Picking The Right Fertilizer
Picking the right fertilizer depends on your lawn type and your end goal is. If you want to make your lawn greener and healthier, a product like The Andersons 16-0-8 Fertilizer with Humic DG is great for you. It contains methylene-urea that will give your lawn an even feed over eight to 10 weeks. Its also safe for pets.
What Are The Main Nutrients That Soil Needs To Be Healthy
The main nutrients that the soil needs in large quantities are:
- Carbon : Plants get this nutrient through carbon dioxide in the air
- Hydrogen : The soil gets this necessary element from water
- Oxygen : This element is transmitted to plants through water and air
- Nitrogen : Nitrogen helps plants to make the protein they need to produce new tissue, but this element is rather rare in nature.
- Phosphorus : Phosphorus stimulates good root development and promotes the active growth of plants and flowers. To absorb phosphorus, the majority of plants need soil pH to be between 6.5 and 6.8.
- Potassium : Potassium helps strengthen plants’ ability to resist diseases and other stresses
- Other secondary elements such as calcium, sulfur, and magnesium are also needed in smaller quantities to ensure the proper development of plants.
Since we cannot rely on nature to provide all the essential elements, some have to be added by you or even better, one of Vertdures experts. When you buy fertilizer, you will notice that the content of the N-P-K elements is indicated on each product. For example, if you buy a bag of fertilizer and the bag reads 12-2-6, it means that your fertilizer contains 12% nitrogen, 2% phosphorus, and 6% potassium.
How Often Should I Fertilize A New Lawn
Dont fertilize a new lawn until the grass is actively growing and you have mowed the lawn at least three times. Then use a fertilizer that will promote strong roots without a surge in grass growth while keeping the lawn weeds at bay.
For U.S. based gardeners, fertilize your lawn with Scotts Turf Builder Starter Food for New Grass Plus Weed Preventer .
U.K. gardeners should use a lawn fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro EverGreen Premium Plus Weed Control Lawn .
These fertilizers will slowly release nutrients into the lawn. You will only need to apply these once every 12 weeks while the lawn becomes established.
Its also worth mentioning that if you apply a crabgrass preemergent fertilizer or a regular weed and feed, ensure that you have waited four weeks before sowing your new grass seed.
Read Also: How Do I Know If My Grass Is Dead
Tips For Watering Your Lawn The Right Way13 Photos
Learn the ins and outs of lawn irrigation, including expert tips for efficient watering.
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.
How To Fertilize Your Lawn
When considering fertilizers, choose a slow-release variety. This will feed your plants slowly over time instead of the short burst of nutrition that quick release fertilizer provides. Quality slow-release fertilizers will provide proper balanced nutrition over time to develop a healthier plant and root system that combats heat, cold, drought and other stresses. Organic fertilizers, like compost, also add naturally-occurring material to the soil, which is important for air circulation, good water retention and drainage.
Recommended Reading: Average Cost For Trugreen Lawn Care
How Often Is Too Often To Fertilize The Lawn
Reapplying slow-release fertilizers before six or eight weeks elapse while reapplying fast-release fertilizers before four weeks monthly is excessive and unnecessary and can damage your lawn.
If you want to keep feeding your lawn after the first application, reapply slow-release fertilizers after eight weeks and fast release after four weeks.
Best Times To Fertilize A Lawn
The right time to fertilize your lawn is influenced by the type of grass you have. Much of the country has either cool-season or warm-season grass, with some areas combining the two types for a more versatile lawn. Its important to identify your grass type and plan your lawn care schedule around its needs. Below is a quick overview of which seasons are best for fertilization based on your lawn type.
Read Also: True Green Prices
How Should I Apply Fertilizers
Expanding fertilizer can be hard and time-consuming, not to mention spending on necessary equipment. Too much of it can cause the loss of grass, not enough, and you will not enjoy all its beauty. Finally, uneven spreading can disfigure your lot by giving it a bad haircut look. We strongly recommend that you hire a professional. If you decide to extend your fertilizer yourself, here are some tips to follow to apply your fertilizer.
