Using Sulphate of Iron to kill moss
Iron sulphate is a white, faintly green and fine powder that you can buy from garden centres or eBay .......and it is as cheap as chips! It is a formidable weapon against moss, but remember, in actuality you will need to treat the conditions that caused the moss long term otherwise it will come back (shade, compaction, overgrazing, not enough rest, harrowing too early in spring and spreading spores, poor drainage)!
The bonus is that It’s also a fertilizer that provides the essential trace element, iron. It also provides sulphur .... the effects of clean-air legislation has been that soils don't get as much sulphur as they need, from air pollution, contrary to what you’ve read elsewhere. Iron sulphate slightly acidifies soil and encourages some of your more finer leaved grasses and therefore helps with grass species diversity, which is great, if you have a lot of rye. Throw a bit around the base of your rhododendrons and azaleas too if they have a tendency to go yellow and suffer brewers droop!
Legislation around it is flipping wierd! Iron sulphate as a fertilizer can be sold anywhere without restriction. You can use iron sulphate on your lawn as a fertilizer, but not in theory as a moss-killer! It's classed as a pesticide which needs to be registered. Is that daft or is it daft?
To apply it, you dissolve it in water and apply directly to the grass with a watering can. I used to stir about a kilogram of iron sulphate in an old dustbin or ibc tank cut in half and simply put it on with a watering can, until finger arthritis and tennis elbow stopped me in my tracks. Don't use it in a knapsack or boom spray, it clogs it!
Here's a little secret and will explain the rather fetching attire in the picture. If there's a heavy dew or its due to rain, just grab a handful of the powder and fling it onto the moss. It will settle into a fine dust it sort of drifts to cover a larger surface area, like flinging talc ....... and when it rains, the dilution is done for you! Follow the moss, don't do the whole field. However, a word of warning if you are going to do this ..... For goodness sake wear a face mask and eye goggles and old clothes and shower immediately, don’t use your best towels to dry yourself as any residue stain turns everything rust coloured. It dries up your eye balls and turns your teeth black, as my dentist will attest! Here's me ready for some powder flinging! Outfit less than a tenner from the cheapie shop, I swear the neighbours think I'm a bomb disposal expert!
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