Organic Gardens-Landscapes And Political Chatter

Greed

2009-02-13T17:53:00.002-05:00

The big problem with our present economic decline is greed. Ever hear of it? The whole idea of hoarding goods and making lines on maps and creating deeds and thinking that we actually "own" something when in fact we're all just passing through this life is flawed thinking. Our problems all stem from a flawed initial premise so is no surprise that we've wound up at this cross roads, presented with choices no one wants to face because the solutions require us to re-evaluate the very core of our beliefs and we're not very good at doing that. Even when we do, we're fearful because we have to replace all that we discard with something new and that takes time and while we spend time doing that we have a void we can't fill and that scares the be'jesus out of people!

Resolution

2008-11-18T17:43:00.003-05:00

A resolution has been acheived. Thanks to the help from everyone who wrote in, Vermont Compost and The State of Vermont have reached a temporary settlement that allows Vermont compost Company to continue operating while the permitting and site review process takes place and gets finalized. Thank you to everyone who wrote to the governor and helped show support for Vermont Compost Company.

Vermont Compost Company

2008-11-06T12:15:00.003-05:00

August 23, 2008

For Immediate Release
Contact: John Hasen, General Counsel, 802-828-5444
MONTPELIER - The Natural Resources Board and the Vermont Compost Company, Inc., have agreed to resolve two cases in Environmental Court. The parties have stipulated that the Environmental Court may place both Vermont Compost's appeal of an Act 250 jurisdictional opinion and an enforcement action by the Board on hold, and the settlement allows Vermont Compost's Montpelier facility to operate until July 2010 without an Act 250 permit; in return Vermont Compost will abide by certain operational restrictions.
"This is a win-win result," said Peter F. Young, Jr, the Chair of the Natural Resources Board. "The agreement allows Vermont Compost's Montpelier facility to continue to operate - which keeps a lot of food waste out of the landfill. And Vermont Compost has agreed to address concerns expressed by its Montpelier neighbors."
The Legislature this year passed a temporary moratorium on Act 250 jurisdiction for composting facilities with solid waste permits from the Agency of Natural Resources. The law also requires the Agency to set up a committee to examine whether there are better ways to regulate composting, and to report recommendations to the Legislature by January 15, 2009. The moratorium runs until July 1, 2010, to allow time for implementation of regulatory changes. Under the agreement filed in Environmental Court, Vermont Compost will enjoy benefits similar to those granted by the moratorium in return for agreeing to reasonable restrictions on its operations.
"Today's settlement is a constructive, forward-looking solution that balances the state's mandate to protect Vermont's environment with its desire to promote composting," said Vermont Compost Company president Karl Hammer. "The agreement will enable the state and Vermont Compost to work together with farmers and composters, under the aegis of Act 130, to develop a set of clear and coherent rules that will help all composting operations operate safely, effectively and legally."
The agreement must be signed by the Environmental Court before it can take effect.