- Make sure you choose the best spreader for your lawn. For granular lawn fertilizers or compost, it is recommended to use a rotary spreader or a gravity spreader. For liquid fertilizer, be sure to follow the product instructions for the best results.
- Apply a grass fertilizer around the perimeter. Feeding around the perimeter first will allow you to fertilize the rest of the lawn without worrying about missing any of the edges.
- Fill the middle. In order to obtain a uniform fertilization, it is best to apply the fertilizer in two crossed passages.
If you live near a watercourse or lake, it is recommended not to mow grass or to apply fertilizers near watercourses to reduce the risk of pollution. If you live near a lake, it is best to consult the standards of your municipality.
In conclusion, to ensure optimal fertilization and therefore good lawn growth, you must make sure you choose the right fertilizer and use the right amount at the right time of the year and in the right conditions. Not that simple right?
Why Fertilize Your Lawn In Fall The Best Fall Month And Time Of Day To Fertilize
Summer heat is stressful on our lawns. Falls cooler temperatures provide the perfect setting for lawn to regain strength.
Fall is the best and most important time to fertilize your lawn because:
- Falls morning dew delivers moisture to help turf absorb the fertilizer.
- The grass has a chance to build stamina before a chilly winter.
- Supporting root growth in fall leads to a healthier, greener lawn in spring.
While fall is naturally good for feeding our lawn, you can deliver an extra oomph by fertilizing as best as you can, too.
Read Also: How To Get Rid Of Wild Violets In Your Lawn
How Do You Know How Often To Fertilize Lawns
There are several important factors that come into play when youre trying to understand lawn fertilization frequency. These include:
- Lawn fertilizer application times
- The type of fertilizer you use
- How you apply your fertilizer
- How frequently you water your lawn
Ill discuss each of these points in some detail below.
The Best Time Of Day To Fertilize A Lawn
First of all, you have to consider which time of the year is perfect for fertilizing the lawn based on your grass type. Afterward, you have to consider the best time of the day to start fertilizing.
Before you start planning the fertilizer schedule, remember that sweltering and sunny weather is not ideal because high heat can cause the grass to dry out completely, and the fertilizer may burn the grass.
Thats why the ideal day time will be afternoon when the sun is high in the sky.
You May Like: How Much Do You Pay Someone To Mow Your Lawn
How Soon Can I Fertilize A Lawn After Already Fertilizing
Related Articles
A well-kept lawn adds greatly to the charm and beauty of a garden. While being attractive on its own, a well-kept lawn is also the perfect setting for shrubs, ornamental plants, flowers and other garden features. Fertilizing the grass regularly helps to maintain dense, lush growth, and a monthly dose of a 10-5-10 fertilizer is ideal during active summer growth. However, the type of fertilizer you use and the season can determine how often you need to feed the lawn.
How To Aerate Your Lawn
Lawn aeration encourages deep roots, resulting in a healthy lawn. Learn how to give your grass a breath of fresh air with these aerating tips.
If you plan to aerate your lawn, follow up that task with fertilizing. Lawns benefit from soil aeration, which creates literal holes in soil and exposes the root zone of grass plants. These holes allow water, fertilizer and air direct access to grass roots. For the best aeration, use a core aerator that pulls actual plugs of soil from the lawn . If you rent this machine, know that it’s heavy and requires a strong pair of arms to handle it. Many riding mowers also have core aerator attachments. In small grassy areas, plunging a digging fork into soil accomplishes the task quickly and inexpensively. Aerate whenever the thatch layer is more than one-half-inch thick.
Also Check: Trugreen Cost Lawn Care
Should I Fertilize My Lawn Before Or After Mowing
Ideally, youll want to mow and rake before fertilizing so that excess lawn waste is removed, allowing the fertilizer to have an easier time reaching the soil. Aerating your soil before fertilizing can also help. When fertilizing a lawn, it is best to apply fertilizer after the lawn has been mowed so it has a few days to absorb the fertilizer.
