Jul 09, 2021

Can I use baking soda to neutralize dog urine on grass?

Keeping your lawn green and healthy can be a challenge when you have a dog.

Your beautifully manicured lawn can quickly become a minefield of dead spots,

and the damage is almost always irreversible. In the following article, you’ll find

out if baking soda is really useful to neutralize dog urine on grass and prevent

appearance of dead spots.

How to deal with dog urine and dog urine stains on your lawn:

To control the color of your grass and retain its green color, you need to

understand why your lawn turns brown or yellow. The reason for this is a matter

of science — and understanding it will help your lawn stay green.

Nitrogen is an important component for the growth of healthy soil. However, too much nitrogen concentrated in the same spot over time can cause grass to die and turn yellow or brown. Dog

urine is rich in nitrogen, which is why dog owners often have bad smelling patches of yellow or browning grass as well as dead spots scattered throughout their lawn.

How Dog Urine Affects Soil pH:

Soil with a low pH balance is an issue for lawns as it allows nitrogen to be absorbed into

the soil faster. The acidity causes the nitrogen to be dissolved in the water, which

is then taken up by the soil and passed down to the roots. When this happens, it

can damage the grass, especially in terms of the health of the root system. If your

soil is alkaline, the damage will still occur quite rapidly as dog urine has a high

amount of nitrogen and alkaline environment may not be able to prevent the

damage.

Myths for dog urine spots:

Here are a few misconceptions dog owners tend to have regarding dog urine

damaging the grass on lawn.

Female dogs are the only ones that cause urine spots: While female dogs pee straight down, making it more concentrated in one spot, both male and female dogs have an alkaline pH of 5.5-7.5, and can end up killing the grass.

Brown spots only appear when dog urine is alkaline: The pH level of urine is not the biggest cause of lawn damage, it's the high levels of nitrogen and salts that are present in dog urine that, when concentrated, are harmful to grass.

Dietary supplements for preventing dog urine spots: We have found that food additives won't solve this issue or help your dog long term. Urine spots are actually caused by a build-up of nitrogen and salts, not the acidity of the dog's urine. Additionally, adding salt or other additives might cause problems with the urinary system and can make your dog more prone to bone abnormalities.

A simple way to counterbalance dog urine odor from your backyard:

Urine has ammonia in it, which will cause the grass to die and stink if not removed quickly. One of the easiest ways to flush the urine from your lawn is to walk around with a hose and water down the recent urine spots. This dilutes the nitrogen and helps water absorb correctly in the soil. Cleaning up immediately will help your lawn recover faster and protect against further damage.

Can baking soda neutralize dog pee on grass and should you use it?

With baking soda as a home remedy to a lot, you might assume it's safe to use it on

your lawn. Using baking soda to get rid of dog pee has been a growing trend, however, it is not a

viable solution and will not stop the grass from turning yellow. Baking soda is made of a combination of sodium and bicarbonate ions. Its alkaline nature makes it poisonous to plants, which damages the grasses, foliage, and even non-fruiting plants. Moral of the story, don’t use baking soda on your lawn!

What can I do if not for Baking Soda?

There are a number of different factors that go into why dog urine ends up killing the lawn. These, include, but are not limited to, the type and gender of the dog, their overall diet, the pH level of the urine, and how concentrated the urine is on the lawn. Your dog’s diet can have a huge influence on how your dog urinates. Consuming protein-rich foods such as meat, chicken, and fish will result in urine containing higher levels of nitrogen. To control excessive nitrogen levels in your dog’s urine, try

switching to a diet with low levels of protein. You can also dilute your dog’s urine

by giving him diluted food or water.

However, if you're looking for the best results for minimal effort, and keeps your dog happy and healthy, try See Spot Run Lawn Protection. It's made from 100% natural microbes that are isolated in a specific way and become active as soon as they come in contact with the soil to fix the nitrogen issue and repairs, restores, and rejuvenates the yard.

Our customers have had great success after using See Spot Run to revive their lawn back to its original glory. For the most difficult dead grass craters, remove the dead grass and apply See Spot Run to the soil before reseeding. Doing this ensures that the new grass will have the best opportunity to grow quickly and healthy, and be free of the toxic nitrogen.

Conclusion

Having a dog can be a great addition to the family, but they definitely can take a toll on your yard. Dog urine is high in Nitrogen, which when concentrated throws off the pH balance of the soil and ends up killing the grass. Some people believe that putting down baking soda on these spots will dry up the urine before it damages the ground, but the baking soda itself causes more harm than good to the soil and grass. However, there are some healthy techniques that help both the urine and lawn. Along with watering down these pee spots to flush the urine from the top of the soil, using See Spot Run's organic microbes rejuvenate and heal the soil's pH balance and allows for healthy grass growth long term.

Please let us know if you have any questions or if there is anything we can do for you.

Thank you and have a great day!

-The See Spot Run Team

+1-720-507-5168