Lawn Dye- Have you used it?

Question

Despite professional lawncare and irrigation- my NJ lawn has gone somewhat brownish till fall. Has anyone tried lawn dye products? My golf course suggested it- as they claim to use it with positive results. (I can't tell where they used it even after they pointed it out to me). Of course my yard is a bit smaller than the course.

Answer 1

Yes, Ive used it as a marker when I was spraying weed control, and for the color. It sucks, it is a concentrate that is so strong that one drop of it will stain concrete, bricks, siding, swing set legs, you name it. I would not recommend it. Its different spraying a fairway as opposed to along a sidewalk or a house. Most football fields use it because they are going to be on tv. Green dirt and painted dead grass look much better on camera. Good luck.

Answer 2

Lawn Dye

Answer 3

As a landscape contractor, our company has used it in a few instances, mostly to help disguise brown spots on the lawn before a special event, when the homeowner didn't want to resod the whole yard, and patching would have been really obvious.

We generally try to talk people out of using it when creating curb appeal for houses that go on the sales market, because, as suggested by SimpleOkie, the dye can stain many other things besides grass. The dye is also fairly short-lived on grass, so it will have to be reapplied.

Answer 4

Be careful with professional lawn companies. To be honest, sometimes it's best to treat the lawn yourself. My neighbor hired a professional lawn service to treat his yard and they ended up chemically burning the grass. I hardly ever watered mine and mine looked twice as good. I informed my neighbor to water his lawn down really good to help water down the chemical they had put on his lawn. You could see certain spots where they had applied too much chemical. Last year my neighbor's law looked way better than mine. Now mine is looking better than his this year in certain spots and mine definitely has caught up compared to last year.

I'd recommend you get the book "Green Grass Magic" by Jerry Baker. It's a good book and it really helped me. You can get if for like $9.99 on http://www.booksamillion.com

Here's a few tips I can give you:

As far as fertilizing, fertilize heavily in the spring and fall. Only fertilize lightly during the summer. Fertilizing too heavily in the summer will burn your grass. Grass grows best in spring and fall. In the spring, fertilize with a fertilizer that consists mainly of nitrogen. This helps the grass grow up. In the fall, fertilize with a fertilizer that has about equal portions of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The extra nitrogen and potassium will help the roots grow better to survive winter better and to help it grow better come spring.

As far as watering, your lawn only needs about an inch of water between rain and watering a week. Don't water every day. Water once to maybe twice a week and when you do, give it a good soaking to give it like about an inch of water. That means about 30-60 minutes worth of having the watering system on. It's good to have like about 10 minute breaks between each quarter of an inch to allow the water to soak in and not run off. If you water a little everyday for just a short amount of time that leaves the water near the surface of the ground and the grass will develop roots near the surface of the ground and will not develop deep roots. That makes it susceptible to drying out real easily. By watering a little more infrequently it forces the roots to go down to get water and it will be more drought tolerant. Watering too much can also cause root rot and other grass diseases.

As far as weeding, the best time to spray for weeds is in the fall. Between the weed killer and the cold of winter it's a one-two punch that helps knock them dead for good. During summer just spot spray for weeds. Trying to apply weed killer to the entire lawn during summer can stress and hurt your grass.

Spring/early summer is a good time to treat for bugs, especially grubs. That will also help take care of lawn spots and help against Japanese Beetles come summer.

If you want to get your lawn green for this summer, then I recommend doing the watering once to twice a week and adding a light liquid lawn food to your grass that is nitrogen based. Nitrogen is what makes your grass nice and green. And during the summer you don't want to give it a lot.

I recommend trying Jerry Baker's "All-Season Green-Up Tonic"

1 can of beer
1 cup of ammonia
1/2 cup of liquid dish soap (Recommend regular Dawn for handwashing dishes - do not use antibacterial soap)
1/2 cup of liquid lawn food
1/2 cup of clear corn syrup

Mix it together then place the mixture in a 20 gallon garden hose sprayer. It should green up your lawn in a few days.

As far as the dye, I wouldn't do it unless you are trying to conceal a completely dead lawn. You might as well just about go out and spray paint the lawn in a respect.