How Much And Which Fertilizer To Use
Lawn fertilizers fall into three categories: granular slow-release, liquid water-soluble, organic, and synthetic. In most cases, granular slow-release fertilizer is the best to use because it slowly feeds and releases nitrogen into the grass over a period of months.
For the amount of fertilizer to use, the rule of thumb is to apply no more than one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn in a single feeding. How this translates into the exact fertilizer amount depends on the percentage of nitrogen in the fertilizer. If you use a fertilizer with a high percentage of nitrogen, such as 30-0-4, you will need less fertilizer than when using a 24-0-5 fertilizer. Always follow the directions on the fertilizer label.
The only way to know for sure how much fertilizer your lawn needs is to do a soil test in a specialized laboratory . Everything else is mere guesswork and overdoing the fertilizer can be more detrimental to the lawn than using no fertilizer at all. While you can fix an overfertilized lawn, in the absence of a soil test, being a minimalist is the safest approach to avoid problems in the first place.
Tips For Fertilizing Your Lawn
Lawn fertilizers come in a variety of NPK ratios, so its important to test your soil to figure out which fertilizer ratio will work best. You can get cheap soil test kits at gardening centres or online. Some gardening centres will run soil tests for you. Granular fertilizers last longer, but also take longer to work compared to the more expensive liquid fertilizer. Take note of the weather forecast to avoid fertilizing before a heavy rainfall. Too much rain will wash the fertilizer away.
Fertilizer Is Plant Food
You may have heard, or even come to believe, that fertilizer is plant food. Plants create their own food through the process of photosynthesis. The trouble with this lawn fertilizer myth is that when people believe their fertilizer is food, they assume that if their lawn is not healthy that it must not be eating enough. That can lead to further misconceptions including the unnecessary addition of more fertilizer when thats not whats really needed. Fertilizer will assist lawns in natural processes that lead to better health, but its not food.
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What Happens If You Dont Fertilize Lawn
Over time, this can deplete the nutrients your grass needs, but fertilizing can replace those nutrients and let your grass grow strong and healthy. If you don’t fertilize and the soil in your lawn does not provide enough nutrients, weak turf growth opens up room for weeds and pests that can damage your lawn.
The Higher The Numbers On The Bag The Better
Its a common lawn fertilizer myth that fertilizers with higher numbers in the analysis are better. For instance, a bag with the numbers 36-10-5 is better than a 21-3-10. Some homeowners know that nitrogen is what makes their lawn green and they automatically assume that first higher numbers is better. But that ratio just represents the percentage of Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium and what really matters is the application rate. Thats a complex issue that lawn care companies figure out. Dont just assume that a higher number means an automatically greener lawn. Unfortunately, its not that simple.
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Apply Grass Fertilizer Correctly
Now you’re ready to apply. Feeding the lawn is as simple as mowing it, and as easy as walking at your normal steady pace. Just follow these guidelines for easy application and even coverage.
If youre using a broadcast spreader, feed the entire perimeter of your lawn first. Engage the side-shield, which blocks off one side of the spreader to keep the product on the lawn and out of gardening beds and off driveways and sidewalks. Next, fill in the middle by turning off the side-shield feature and walking back and forth in straight lines. To get even coverage, overlap slightly on each pass by moving over 2 steps before you begin the pass.
When using a drop spreader, start by applying 2 header strips at opposite ends of the lawn to create a turning area. Next, fill in the rest of the lawn by applying the fertilizer back and forth in straight lines perpendicular to your header strips. To ensure you get even coverage, be sure to overlap the wheel tracks by about half a foot .
After youve finished feeding your lawn, return any unused product to the bag and store it for future use.
When Should You Fertilize
Early summer and fall are the best times to fertilize. Fall fertilization increases winter hardiness of the grass and provides nutrients, especially potassium, which makes turf stronger. The specific time of day you fertilize depends on weather conditions, and fertilizers shouldnt be applied if rain is forecast within the next 24 hours. Always read the directions on the bag carefully before applying any fertilizer.
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Can I Fertilize My Lawn Every 2 Weeks
Applying a fertilizer every two weeks isnt recommended as this will likely lead to problems such as lawn burn, excessive grass growth, and pollution to waterways.
A natural way of feeding your lawn every two weeks would be to leave the grass clippings on the lawn surface when mowing your grass. The grass clippings contain low nutrient levels that will slowly be absorbed by the soil as they naturally decompose and get eaten by earthworms. These wont burn the lawn or cause excessive growth. You might have to scarify your lawn more often due to this additional organic material being present, however, its recommended that you should do this every late summer or early fall/autumn anyway.
Most synthetic fertilizers are not recommended to be applied every 2 weeks, due to their night nutrient content.
