Mike, yep that is the stuff. The brand I get has the same mix. I got the last bag that my local store had. This seems to get used more for lawns than farm animals. The salesman said that they don't get much demand for it.

MP I bet you have a great lawn. I tried SBM for the first time this week. I applied just before a great, steady rainfall. What part does rain play in the effectiveness of grain fertilizers? What part does soil and daytime temperature play? I need to know in CASEy rain doesn't MATTerialize.

SBM and other organic fertilizers require soil microbes to consume the product in order to release their nutrients to the plants growing therein. Rain or irrigation is not required but some moisture is. Soil microbes are more active at higher soil temperatures (think Summer or tropical rain forest), but remain active down to about 40 degrees F. Only soil temperatures are relevant since that is where the microherd lives.

Bill Hill

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenweb Organic Lawncare FAQ - dchall

MP I bet you have a great lawn. I tried SBM for the first time this week. I applied just before a great, steady rainfall. What part does rain play in the effectiveness of grain fertilizers? What part does soil and daytime temperature play? I need to know in CASEy rain doesn't MATTerialize.

Thanks BH. I'm so used to watering in fertilizer I tried to dissolve the SBM. According to the soil temp website I'm still at 55+ degrees, so I'm OK.

I understand there's a website that measures soil temps throughout the country. Anybody know what it is? What are the important temps to track for my lawn?

Rather than go to a web site to determine your soil temperature buy an inexpensive dial thermometer and measure your soils temperature your self. Any temperatures you might find on the web may, or may not, be close to yours.

stan6,

This site has a list of SCAN (Soil Climate Analysis Network) stations which record quite a bit of stuff about the soil, including temperature. If you have one relatively close to you, then you can use it for temperatures. Just click on your state to get a better view of the stations in your area (the National map has the dots slightly off).

Here's a soil temperature map I came across. I'm not sure where they get their data, but it's not as accurate as the SCAN data.

Or, you can do as kimmsr says and get a thermometer to stick down in the soil. The only thing about that is, you'll want to stick it at least 2", but closer to 4" to get a good representative reading.