This is a sprayer I bought at the beginning of the season for various applications. It works great and is well made.

http://www.amazon.com/Gilmour-362-Professional-Pre-Mix-Sprayer/dp/B00002N67I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348591473&sr=8-1&keywords=hose+end+sprayer

Thisis what I found by asking: "how do I apply soap to my lawn?"

Things You'll Need
� Water
� 5-gallon bucket
� Tide laundry detergent, liquid or powder
Instructions
1
Pour 1 gallon of lukewarm tap water into a 5-gallon bucket. Using lukewarm water makes it easier to dissolve the Tide detergent.
2
Pour 1 tsp. of Tide liquid or powder laundry detergent into the bucket. Stir the water and Tide mixture well to completely dissolve the detergent into the water. Stir slowly so as not to create soap bubbles. The powdered detergent will take slightly longer to dissolve than the liquid detergen

3
Fill a hose end sprayer with the Tide and water solution. Since most hose end sprayers only hold approximately 36 oz. of liquid, you will not use all of the solution.
4
Attach the hose end sprayer to a garden hose and turn it on.
5
Spray the solution evenly across the lawn in a thin coat. Then, focus on areas of dead or dying grass and apply additional solution in these areas.
6
Refill the garden sprayer with additional solution from the bucket when it runs out. Continue watering until all of the solution from the bucket is gone

Lawn Hobby:

I would suggest that you disregard the information posted by goren. Tide laundry detergent is not recommended for this purpose. The recommended product is generic or clear baby shampoo. The information posted by tiemco is much more accurate.

Thanks. Will this also help loosen rocks to be removed?

I don't know, but I suppose that by softening the soil around a rock might make it a little easier to remove. Just a guess.

I am just a homeowner, but would like to comment about this & rock removal. This is our first year yard, so I studied up and took this "soil conditioning" recommendation late Spring. So far I found that (I think) it made a big difference in my yard this year.

I used the recommended hose-end sprayer, then just used whatever cheap, CLEAR shampoo I could find (by their recommendation) - Suave or V05 usually, whatever was on sale.
My results is what I wanted to share, wrt removing rocks & such. I found that all summer - even in drought - I could hand-pull spurge and 99% of it did NOT break off - the soil was that moist & "soft". I manually watered the yard twice all summer - that's it. Most yards here have systems, and I don't want to spend the money. Figure I'd like to condition the soil, train the grass correctly, and IF it's THAT BAD, I'll just manually water or let the TTTF go dormant.

Up through July, I watched the radar on days when rain was expected. I would time shampoo application so that I just sprayed the yard within an hour of the rain approaching, so the rain would wash it into the yard. Not practical for everyone sometimes, but it's worked for me this year. I'll be watching radar again today, as we're expecting rain again and it's been awhile since I was able to shampoo the yard.

Somewhere too, someone recommended putting some molasses in with the shampoo. I'd like to try that - I had a hysterical time applying straight feed-grade molasses with a hose end sprayer, oh what a hoot that was......

whiskers:

Thanks for the informative feedback. This kind of information is very helpful to many people.

The other piece of information I will add is that the shampoo used on a lawn for purposes of softening the soil should NOT be anti-dandruff shampoo.

Thanks.

Couple more questions...

How do I measure and dilute it? I have a Miracle-Gro sprayer.

And is this something that has to be done every so often during the season? Do the effects diminish after the shampoo has washed through the ground? Or are the effects long-term and last for, say a whole season?

For me the effects have lasted since early summer of 2011. My lawn still gets very soft when it is moist.

3 ounces per 1,000 square feet is the application rate. The dilution makes no difference as long as a minimum of 3 ounces of shampoo gets applied on a maximum of 1,000 square feet. If you only have a 1,000 square foot lawn, you can put 3 ounces of shampoo into the bottle and fill it the rest of the way with molasses (I mean water). When you spray it all out you will have 3 ounces on your 1,000 square feet. One of the gurus on another forum has been experimenting with over dosing with his custom blend of surfactant. He has applied around a gallon per 1,000 square feet over the course of a growing season. Recently he applied 50 ounces per 1,000 on a really hard spot he's been watching. I got great results after two doses of 3 ounces. I'd start there.

Yes, thanks to wwww for the testimonial. I have said that until my fingers got arthritis and still can't get through to some people. They would rather wait weeks on the waiting list to pay $75 per day for a core aerator that will break their backs and won't soften the soil anyway. I got the idea for the shampoo from another forum. The testimonials on that forum go on and on and on and on in forum after forum. One guy recently posted a picture of a branch of his tree, 2.5 inches in diameter, driven 25 inches into this lawn. He's been spraying for awhile. He posts here and may post his picture.

To the original poster, why are you going to put soil on top of the "subsoil?" If you apply shampoo and follow up a day or two later with organic fertilizer, you will improve the subsoil to a point much better than the top soil you are going to have delivered. Now if you have drainage issues and need more topsoil to fill a hole or divert around a building, then go for it. But there are darned few soils that cannot be turned into beautiful top soil with a little water and organic fertilizer.

dchall,

Thanks. Why topsoil? Because it's actually compost. That's why! but it's a secret. Shhh, don't tell anyone.

Thanks again.

Geeze!

Compost is great for bare soil. That will really help turn it into topsoil. I would still use the organic fertilizer and plenty of moisture (monthly this time of year).

I sprayed the area yesterday, and then we got rain--first a couple of hours of light rain, and then a couple of hours of moderate rain.

I checked the area this afternoon, and it's still not loose enough to plant grass...not even close...still hard packed/compressed.

I can spray more shampoo on Wednesday, and then rake up and seed the area on Friday. I'm hoping the soil will loosen yet.

Repeat the spray (and the rain!) in 2 weeks. It took a second app for me to notice a difference. You can apply as much and as often as you have the time and patience for.

And don't forget to rotate your muffler bearings.