and other plants) don't need all the other treatments offered because they can take care of themselves most of the time (if they are healthy). That is the natural cycle and plants have been perfecting it for decades and centuries and longer.

Virid can afford to feed your lawn (and other plants) 70 times a growing season because the system is automatic. There is no need to trick nature into believing monthly services with complicated feeding regimines are appropriate when, with the right approach, we can work with nature and let the lawn take care of itself.

People and Plants

I was reading an email from my doctor (yes, he communicates regularly) who has a year now in his new practice where he described his philosophy of the Ideal Medical Practice. It is one of those holistic, treat the entire person, kind of philosophies. He then goes into defining "Functional Medicine" as one of his goals.

"Functional medicine examines primary prevention and underlying causes instead of the symptoms for serious chronic disease with the goal of understanding each individual patient's physiological, environmental, and psychosocial contexts within which his or her illnesses or dysfunctions occur."

What does this have to do with Lawn Fertilizer? Well it might be a stretch to understand grass's psychosocial contexts but the similarities between examining the underlying causes instead of the symptoms stuck me as being quite similar to lawn and plant care.

All too often we treat the symptoms because suppliers are offering better and better ways to do so and offer us discounts if we buy more and more of their product. Customers want problems addressed quickly. It is natural to treat symptoms with product we readily have at hand and can administer at times that are convenient for us.

For instance, if the lawn is brown - water it more; if it stays brown - throw a bunch of fertilizer on it; if it gets weeds - kill them; if there is thatch - break out the power rake; and if there is disease - call in the chemicals.

That is symptomatic treatment of grass which, like us, is a living organism and a product of genes and environment. If the underlying soil is in poor health (yes, soil is alive with small creatures) the grass on top likely suffers from poor health too.

Applying high concentrations of fertilizer all at once turns grass green and makes it grow very quickly. Unfortunately it can damage the soil by reducing the population of those small creatures who live in it. After a quick-lived growth spurt the grass can suffer from famine and poor soild conditions causing weeds, disease, thatch,

Virid gets to the root cause analysis to support a plant's health primarly below the surface, in the soil. The soil is the environment grass and other landscape plants live in and the soil itself is alive with bacteria and microbial activity

Grow Baby Grow

On your mark, Get set, Grow!

Ok, so now what?
I’m sitting on the back porch watching my grass grow but I just don’t see anything happening. Some people may enjoy watching the grass grow but I am headed out to take the dog and the kids for a walk.

The fact is that grass grows slowly and that is just fine with me. The last thing I need is huge growth in patches that bogs down the mower and looks like it got cut off too short. Don’t get me wrong. I love a nice, thick lawn. I like to lay in a shady spot on a hot day or in a hot spot on a cool day. I wrestle with the kids while the dog tries to pull off a sock. We toss around a ball or frisbee or try out headstands and cart wheels.

I want the grass to grow but I don’t want to be able to watch it grow. Make my lawn grow slowly and steady all season long. That is my kind of lawn.

Virid Means Green. The lawn fertilizer service that promotes slow, steady growth with frequent feeding through the sprinkler system. It works better because it works in sync with nature. It costs less because its automatic. It is safer to play on the grass because we don’t cover it with high concentrations of fertilizer and herbicides trying to feed it for a month in one visit. And its green because it saves water, reduces fertilizer run-off, reduces carbon emissions and reduces traffic congestion (if that is not green, it should be!)