Free Lime, Iron and Gypsum Soil Treatments?
Free Lime, Iron, and Gypsum. Free soil treatments. Four free wheels with purchase of a car. Wait, what?
Four free wheels when you buy a car. Isn’t that just part of the deal? Where are we going with this?
I’m sure many of you have had a telemarketer or an overly friendly door-to-door sales person try to throw in free Lime, Iron, and Gypsum if you start their lawn care service. It sounds good. But is it?
It’s literally no different than a car salesman offering to sweeten the deal by throwing in the 4 wheels a car is sitting on. You see, fertilizer is made up of 2 segments, inert and active ingredients. Active ingredients are simple – N, P, & K – the 3 numbers on the bag. It’s the amount of food or nutrients that fertilizer can give your lawn or plants. Typically, these amount to 30-40% of the weight of the product in the bag.
What makes up the rest of the bag’s weight? The inert ingredients. Things that are just there, the fillers. Among the most common is Limestone. So, what does a deceptive marketer do? They call their trash your treasure – and voila, Free Lime! While Limestone is technically lime, doing it this way doesn’t even get into the soil health; does your lawn need any adjustments? Calcitric or dolomitic Lime? How much? These questions are among the main reasons we include 2 free soil samples each year; so we know what’s going on with your soil! And instead of fillers, our fertilizers contain 100% organic based nutrients to add life back into your soil; something far more valuable than fillers.
How about free Iron? Most fertilizers sold have some percent Iron in them. Its just a fact. Ours are 1-2% depending on the time of the year. Iron is essential in helping your lawn bring out its best color. Its why we include it and most everyone else does too. Should we highlight that its free Iron? Again, its like a car sales person including the wheels; you should be getting it anyways.
Gypsum? Investigate what it actually does. Here’s a university paper if you’re interested https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/gypsum.pdf. You don’t want it.