Vermont Compost

2008-07-23T12:49:00.001-04:00

Environmental politics

Reformer.com

Tuesday, July 22
It's not yet up there with motherhood, apple pie and the flag, but it's hard to find people who will say a discouraging word about compost.
Turning table scraps into fertilizer for gardens is a great idea. It reduces waste and saves money.
Everyone seems to like compost, except for the Douglas administration.
The state Natural Resource Board recently shut down one of Vermont's biggest commercial composting operations, leaving a lot of people in the lurch.
The Vermont Compost Co. in Montpelier was recently fined $18,000 for not having an Act 250 permit. The NRB contends that the owner, Karl Hammer, is bringing in too much waste from off site and processing it on his farm. Hammer contends that much of his composting is connected to his farm and that farms are exempt from Act 250.
The action against Vermont Compost comes on the heels of the Agency of Natural Resources' attempts to shut down the commercial composting operation at Burlington's Intervale Center. The Intervale composting and gardening operations reportedly face substantial fines and up to $375,000 of fixes to make the site pass regulatory muster.
In case you're wondering, the third largest composting operation in the state of Vermont is Vermont Natural Ag Products in Middlebury, the folks who make "Moo Doo." It is run by Bob Foster, the brother-in-law of Gov. James Douglas, and it currently is not facing any regulatory problems.
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So why are the other two under fire?
Current Democratic candidate for governor Gaye Symington was the Intervale Center's development director and House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, farmed there. One can't help but think there was some political trickery going on when ANR went after the Intervale last fall for allegedly polluting the Winooski River with its composting operation.
ANR's current concern about the Intervale is quite ironic, considering it once was one of the most polluted sites in Burlington. Before it was cleaned up and turned into community gardens, the Intervale was a dumping ground with an unlined city landfill and pits for sewage sludge. And the public works director in Burlington when all of this dumping was going on in the 1980s? None other than current ANR Secretary George Crombie.
As for Hammer and Vermont Compost Co., the problems started when neighbors started to complain about health hazards. One of the neighbors who complained was Darcie Johnson, who happens to be the Vermont Republican Party's top fundraiser.
As things stand now, the state claims the Intervale is an area of archeological significance and jurisdiction over how the land should be used should be determined by the state Division of Historical Preservation. This seems a bit surprising, considering that no one cared about archeology when they were using the Intervale as a dump.
As for Vermont Compost Co., the concerns of one well-connected abutter appear to have trumped the dozens of businesses who have kept hundreds of tons of food waste out of landfills.
The economic value of the Intervale Center -- 114 full and part-time jobs, 200 community garden plots, 12 small farms and 1 million pounds of food produced annually -- is undeniable. And Vermont Compost is a key link in the state's efforts to turn organic waste into a useful product.
To go after these two entities makes absolutely no sense as environmental policy. If there are problems, ANR should work with the Intervale Center and Vermont Compost to correct them. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that ANR chose compromise over enforcement.
For example, take OMYA, the Proctor-based company that processes marble into calcium carbonate. In Florence, neighbors claim that OMYA dumps 150,000 tons of waste each year into an unlined landfill and that dangerous chemicals are leaching into their wells.
For years, Florence residents have urged state officials to do something about it. Reportedly, OMYA and ANR are negotiating to avoid enforcement penalties. So why is OMYA getting off easy compared to the Intervale Center or Vermont Compost? Is it the nearly $5,000 that OMYA has contributed to Douglas' campaigns? Is it the 250 jobs that OMYA provides? Or is the heavy handed regulatory approach on compost facilities not run by members of the Douglas family politically motivated?
In any case, considering the meager fines levied by ANR for solid waste dumping -- eight fines totaling $27,500 in 2007 and 12 fines totaling $12,260 in 2006 -- it seems that not all polluters are treated equal by the Douglas administration. It also seems that political concerns trump environmental concerns. But given this administration's record over the past six years, that's not a shock.

2008-06-21T14:21:00.002-04:00

Plant A Row for a Food Bank in Your Neighborhood

With gas and food prices soaring and stagnant wages and lost jobs everyone is feeling the pinch from the economy these days. And there is one frightening indicator that needs attention from our many gardening customers. Working families make up 41% of those receiving food stamps, a 30% rise from just a decade ago. So even families with one or two jobs can’t afford enough food to get through the week. There are even more families that don’t qualify for food stamps that visit food banks regularly. Second Harvest, the nation’s largest network of food banks, says demand is up an average of 15% to 20% from a year ago. More than 80% of its food banks reported that they could not meet demand without trimming operations or reducing the amount of food given out.

We at Dirt Works are asking all of our customers out there that are fortunate enough to have a garden plot to Plant A Row for their local food bank. Most of us love gardening so much that we tend to over do it and end up with more produce than our families and friends can eat. It would make a huge difference at your local food bank if you gave all those extra veggies to them instead of letting them go bad. In the past year, the demand for hunger assistance has increased by 40%, and research shows that hundreds of hungry children and adults are turned away from food banks each year because of lack of resources.

For more information on this program please visit http://www.gardenwriters.org/Par/Donation.html

To see a brief report about food bank shortages on the PBS show Bill Moyer’s Journal click here http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04112008/watch.html

Here is a handy zip code locator for local food banks http://www.secondharvest.org/zip_code.jsp

If all of our customers planted a few extra plants for the food banks it would make a tremendous difference without much extra effort or money. The quality of your donation will far outweigh the nutritional value of traditional can drives. Please write us and tell us about your experience with Plant A Row and we may include your story in a future newsletter update.

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.

