What is the benefit of adding dish soap to your yard?

Question

I've heard that adding dish soap to your yard while watering has some sort of benefit to the grass. What is this benefit?

Answer 1

Actually, dish soap such as Dawn is used to actually however lame it sounds, clean your grass. Basically it makes it so that the leaves can absorb sunlight better and so they can also absorb liquid fertilizer better through the leaves.

I know about it because I just got through reading about it in Jerry Baker's book Green Grass Magic. He puts out a bunch of lawn tonics with beer, dish soap, and other stuff like that. They sound a little cooky, but they work and are based fundamentally correct.

Jerry Baker is known as America's Master Gardener and regularly does gardening shows on PBS and has his own radio show about gardening.

You can visit his website at http://www.jerrybaker.com

Make sure to use dish soap and not dishwasher detergent or hand soap. Also do not use antibacterial dish soap.

He recommends using it before and after applying fertilizer. Add a cup of dish soap to a 20 gallon sprayer that fits on a water hose. Twenty gallon water sprayer means 20 gallons goes through the sprayer before it uses all the soap up. That can usually be set with a setting on the sprayer.

Answer 2

Dawn Dish Soap For Plants

Answer 3

Dishsoap (like Dawn) can be used for a veriety of uses in the garden and lawn. As you have read it will help keep bugs to a minimum but once washe dinto the soil it does not work on bugs anymore. It can be used like Raid, the bugs have to be present to effect them. It coats the bug's body and they can not breath due to the soap film coting the body's breathing pours.
The other useful use of dishsoap is that it helps the soil retain moisture. Its great to use on potted plants if you live in a dry climet or are having a drought. Good luck.

Answer 4

Holy stupid. I understand this is 7 years old but many will find it so I will correct these responses. Dish soap breaks the surface tension ( remember spitting on a baseball field and it never absorbed? That's surface tension ) so the water/rain can be absorbed into the root system. Has nothing to do with cleaning.

Answer 5

Some dish soaps may contain phosphates (and possibly nitrates), which are a plant nutrient and makes them grow faster (this is in fertilizer as well), so I am deducing that this is why people may want to put dish soap on their plants... never heard of this method before. but it is very bad to overload the environment with phosphates/nitrates and I would recommend against it. I could get into the nitty gritty, but it is not necessary here.

Answer 6

This is a cheap deterent to all sorts of garden pests - slugs, aphids, spiders, etc. After all, would you eat delicious garden greens if they tasted like soap? It won't hurt the plants or the soil and it's a cheap easy way to avoid lots of little critters. Good luck, and happy spring!

Answer 7

Not 100% sure that only dishsoap would help - I've heard and read that mixed with other ingredients it would help. In one respect it would help 'clean' grass of disease - but again, to get full effect it has to be mixed with other things like beer, coke cola, and vinegar. These are just a few things. Hope it helps

Answer 8

Dish soap will help rid night crawlers.

Answer 9

keeps the bugs away.But be careful I did that with my rose plant and all the leaves are wilting away

Answer 10

it will remove the waxy coating from weeds and make it easier for the weed killer to do its job