Question
QUESTION: When should I begin using Ironite?  How often?  I purchased a bag last year to green up our lawn but I never got around to putting it down.  I have Kentucky Blue Grass, live in Northwest Pennsylvania.  Grass is chlorotic.
ANSWER: Give a man a yellowed leaf of glass, and instantly, he wants to put Iron down.

Have you had your soil tested, Rick?  How do you know you need Ironite?

Giving a lawn Ironite because it's yellow is like taking Seconal because you can't sleep.  Is that lawn in pain, or does it just need to cut down on the caffeine?  Is the mattress too hard?  Are they playing rock 'n roll next door?  And if there is pain, why?

Get a soil test done first, Rick.

And if -- that is a big IF! -- you need iron, DO NOT put it down in the form of Ironite.

There's so much wrong with Ironite, I don't know where to begin.  Let's start with the Environmental Law Foundation lawsuit detailed in their press release posted on the internet, "Ironite Sued for Toxics in Fertilizer and False Advertising" (http://www.envirolaw.org/poison.html).

The problem: "'Ironite' is made from mine tailings from a proposed Superfund site in Humboldt, Arizona."  That site is the Iron King copper mine.  The toxic waste-based product is LOADED with 2 things they don't tell you about: Arsenic and Lead.  In fact, there's so much Arsenic and Lead in Ironite that it qualifies as Hazardous Waste, based on government tests in Oregon.

Banned in Canada, Maine and Washington State, Ironite is still sold to gardeners in Ace, Albertsons, Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, True Value, Walgreens, and WalMart stores in California, where the suit was filed, and the rest of the nation.

But it's hard to tell, reading the label, where it is described as a user-friendly "natural soil supplement and fertilizer".  Yikes!

This is however not unusual.

Many fertilizers are advertised as 100% natural.  But they're made -- LEGALLY -- with recycled "organic" industrial waste.  Technically, from a scientific standpoint, anything with Carbon is correctly described as "organic".  Confusing.  And dangerous.

Because if you fertilize your vegetables, instead of your lawn, with these fertilizers, the fertilizer winds up in the vegetables.

And most of these heavy metals do not move down in the soil over time.  They remain in the top layers where you put them.

None of this matters to many gardeners.  One individual named Olin Miller writing in 2000 concluded flat out, "Apparently our regulatory agencies believe it to be safe because its use is not banned." (http://ag.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/old_archives/arid_gardener/2000-December/0)

This of course proved false -- presumably after it was applied by vegetable growers all over the country who took his advice.

I am great at growing Kentucky Blue Grass.  First rule: Only put nice things in your soil.  The KBG will be happier, and it will be prettier as a result.

So get that soil test, Rick!

And while you're waiting for your soil test report to come back, I recommend you print out "Grass Yellowing: Save Your Greenbacks"
(nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/Newsletters/Archive2005/Newsletter_05_09_05.pdf#search='zoysia%20symptoms%20iron') by the North Florida Research and Education Center.

See what you are dealing with.  A good test and a clear picture is what you need here.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: If the grass doesn't need Ironite then what else would it need? Yellow glass = chlorosis due to iron shortage = add iron.  

Answer
Good question, Rick. I can answer that.

In Southern latitudes, yellow lawns are a very common sign of spring.  Southern homeowners trying to grow warm-season grass in very sandy soil are often dealing with Iron deficiency.  But chlorosis can also come from growing in alkaline soil; a high pH keeps Iron from being absorbed -- it's called "lime-induced chlorosis".

High levels of Phosphates lock up Iron and keep your grass from making chlorophyll.  Next thing you know, the grass looks more yellow than green.

Sometimes the roots are not working correctly -- maybe the root system is not strong enough to support the top growth.  Compacted soil?  Too much Nitrogen in the fertilizer, too many leaf cells to be supported by the weak roots?  

Sometimes it's a case of bugs -- caused when you throw off balance natural soil microbe populations.  Chinchbugs.  Grubs.  Ants.  Or maybe it's just too cold.

There are so many reasons grass can be yellow.  In your region, the soil is probably filled with plenty of Iron.  But find out.  Get a soil test.

And IF you need Iron -- use a natural, kinder, gentler Iron source.  That Ironite stuff is not the only game in town.  Get something sensible.  Because you, sir, are an Intelligent Gardener.