~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 

Organic Gardens & Landscapes For All: Biofuels

2008-04-03T13:31:00.000-04:00
Organic Gardens & Landscapes For All: Biofuels
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Biofuels

2008-01-20T17:39:00.000-05:00
Did you know that if we were able and willing to start using all the arable land in the US for the production of biodiesel tomorrow, we still couldn't supply the needs of this country for even a few months.
Conservation is something we can all do, right now, in all aspects of our lives. Belief in the myth of some cheep renewable energy resource just over the horizon is not an answer to the problem of global climate change or our dependence on oil from countries we would prefer not to do business with. We can't consume our way out of a crisis.
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Biofuels

2008-01-17T10:01:00.000-05:00
The biofuels industry as presently structured is one of the most corrupt enterprises known to man.
More later...
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Cover Crops

2007-10-30T11:09:00.000-04:00
Good cover crops for this time of year are winter wheat and winter rye. You can broadcast them and leave them bare on the ground or for better results you can broadcast them and cover with wheat/oat or barley straw or lightly till them under. This time of year you’ll have the best results with covering or tilling because the frost can kill the germinating embryos.
Low growing clovers like dutch white clover and sweet yellow clover will work well too if you need the nitrogen fixing capabilities of these plants. They take a lot longer to germinate and you may not see much action from them until spring. Apply them the same way for best results.
If you can’t till or cover and you’re concerned about the frost then you can wait until you have snow cover and then “Frost Seed” the crops right on top of the snow. They will come up as soon as the weather allows them too. Clover can thrive when planted this way since the seeds need scarifying most of the time to do their best. The frost cracks the outer shell making it easier for the embryo to get started.
White clover and yellow clover are, for the most part, very short and won’t bother anything in the garden if they continue to come up and they will attract bees and pollinaters to the area as well as fix nitrogen and croud out weeds during the growing season. Some people plant these clovers as permanent crops in permaculture gardens to keep weeds out of the paths and unused areas.
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Natural? Safe? Organic? HUH?

2007-03-26T13:57:00.000-04:00
All the products we sell at DIRT WORKS and New England Natural.com are natural products which are safe when used as directed. However, this does not mean that you or anyone else won't have a personal allergic or negative reaction to them. Always use good practice by testing small amounts first and observing to see if there are any negative reactions present like, reddened skin, difficulty breathing etc.. Even peanut butter and wool can be cause adverse effects to certain individuals. I'm not big on store bought beef myself! It gives me a belly ache like you wouldn't beleive.

Testing first is a good idea for anything you buy that might come in contact with you or your pets no matter what it is or where you buy it.
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Modern Agriculture

2007-02-13T09:14:00.000-05:00
I just attended the annual winter NOFA conference and I learned a lot. I was pleased to see how much the organization had grown over the last few years.
George Bush has truly united this country against himself and his way of thinking. We always came together around issues of food purity and sustainable agriculture but, now, the enemy is out in the open and we have known answers for some of the world's problems from years of research and dedication to one simple idea. Food is the basis of our live's here and a healthy environment is key for sustainable life on earth.
I hope anyone reading this will look for and join a farmer's cooperative in their city or town, or a CSA (Coomunity supported Agriculture) and get healthy food for themselves and their families and get the money they spend on it directly into the hands of those who grow it.
If you don't know where to find an organization like that in your community, you can start one. Clcik the link attached to this post as a beginning. The people at Northeast Organic Farming Association can steer you towards the resources you need.
Healthy food and sustainable farms are too important to leave to the agribusinesses of the world.
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WildFlowers Gardens

2007-01-12T11:57:00.000-05:00
An excerp from Organic Gardening Magazine:
An ordinary turfgrass lawn can be very demanding and—let's be honest—dull. But you can transform your lawn into an extraordinary display of interesting foliage and blooms that changes each week. Replace the sod with native wildflowers, grasses and ground covers, and you'll have a lawn that needs little more than annual mowing. And, once it's established, a lawn full of native plants almost never needs watering, which will make your lawn the best-looking in your neighborhood when drought turns all the other yards brown. Returning the grassy area of your yard to a meadow of indigenous species will also attract birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects to your yard.
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Diatomaceous Earth

2007-01-11T09:49:00.000-05:00
We are selling three types of Diatomaceous Earth right now at DIRT WORKS

