This article may be “old news” to farmers; BUT even with many recent thunderstorms and rain, I have noticed that there are still some lawns and graveyards with big, brown dead spots and shortly after the “dead spots” appear, you notice . . .
crows picking something out of the ground, and skunks and racoons tearing up the dead spots.
Some people have noticed that this is much worse every third year. This is “why”: #1, we have already noticed that birds, skunks, and racoons tear up some lawns. #2, usually, it is the dead spots that are tore up the worst. #3, the spots are dead because white grubs ate the roots off. #4, White grubs are the larva stage of a three-year life cycle of “June bugs”. That’s why we notice that every third year, there seems to be more lawn damage. The following year, there are thousands of June bugs. #5, June bugs lay their eggs on the soil. All types of bugs lay their eggs on and around unhealthy plants or grass! #6, Bugs use “radionics” to find unhealthy plants. Plants emit a different radio frequency if they are healthy or not. #6, Low calcium saturation seems to be the most frequent cause of inefficient or unhealthy plants; and a target for bugs to lay eggs on or around! Army worms, root worms, corn borers, white grubs, and many more crop destroying pests are more frequent in crops grown in soils that are low in calcium base saturation.
THE CURE: You can use insect sprays, traps, and other types of “foo foo” powder to get rid of insect pests in the short time. Some of the best insect sprays have been taken off the market because they also caused adversely affected human health. If you can get the calcium base saturation in a field or yard, up to seventy-five per cent, grass and plants will give off a “healthy” radio frequency signal; and most bugs will pass by and search for plants that emit an “unhealthy” signal! When your lawn has NO white grubs that eat the grass roots; birds, skunks, nor racoons can smell the tasty white grubs and your lawn stays green and untouched by those “night pests”. Unlike the poisons sprays that kill the grubs immediately; an application of calcitic lime takes several rains and about a year to soak into the soil. A soil test is recommended before any fertilizer or lime application, but without a soil test, if your lawn has white grubs, dead spots, or skunk damage, then an application of one pound of “calcitic lime” for every ten square feet of lawn would be a safe application. The sooner it is applied; the quicker it will begin to work. Make sure it is “calcitic lime”. If you use “dolomitic lime” which contains some magnesium, it can do damage instead of good IF your ground is already above ten per cent base saturation for magnesium. Ask a farmer “where do you get your calcitic lime?” Lime is the least expensive and most effective thing that a farmer applies to his farm. A soil with adequate calcium base saturation can make better use of and reduce the amount of other expensive fertilizers that he buys.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
