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Gene Letukas, right, and Ken Malia, both of Nanticoke, prepare soil samples from their lawns for analysis during a clinic on lawn care at Dundee Gradens in Hanover Township.

Jonathan Green lawn care consultant Stephen Leyland measures soil pH at a clinic at Dundee Gardens in Hanover Township.

A soil pH tester measures the level of acidity in a lawn soil sample.

HANOVER TWP. —Soil is fundamental to the health of your lawn.

That’s why nearly a dozen home owners brought in plastic bags and Styrofoam cups with soggy samples of the dirt from their yards to be tested at a lawn care seminar at Dundee Gardens, Hanover Township. It was conducted by a Jonathan Green lawn product sales representative Steve Leyland.

Before starting any lawn care program, Leyland recommends that a soil test should be performed to determine your soil’s pH level. Soil pH is an indicator of soil acidity or alkalinity, which is caused by the amount of hydrogen held on the exchange sites.

“When a soil has a pH level between 6.5 to 6.8, lawns thrive and the occurrences of weeds are reduced,” Leyland said. “Weeds thrive in acidic soil with a pH below 6.0.”

He said fertilizing lawns with soil below these levels can waste up to 20 to 25 percent of the product.

Leyland inserted a Kelway meter in the samples and in just three minutes, the verdict was in for those attending.

Ken Malia’s magic number was 6.5, and the Nanticoke man let out a surprised sigh of relief. He had expected the number to be lower — a lot lower.

“When I went out in the yard this morning to gather my sample to bring in, I looked at the lawn and thought ‘Oh, boy, this probably won’t be good,’” he said. “But the fact that the number was good is a positive sign.”

The lawn of Gene Letukas of Nanticoke also passed with a 6.5.

“I’m relieved that I am in the range of where it should be,” he said.

Although the area didn’t receive as much snowfall as last year, the temperatures and the extreme cold were worse and that can take its toll on a lawn.

“We would have snow and then it would get warm and melt and then refreeze,” Leyland said. “The second freeze is the big problem for lawns.”

The three main concerns are gray winter mold, pink winter mold and winter kill.

Snow mold, the biggest problem most homeowners will face, is a fungal disease that looks like circular patches of dead and matted grass. There are two types: Pink and gray. Pink, which resemble cotton candy fluff, infects the crown of the plant and can cause more severe injury than gray, which infects only the leaf tissue.

Leyland recommends lightly raking the soil to pull oxygen through for this problem.

Winter kill is when moisture in the plant freezes and expands, blowing out the cell wall and killing the plant.

If winter kill occurs, the lawn may need reseeding, he said.

The next two to three weeks are the best time to start thinking about preparing the lawn for the months ahead, according to Leyland, as the temperature extremes begin to moderate and the chance for snowfall lessens.

Calcium is important for soil and Leyland recommends the Jonathan Green product MAG-I-CAL, which increases the ability of plants to use nutrients by raising soil pH levels in just two to three weeks.

Work should not begin in the yard until the ground temperatures is 55 degrees, Leyland said. He said a good way to determine temperature is by checking the ocean temperatures in the weather forecast. What a person can do until then is take advantage of cold soil by applying a lawn fertilizer while the soil’s biology is still somewhat inactive. This will provide a slow, gentle feeding but not quick greening.

Then, in late spring, when the soil is warmer, feed your lawn with an organic lawn fertilizer. By feeding the soil, you will make it more alive and porous, allowing air, water and nutrients to reach the root zone.

The best time to plant seeds is fall. Spring is the second best time.

Both Malia and Letukas, who also came armed with some questions for the lawn expert, walked away satisfied and ready to get started on their lawn care routines.

“I had been using calcium and aerating but I never knew when to do it,” Letukas said.

“It really makes sense now,” Malia said. “I’ve been doing yard work for 40 years now and I never thought about the soil. I’ve gotten more confident in what to do and when to do it. Before, my lawn work was just trial and error.”