For U.S. based gardeners, we have found that Extreme Grass Growth Booster *, is the only popular lawn feed on the market that can be applied once every 4 weeks to a lawn.
For U.K. gardeners, we have found that Empathy Supreme Green* , is the only popular fertilizer on the market that can be applied once every 4 weeks to a lawn.
*Make sure to follow the instructions on the packet to ensure application frequency before spreading this on your grass.
The recommended frequencies of fertilizer application can be found in the tables further down in this article.
How Often Should I Fertilize My Lawn
Adding fertilizer to your lawn is one of the main ways to ensure that your grass is as healthy as possible. Throughout each growing season, your grass will slowly deplete its nutrient levels and these should be replenished manually. The trick in performing this task is to know how often you should fertilize your lawn.
Knowing how regularly to apply fertilizer to your lawn depends on the time of year. During late spring and early summer, your lawn will need to fertilize your lawn more frequently than during the late summer and early fall/autumn. This is because your lawn is more active during the spring and early summer and will be able to withstand more frequent applications of feed.
The rate of grass growth will slow during the late summer and early fall/autumn so, therefore, the lawn will require fewer nutrients.
This article contains two tables, one for U.S. gardeners and the other for U.K. gardeners, that list the most popular fertilizers. The tables refer to fertilizers that are designed to be applied at different times of the year.
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Using A Handheld Broadcast Spreader
A handheld broadcast spreader works well for fertilizing small lawn areas. Walk evenly and slowly, and be sure to overlap distribution patterns slightly with each pass. A small spreader like this also works really well when you have shady areas in your lawn that require a different fertilizer rate than the sunny sections. Some fertilizers combine an herbicide with the lawn food. These products are sold as weed-and-feed lawn care products and are applied using a lawn spreader.
Why Lawn Fertilization Is Important
Lawn fertilizers are made of the three major nutrients nitrogen , phosphorous , and potassium in various combinations and concentrations. Because nitrogen is the key nutrient for leaf growth, the ratio of nitrogen in lawn fertilizer is always the highest. Phosphorus is important for root growth, and potassium helps with water and nutrient absorption, but their numbers are always lower because most soils already contain enough or most of those two nutrients.
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How To Fertilize Your Lawn For Beginners In 5 Easy Steps
Fertilizer is an essential component of any healthy lawn.
While it may sound simple, theres actually quite a few things that go into choosing and applying fertilizer. For this reason, its not a good idea to just pick any fertilizer bag in the store.
To help you each step of the way, heres how to fertilize your lawn to get lush green grass.
What Happens If You Over
Whatever you do, dont throw caution to wind and fertilize your lawn just because you can. When using synthetic fertilizers, over-fertilization can actually do more damage than if you didnt fertilize at all. Greensphere explains that too much fertilizer will cause a growth spurt which the root system of your lawn just cant keep up with that means your grass will struggle to take in the water and nutrients it requires.
Over-fertilization will also increase the nitrogen and salt levels in the soil to the point where it can kill the grass. The result is yellowing patches of dead grass across your lawn, aka fertilizer burn. If youre guilty of over-fertilizing and the damage is already done, you will need to give your lawn time for the soil levels to recover. But, there are steps you can take to help things along.
According to The Spruce , you should first remove any excess fertilizer as soon as possible and distribute what remains across your lawn. Then saturate your yard with water to dilute it apply about an inch a day for a week, or until you see your grass is recovering. Any areas of dead grass will also need reseeding once the soil has regained its levels you can use a soil test kit to keep an eye on its progress during this time. Check our guide on how to plant grass seed for more details on this.
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Use The Right Spreader
When applying lawn fertilizers, always use a lawn spreader. Never spread product by hand! A broadcast spreader with a side-shield feature like the EdgeGuard® feature is great for most lawns. This makes application along the lawn’s perimeter easy by shutting off half the spreader flow, so product is only applied on the lawn and not on non-lawn areas like the driveway, sidewalk, or landscaping. A drop spreader is another option for small spaces because the application area is much narrower. Learn more about which spreader is right your yard .
Fill the spreader hopper with your lawn fertilizer, then set the spreader to the recommended setting listed on the product package. If the product package does not provide a spreader setting, it is not intended for lawn use.
When To Feed Your Lawn
In Canada, where cool-season grass types like Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and fescues are dominant, youll want to fertilize your lawn twice in the spring and once again in the fall. Each feeding should be spaced at least 6 to 8 weeks apart. If your cool-season lawn is still green and actively growing in the summer, you can continue to give it lawn fertilizer during the summer months . However, if your grass goes dormant during summer heat and drought, temporarily stop feeding until it greens up and starts to grow again in the early fall.
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Does Lawn Fertilizer Need To Be Watered In
Watering-In Standard FertilizerAll fertilizers should be watered-in. This ensures that the product will be washed into the soil and become available to the grass through the roots. It’s important to water-in with enough waterâbut not too much. … The best way to water-in fertilizer is to do it naturally, with rain.