One is in it's purest form and it's called Fossil Shell Flour. It kills fleas, ticks and internal parasites and can be fed to animals of all types as a dewormer and mineralizer in their feed. It's used to treat grain stored in silos too so, you may be eating it yourself in cereals and grain products that you buy everyday and you can use it in your own kitchen to help preserve and keep insects out of your grains and cereals.-
The second one is (D-20 Pet & Animal), Diatomaceous Earth with Pyrethrin (a digestible extract made from Chrysanthemum flowers) and a catalyst (Piperonyl Butoxide 1%. made from the Sassafras plant) added to it, to make it even more effective against external parasites like fleas, ticks, flies, ants, etc.. It is very safe. Pets licking their fur after application will not harm them. It's not for feeding or eating directly like the fossil shell flour.-
The third kind of is (D-20 Fire Ant), Diatomaceous Earth. This type of DE is used to kill Fire Ants specifically and any other type of ground nesting soft bodied bug you may need to eliminate. Click this blue link text to view the page for D-20 Fire Ant Diatomaceous Earth
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Postings to this Blog

2007-01-11T09:21:00.000-05:00
If you are going to post to this blog and leave a link along with your post, please make it a relevant link.
Please do not post links for pills, cars, insurance or personal sites. They won't be posted and you will waste your time.
We are here for gardeners and environmental posts and the like.
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organic?natural?certified?

2006-06-23T23:00:00.000-04:00
Wikipedia defines organic this way: An organic compound is any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon, with the exception of carbides, carbonates, and carbon oxides. The study of organic compounds is termed organic chemistry. Many of these compounds, such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates (sugars), are also of prime importance in biochemistry.
The dividing line between organic and inorganic is contended and historically arbitrary; generally speaking, however, organic compounds are defined as those compounds which have carbon-hydrogen bonds, and inorganic compounds, those without. Thus carbonic acid is inorganic, whereas formic acid, the first fatty acid, is organic, although it could as well be called "carbonous acid".

So, by this definition, gasoline is organic and, rock phosphate is not. so, clearly something else is afoot.

So, we go to Wikipedia again and read: Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on ecosystem management and attempts to reduce or eliminate external agricultural inputs, especially synthetic ones. It is a holistic production management system that promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity.
In preference to the use of off-farm inputs, organic farming emphasizes management practices, taking into account that regional conditions require locally adapted systems. Utilizing both traditional and scientific knowledge, organic agricultural systems rely on agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods (these may require external inputs of nonrenewable resources, like tractor fuel, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfill any specific function within the system. Organic farming is also associated with support for principles beyond cultural practices, such as fair trade and environmental stewardship, although this does not apply to all organic farms and farmers.

And then there are organic certifications.

Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants. Requirements vary from country to country, and generally involve a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:
avoidance of synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc) and genetically modified organisms;
use of farmland that has been free from chemicals for a number of years (often, three);
keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
undergoing periodic on-site inspections.
Certified organic producers are also subject to the same agricultural, food safety and other government regulations that apply to non-certified producers.

Some organizations that certify and maintain a list or listing of certified organic products are, Organic Material Research Institute(OMRI), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), OCIA, Certified Naturally Grown, and other local organizations like North East Organic Farming Association(NOFA) and other regional organizations.

Natural essentially means very little. Although most of us relate that term to wholesome, quality products, all kinds of harmful things are natural too, like, my favorite, oil and coal. Made by nature but, not something you want in your food. Most synthetic fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides are synthesized from oil and long carbon chain molecules. They either break down too quickly in nature and wind up in places we don't want them like, "The water table and streams" causing algae blooms and fish kills and worse, or they do harm to the living organisms in the soil and make plants dependent on them, rather than the rich ecosystem that is soil, for their well being, thus, causing you to become dependent on them to maintain your property or farm. The plants get so they can hardly live without it after a while.

So, what does this mean to you and shopping here. Not every product on this site is "Certified Organic". It doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with a product if it doesn't carry the OMRI certification or USDA or any other such lable. It may be just that, the company has opted out of the process, often because it's so expensive.

