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I have a lot of moss in a few spots in my yard. I also have a couple of areas that i have been unable to grow grass in and which also have moss in them.. I have been told to add lime to my yard which I do every fall, but have also been reading about some “moss killer” which contain ferrous sulphate monohydrate. Can you share your expertise on the two options (or a combination of both)?

Grass likes a soil pH of 7.0 neutral. Had attention been paid to keeping the soil’s pH at 7.0, the grass would thrive and moss would have had a hard time intruding.  Since pH testing and timely applications of lime were not done, the soil became gradually acidic.  All soil becomes gradually acidic over time.  Once it became too acidic for the grass to thrive, the moss, which prefers acidic soil, starts to take hold.  Once it does, it has the ability to make the soil acidic at an even faster rate and the grass starts to rapidly die off and the moss thrives.

 

It sounds like you’ve been adding a little lime every fall but never doing a simple pH test to determine how much you actually needed to apply to get the soil to the correct pH for grass to thrive (7.0).

 

So here you are with moss. While appropriate liming of the soil would have kept the lawn healthy and the moss at bay, applying lime now will not kill the moss.  What you’ll need to do is take some soil and do your pH testing before you put anything on the lawn so the test will be accurate,  Then you’ll need to use the moss killer to kill the moss.  Once it is dead, you’ll need to rake it out.  Then you’ll need to apply the amount of lime that the pH indicates you need to get it to 7.0  You can pick up a soil pH test kit at the garden center for a couple of bucks.  Once the lime is down, you’ll need to broadcast the appropriate grass seed blend (depending on how much light the area gets) and keep the area moist until the grass is established.  Here’s a link to a blog post that will walk you through the process of soil pH testing and lawn seeding. https://blog.timesunion.com/gardening/starting-a-lawn-from-seed-its-time-to-get-crackin-2/7452/

 

Read and follow the direction on the moss killer package

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