How Often Do You Have To Wait Between Fertilizer Applications
Fertilizers with a higher nutrient content will mean that you need to wait longer between applications in comparison to lawn fertilizer with a lower nutrient content. Some fertilizers can be applied once every four weeks whereas some you will need to wait as long as twelve weeks before you feed your lawn.
Knowing how long you will need to wait between applications will differ between the specific lawn fertilizer you have purchased.
A good tip to ensure that you dont over-fertilize your lawn is to make a note on a calendar the date you applied the lawn food. Read the instructions on your chosen fertilizer to see when the manufacturer recommends reapplying the feed. Then workout when the feed should be reapplied and add this date to your calendar.
Alternatively, set a reminder on your smartphone to prevent over-feeding.
The recommended frequencies of fertilizer application can be found in the tables further down in this article.
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How Often Should Fertilizer Be Applied
The answer to this question depends on several factors. As a rule of thumb, fertilizing a lawn twice a year is sufficient when applying a fertilizer with a high nutrient content. The best advice is to choose a single supplier and product for that particular year/growing season and follow the instructions that they provide, paying attention to the recommended frequency of application. Some granular fertilizers will only require two applications per year, as they slowly release their nutritional value to the soil.
Soluble feeds can be applied from anywhere between every three weeks through to annual applications depending on the product chosen.
Working out how often to apply fertilizers is tricky, so we have created two tables below explaining how often to apply popular U.S. and U.K. fertilizers. The tables will help you choose which fertilizers are the best choice depending on what you are looking to achieve or which problems you are looking to overcome with your lawn.
When To Fertilizer Your Lawn In The Fall
The best time to apply your last fertilizer application is between August 15 and October 1. Ideally, your last lawn feeding should take place six to eight weeks before the average first frost in your area. So, if this date is Oct 10, like it is in Minneapolis/St. Paul, you should target August 15 to September 1 as your last application. If you live in Des Moines where the average first hard frost is October 27, then youd want to target your last fertilizer application six to eight weeks earlier, or between September 1 and Sept 15.
Planning fall fertilizer applications around average frost dates gives your lawn plenty of time to absorb all of the nutrients before it enters its dormant stage. Theres no need or benefit to carry over nutrients through the winter.
If you apply fertilizer too late, youre making your lawn stay up past its bedtime when all it wants to do is go to sleep for the year. Late fertilizing of cool-season lawn grasses will keep it actively growing when frigid weather, snow and ice usher in winter, potentially causing winter kill and disease issues next spring.
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When To Apply Popular Uk Fertilizers
Below is a table detailing how often to apply popular U.K. lawn fertilizers such as Miracle-Gro Evergreen and Westland. Please note that some of the fertilizers below contain weedkiller. These can be applied to any type of grass.
Please note that the table below includes Amazon Affiliate links.
*NPK = Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium
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A day or two before applying fertilizer, water your lawn thoroughly. After grass dries, apply fertilizer. Then lightly water again. This second watering is vitally important, because it washes fertilizer off grass blades and into soil. You can also time fertilizer application between rainfalls to let rain wash fertilizer into soil. Just be sure you don’t fertilize before a downpour, or you may wind up with fertilizer washing away, especially if your lawn slopes. Avoid applying fertilizer during a drought when a lawn has browned or withered from lack of moisture.
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Do I Need To Fertilize My Lawn Every Year Yes And Here Are Some Tips On How To Do It Correctly
Your soil supplies some of the nutrients that turf grass needs but most soils are not able to provide all of them during the entire growing season. A healthy and actively growing lawn uses a great deal of energy. Fertilizer helps your lawn stay healthy by promoting new leaf and root growth. Read on to learn more about why it is important to fertilize your lawn.
Why Lawns Need Nutrient Replacement
Very often the cycling of nutrients is cut short on home lawns. This is partially due to necessary maintenance practices needed to produce quality turf. To complicate things further, some turf species and certain turf situations, such as sports turf, require intense maintenance and added nutrients to meet the high level of expectation. This requires the removal of fallen leaves, twigs and branches, and even grass clippings, that would otherwise have returned nutrients back to the soil. Those lost nutrients must be replaced.
What is Fertilizer?
Can I Avoid Fewer Mud Puddles and Patches?
The use of fertilizer will strengthen your grass roots so they can quickly absorb more water than unhealthy roots. This firms your soil and lessens the chances of water pooling to form messy mud puddles and bare patches.
Will Fertilizers Help with Weed Control?
A thick lush lawn with strong roots can choke out weeds by preventing them from taking a foothold in the first place.
Can Fertilizers Encourage Fewer Pest?
A Few Tips to Remember Before Fertilizing
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