by johnah on November 5, 2020
Blood Meal For Lawn And Soil Improvement
What Is Blood Meal?
Blood meal is a type of animal protein which is obtained from slaughtering animals (usually cattle) and then grinding them up into small pieces. There are many different types of blood meals available but they all have one thing in common: They come from cows or pigs. These products contain both blood and muscle tissue.
The reason why it is used for lawn improvement is because it contains high amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen helps improve soil fertility while phosphorus helps increase plant growth.
Both nutrients are vital for healthy plants and grasses to grow well.
How Much Do You Need To Use?
According to the USDA’s National Nutrient Database, there are two main types of blood meals: whole blood and red blood cells. Whole blood is the most expensive and therefore the least desirable type of blood meal. Red blood cells are less costly than whole blood but still not very desirable since they contain a large amount of fat.
Therefore, if you want to use whole blood for lawn improvement, you would need to buy at least 10 pounds per acre. If you only wanted to use red blood cells, then you could get away with using just 1 pound per acre.
For the purpose of an experiment, I decided to use 5 pounds per square yard. I spread it out in my backyard and watered it in.
The results were quite surprising, to say the least.
Using Blood Meal For Lawn Improvement
After taking a soil sample, my backyard was declared severely deficient of nitrogen. So I decided to buy blood meal and spread 5 pounds per square yard on my backyard.
I also applied 3 pounds of chicken manure compost with grass seed mixed in.
I spent well over $200 on this project. This was my first attempt at using blood meal and I was very hopeful that it would work.
When I first spread the blood meal on my backyard, it immediately attracted a flock of birds who seemed eager to peck at it. It didn’t take long before they had eaten almost half of it. I was hoping that this meant that it was working but after one month had passed, nothing changed.
My soil was still as lifeless as ever, and my grass wasn’t growing any faster than it was before. I had seen no change at all after two months, so I ended up ripping out all the sod and starting over again with something else.
I have tried using blood meal for lawn improvement on two separate occasions and each time I got the same results. It doesn’t work at all.
It’s also extremely smelly and it tends to attract vermin. I haven’t had any problems with raccoons or opossums yet, but I’m worried that it might attract them in the future.
In my opinion, using blood meal for lawn improvement is a lot of work for no reward. If you really want to use blood meal, then I suggest spreading it over tree stumps in your yard.
It might help to promote the growth of certain fungi or something. I don’t know, I’ve never tried it.
What I do know is that you should never spread blood meal over your entire backyard in the hopes that it will fix your nitrogen levels. It just doesn’t work and you’ll be wasting your time and money.
Sources & references used in this article:
Chemical evaluation of vegetables grown with conventional or organic soil amendments by LV Svec, CA Thoroughgood… – … in soil science and plant …, 1976 – Taylor & Francis
Metabolism of the bloodmeal in tsetse flies.(A review.). by E Bursell, KC Billing, JW Hargrove, CT Mccabe… – Acta Tropica, 1974 – cabdirect.org
Some applications of bloodmeal identifications in relation to the epidemiology of vector-borne tropical diseases. by PFL Boreham – Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1975 – cabdirect.org
Biology and control of tabanids, stable flies and horn flies. by LD Foil, JA Hogsette – Revue scientifique et technique-Office …, 1994 – cabdirect.org
The visual responses of flying mosquitoes. by JS Kennedy – Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1940 – cabdirect.org
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