Every fertilizer and pesticide product, organic or other wise has to have a label that is approved for sale in every state it's sold in. It cost a great deal of money to do this. Then, there's a certification process that needs to take place and that costs a lot of money too. Not only that, a product that might be certified organic by and agency might have to have a different label for farm use than for home use. Each label must go through the state and agency process and cost money each time it gets exposed to this process. this process of registering labels and getting certified has to be done every year.

Because of this process, many companies simply opt out of the process of organic certification altogether or just for one aspect of their products. Some companies might just register their label with all the states but not enter into the organic certification process at all. Some might be certified organic for use in home gardens but, not for farms. You could cross over but, you need to check with your local certifying board like NOFA to find out if they will allow it's use on a certified organic farm under their jurisdiction. A farm could lose it's certification if they use a non-approved product. Stay alert. A product you may have used in the past might very well be removed from the list for any number of reasons, only to reappear again the next year.

If you find this confusing, that's because it is! Not only that, certain corporate interest continue to do what they can to make it more confusing. The organic movement is now a serious economic force to be reckoned with and the powers that be feel threatened. Rather than follow the trade winds and do what's right, they seek to undermine the industry when ever possible. Be wary of the claims they make on those hyped television commercials. What I try and do for you is, try the product myself and see if it matches up to the claims made for it. I get to know the manufacturer and ask questions of agronomists and people in the industry before I list it on my site for sale. I've been involved with these issues for over 17 years now and I try to keep up on trends and current certification standards as much as I can.

What you can do is similar.

* Build your own knowledge base by researching the web, books and experts and ask a lot of questions.
* Read the ingredients on the lable.
* Ask for a label if one isn't supplied on the web site. I try to have as many available as possible here. It's an ongoing project.
* If you see the word natural on the product, read all the information provided with it, paying special attention to the ingredients list. It may well be fine, but, it pays to read the label.
* Be wary of outrageous claims and flashy labels and advertising. Some of those products may be okay but, there are a lot of companies jumping on the organic wagon just to make a buck and they use very careful language to subvert or go around the requirements that they're supposed to respect when producing a product that's got the word, "Organic" in the text. Miracle Gro has a potting mix that says it has Organic Ingredients in it, for example. So what! If most or a portion of it is synthesized oil who cares?
* If you are required to meet a standard set by a local agency or other, always consult with them before using a product on your farm. They may give you a waiver on a product even if it's not certified. Provide them with all the information they ask for when inquiring. Direct them to the manufacturer if need be. New products come out all the time and they may be interested in finding out about a new product, process or idea. They have to update their data base from time to time too.

You'll notice perhaps that, through out this dissertation and this site, I try to avoid the word "Chemical. That's because, everything is made of chemicals. Chemicals are neither good nor bad. What type they are and where they come from is what's of concern in this argument. I make use of the word, "synthetic and synthetic chemicals" to imply that they are manufactured by people in factories, consuming a great deal of energy, usually fossil fuel and made for the most from oil based chemicals and derivatives.
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Establishing Turf Grass

2006-06-19T20:06:00.000-04:00
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Establishing Turf from Seed

Mid-August through September is the best time to establish turf grass areas from seed. Sowing grass seed in late summer has several advantages over spring seeding. Grass seed germinates quickly in the warm soils of late summer. Once the grass seed germinates, the warm days and cool nights of fall promote rapid turf growth. Also, there will be less competition from weeds as fewer weed seeds germinate in late summer and fall.
Spring plantings work well too, but, in the northeast, it's best to get them in before the end of June. I've installed lawns at the height of summer with good results, but, unless you have time for lots of watering and mothering, it's best to wait for late summer and spring.
The first step in planting a new lawn is the establishment of the rough grade. Remove any construction debris or other rubble, then fill in low spots and level off high areas. The rough grade should slope away from the house foundation, driveway, and sidewalks. The rough grading should be done well in advance of seeding to allow for settling of the soil.
After a few days or a light rain, you can see areas where the ground has settled and needs filling. Don't dustup the area if heavy rain is expected or steep slopes will cause erosion.

At least 4 to 6 inches of good soil are needed to establish a lawn. If necessary, bring in additional topsoil or organic matter. Incorporate the additions into the top 6 inches of soil using a rototiller. If the soil is reaslly stoney, you can till just the first inch or two, unless you love to rake rocks and pick them up with the wheel barrel or loader!
You can establish a lawn with less soil than this but, it will take patience and constant attention over the next couple of years to get the lawn to take in such a way that you won't have to be always playing with it to assure it's long term viability.

