A Stroll Through the Garden: What is that green glob?
A few years ago in June, I was at a reception where this young man was getting ready to head into basic training. I was at the party and having fun talking to people about all sorts of things when a friend asked me about this green stuff, almost like green Jell-O, on their driveway. I wondered whether this stuff glowed in the dark. The kids would have loved it. I like green Jell-O. It seems they have had this stuff for a number of years.
Did you ever see the movie that came out in 1958 with Steve McQueen called “The Blob”? This alien life form landed and grew and grew and consumed everything in its path. It was kinda scary, but it is a 1958 movie. As you may have guessed McQueen was great in the movie. I’ll leave it at that.
Last year I had a friend ask me about some green slime in her yard, and I had another reader ask the same question during the summer. I hope the ideas presented here will help all of you take care of the green globs and green slime in your yard.
As always, I prefer checking the problems out firsthand so long as my or my wife’s personal safety is not involved. What I saw was green globs on the drive and in the yard. The drive was in the sun, and it had just finished raining. This material, from what my friend said, appeared after it had finished raining.
This couple referred to the material as algae. They indicated it disappears after the sun had been out for a short period of time. It turns black in the sun and did appear to be growing from what they said. The good thing is that it retreats back into the gravel and leaves a paper-thin black patch on the ground. The glob did not consume anything from what I could tell. I wonder about the neighborhood cat that was missing. Just kidding.
From what I was able to discover, we are looking at a type if cyanobacteria called Nostoc algae. What I have seen as I have progressed in my research on this material, the blue-green algae is an oxygen producer. The material doesn’t harm anything, including grass or cats, but it does tell us the conditions are not very good for plants to grow for the most part.
As you may have already guessed, the ground where we found the material was clay and compacted as is much of Ashland and Richland counties. It wasn't in the shade nor did it stay moist. If you have some of this stuff in your yard next summer, you can see all or part of the clay or silt soil is probably compacted, poorly drained and in shade. If you want to know the conditions that would harm your grass, all you need to do is look at the conditions I just described.
As you may have guessed, changing the conditions this green glob grows in is the best way to get rid of the material. Therefore, aerate the soil where it seems to be growing, eliminate the wet qualities of the soil around the area, and get rid of the shade.
As I have done my research, I have discovered baking soda sprinkled over the Nostoc algae will kill this stuff. Various algaecides should have an effect on killing this material, but copper applied to anything will have any number of problems in the environment. Copper has a serious effect on both birds and fish and is a heavy metal. One little clue on this stuff is that when it turns black it is only dormant and will come back, but with the application of baking soda this stuff turns brown.
Have you seen the leaves are starting to change? Thank you for all the questions. If you have questions, email me at ericlarson546@yahoo.com. I shall do the best I can to answer the question. Soon I invite you to make comments on these columns as I make them into blogs with a link at ohiohealthyfoodcooperative.org.
Thank you.
Eric Larson of Jeromesville is a veteran landscaper and gardening enthusiast and a founding board member of the Ohio Chapter of Association of Professional Landscape Designers.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Green glob in the yard could be Nostoc algae
