Photo Credit: Blake Burkhart

As reported in a blog post on the Huffington Post written by “Coach” Mark Smallwood, Rodale Institute’s executive director, Rodale Institute researchers designed a trial to compare the use of compost tea versus chemical fertilizer on sod. Over the course of a month, three applications of compost tea were applied to three raised beds while fertilizer was applied to another three beds. In the beds treated with compost tea, root length was an average of two to four times longer than in the beds treated with chemical fertilizer, making those areas more resistant to drought and other environmental stress. Additionally, the amount of dormant grass was much higher in the fertilized beds, while no dormant grass was found in the compost tea-treated beds. These results show that organic lawns not only decrease the amount of fertilizer runoff, but also result in healthier grass!