The best way to determine fertilizer needs is to conduct a soil test. Most of the soil test kits you can buy at the hardware store aren't very good. Your local university extension service often can provide you with a one time soil test or, some, more progressive landscape outlets sell them. Apply the recommended type and amount of fertilizer, and incorporate the material into the soil to a depth of 6 inches using a roto tiller or rotavator. Applying it to the service is what most people do, and, that's perfectly okay, especially with organic fertilizer. If you happen to have access to a large tiller you can use that to stir it into the soil. However, if you live in an area where the sub soil is stony I would just apply it to the service, otherwise, you'll wind up bringing up all the stones again and have to rake the whole place, one more time.
You can buy a useful pH kit at your local hardware store or landscape center.
Lawns thrive in a pH of 6.2 - 7. Some where in the middle, about 6.6 is preferred.

The final step in soil preparation is hand raking the area, even if you've already used a landscape rake, or, what some would call a York Rake, because, there are always left over rocks, clumps and debris and soft spots that need hand work.
Every installation is different and requires different amounts of different types of treatments.

Select the appropriate grass species for the site. In sunny areas, Kentucky Bluegrass blends are the best adapted turf grass. The fine textured fesuces (creeping red fescue, hard fescue, and chewing fescue) tolerate considerable shade and are the best choice for shady sites. Sow the seed with a rotary or drop-type seeder. Sow half the seed in one direction; the remaining half should be applied at a right angle to the first application. After the seed has been sown, walk over the area to inspect the relative seed dispersal, and rake out any areas that may have excessive seed and drag it to areas with any bare spots or sparse application close by. If you've used a York Rake, you'll notice the seed is finding it's way into the small valleys created by the rake. This is a good thing. It protects the seed from blowing around, ensures better seed dispersal rates, allows the moisture to remain in the crack with the seed and ensures better germination. Next, roll the site to insure good contact between the seed and the soil. A professional landscaper might use a drill seeder to apply the seed or, hydroseed.
I personally never used Hydro seeding as, the fertilizer incorporated into the mix isn't organic, and pollutes the water table and, the mulch material is ground up news paper that might have contaminates in it. It is a very popular practice however.

To conserve soil moisture, mulch the area with clean, weed-free straw. One bale of straw should cover approximately 1,000 square feet. Using a bale chopper is the best way to do this on large areas. You can use hay, but, hay will contain many species of undesireable grass and plants, if it's fresh hay. Even old hay can still contain viable seed from other plants. It will do in a pinch, or on areas where you don't care too much about appearance, but, staw, or landscape netting is preferred.

After the ground has been mulched, water the area. Keep the upper 1-inch of soil moist with frequent, light applications of water. Newly seeded areas may need to be watered once or twice a day if it doesn't rain that often. Most turfgrasses should germinate in 2 to 3 weeks if the seedbed is kept uniformly moist, unless your seed mix contains some annual grass. then you may see some green grass in a week or less. Gradually reduce the frequency of watering, but water more deeply, when the turfgrass seedlings reach a height of 1 to 2 inches.

The new grass should be mowed when it reaches the height of 3 1/2 to 4 inches. Make sure the mower blade is sharp. Mow at a height of 2 1/2 to 3 inches. Regular mowing through the fall will help thicken the turf. A lawn seeded in late summer should be well established by November.

LAWNS: PREPARATION FOR PLANTING TURF

MG Manual Reference
Ch. 12, pp. 14 - 18
University of Arizona
Selection of the proper turfgrass variety for a lawn, based on the site and intended use is the major factor in the successful performance of a lawn. If you have selected a turfgrass which will be established from the seed, the next question is to acquire the seed for planting. In order to better understand what's in the "seed bag," you should be able to read the "seed tag." The seed tag is a legal document which contains important information about the integrity and condition of the variety(s) and other materials sold to you as the final product. For seed that travels from state to state, Federal Seed Act (FSA) requirements must be met which require the following information:

1. Seed Lot Number: used for permanent identification.
2. Kind of Seed: accepted or common crop name. Examples are perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, common bermudagrass.
3. Percent Pure Seed: this is the amount of seed by weight for each variety. This includes the name(s) of the variety or varieties included. If no variety is claimed, then VNS (variety not stated) appears on the tag.
4. Other Crop Seed: this includes other unnamed varieties of the desirable turfgrass species, or other species of other grasses or crop seeds. This can be up to 5% by weight of the seed bag.
5. Weed Seed: this is the percent by weight of the seed bag which contains either noxious weeds, and/or other weed seeds. If noxious weeds are present, then usually strict limits are imposed as tolerance limits.
6. Inert Matter: this includes the amount of non-seed materials by weight. Soil particles, broken seeds, awns and short stems are items included in the percent inert matter.

Note: the amount of pure seed, other crop seed, weed seed and inert contents equals 100%.

The seed tag also bears information regarding the germination capability of the seed, which is tested under strict laboratory conditions for each species.

The percent germination indicates what percent of the actual seed itself will germinate (under optimum conditions). The date (month and year) of the germination test is included on the seed tag. For seed which travels as interstate commerce (essentially all our cool season turf grasses are from other states) the germination test information is applicable for a period of five months after the test month. For instate seed produced in Arizona (bermudagrass) the germination test is valid for nine months.

Special seed treatments (if applicable) must be noted on the tag as well. These treatments include any chemical or temperature treatments to break seed dormancy (potassium nitrate/cold storage, etc.). Any fungicide treatments to the seed would be included here as well.

If the variety has an application for, or has received a PVP (Plant Variety Protection) certificate, this too appears on the tag.

Blue Tag Certified Seed

This is the highest quality seed available. In order for turfgrass seed to achieve blue tag status, the following conditions must be met:

1. Fields have been planted with either approved foundation or breeder seed, or established with certified planting stock.
2. Variety is worthy of certification, or describable by the originator.
3. Production fields meet sanitation standards and are grown with proper isolation distances (from other plants of the same species).
4. The production fields have 0.03% or less off type plants.
5. Minimum standards for purity are met.
6. Other grass contamination limits are met.

These conditions when met, insure the buyer that the best quality seed is available to them.

Pure Live Seed

It is important to take into consideration the actual amount of seed which can be expected to germinate.

Two components of information on the seed tag allow you to do this. These two items are (1) the percent pure seed, and (2) the percent germination. If the seed is 90% pure, then the remaining 10% is not seed at all. If the germination is 85%, then on average 8.5 out of ten seeds will germinate. The remaining 1.5 out of ten seeds will not germinate. In order to find out how much "good seed" will at maximum "germinate," you must calculate the PURE LIVE SEED (PLS) INDEX. To do this, simply multiply the percent purity times the percent germination.

From our discussion example above...

PLS = % purity X % germination
(0.90) X (0.85)
= 0.76, or 76%

This means that 76% of the product by weight will germinate, under the best conditions. So a 50 pound bag of perennial ryegrass seed will have a PLS content of 38 pounds. Knowing this, the actual amount of seed required must be adjusted by the PLS content.

For example, a 3000 square foot lawn is to be overseeded at 20 lbs./1000 square feet with annual ryegrass. This quickly figures to a convenient 50 pounds of seed required. But, since the PLS content is 76% (0.76), we must now adjust and calculate how much of the actual product we need.

50 lbs. divided by 0.76 (PLS) equals 66 lbs.

We now need 66 pounds of seed which has a PLS index of 76% to seed 3000 square feet of turf at the 20 pound seed rate.

Both tall fescue and perennial ryegrass seed may or may not contain a beneficial fungus inside the seed. The seed is called the ENDOPHYTE. This endophyte fungus causes tall fescue and ryegrass plants in the lawn to produce natural chemical substances inside the plant. These chemicals repel above ground feeding insects. These include chinch bugs, flea beetles, armyworms, cutworms and aphids, etc. However, below ground insects (grubs) are not affected. The seed tag should say if the seed is either ENDOPHYTE ENHANCED or ENDOPHYTE FREE. If it does contain endophyte, it should say what percentage of the seed is infested. While endophyte enhanced seed is good from a lawn standpoint, it is unfavorable to use the same lawn seed for pasture. Do not establish a pasture from endophyte containing seed. Use it for lawns only.
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