Winter Lawn Care Advice: December
In terms of lawn care your routine, things will really slow down around now. Frosts are more likely to fall and there may even be snow so try to avoid walking on your lawn as this can damage it. When the lawn is not frozen, or very wet, continue to keep it free from fallen leaves and other debris to reduce the risk of lawn diseases. Although the grass is hardly growing, there is still plenty to do around the garden like clean out your pots, tidy up the greenhouse and planting hardy seedlings for next year. It may be worth thinking about a greenhouse heater to keep your indoor pots and seedlings warm over the winter.
Also Check: How To Kill Creeping Charlie In Lawn
Read Also: Killing Clover In Flower Beds
Can I Fertilize My Lawn Twice In Spring
If you want to apply slow-release nitrogen in late May or early June, you need to make your first application by early April. Fertilizer applications should not be made on the same day as the last frost date of the previous year. If you applyfertilizer in the spring, you will need to wait until the following spring to apply the next years fertilizer.
Fertilize For Your Plants
There is a need for fertilizers because your plants need nutrients to grow and the fertilizer gives just that. After some time, your soil might get low on nutrients and fertilizers can be of use. Fertilizers can give your soil the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, are only a few that your lawn needs. Fertilizing your lawn is absolutely necessary to keep a lawn healthy and lush.
You can do something productive as you study your options. You can look into some of the available brands of fertilizers in your local market. Brands offer respective results that you are supposed to have when choosing them. But generally, they bring the same desired result.
Don’t Miss: How Much To Pay Teenager For Yard Work 2019
How Much Is Too Much
This is something that you have to figure on your own as each lawn is different. There are a few things that you should consider when applying weed and feed to your lawn:
- Ingredients present in the weed and feed
- Frequency of weed growth in your lawn
- Soil type and texture
To determine the right amount of weed and feed for your lawn, you need to know your lawn area, the kind of product you are using, and the application frequency. Otherwise, you can wait for the lawn to discolor and realize that you are probably putting too much product.
Recommended Reading: How Often Should I Water My Lawn In Colorado
Uneven Excessive Application Of Herbicides
Granular weed and feed products are applied to the entire lawn, not merely to areas of weeds, which results in herbicides being applied where they are not needed. The mixture of fertilizer and herbicide is incompatible because one ingredient should be applied to the entire lawn, and one is intended for problem spots. In most lawns, broadleaf weeds like dandelions usually occupy less than five or 10 per cent of the area.
Gary Fish, an environmental specialist at the Maine Board of Pesticide Control, who used to work with Chemlawn before it merged with Tru Green, believes the combined weed n feed products, whether for pre-emergent fertilizer or for weeds, are unnecessary and harmful to the environment. Fish said weed n feed products use 20 to 30 times more pesticide than is needed.
When we give lawns more food than they need, the excess fertilizers end up in the water because plants simply cant absorb as much as we think they want.
You May Like: Rgs Humic Acid
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.
When And How To Fertilize New Grass
If youre starting a new lawn from seed, sod or plugs or youre doing bare lawn spot repair a starter fertilizer helps grass get the perfect start. Unlike established lawns, new grass benefits from extra phosphorus, an essential plant nutrient that supports strong, deep roots. Some states only allow phosphorus-containing lawn fertilizers on new grass, so check with your county extension office if youre unsure.
On fertilizer products, phosphorus is the middle number in the N-P-K ratio usually 0 in normal lawn fertilizers. But with Pennington UltraGreen Starter Fertilizer 22-23-4, you get an ideal ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, plus other essential lawn nutrients, including iron for deep green color. This premium fertilizer blend starts feeding new grass immediately and keeps feeding it for up to three months.
Always follow guidelines for the best time to plant grass seed for your region and grass type, then fertilize accordingly. For seed or plugs, apply fertilizer with a regular lawn spreader before you plant. If youre starting a lawn with sod, fertilize after your sod is in place.
With any new lawn area, avoid using crabgrass preventer fertilizers or weed & feed fertilizers within four weeks before planting time. After seeding, wait until your new grass gets established and youve mowed your lawn at least three times.
Weed & feed fertilizers kill tough weeds and feed your lawn.
Also Check: Which Lawn Weed Killer Is The Best
Read Also: How Much Can I Make Mowing Lawns
What Types Of Fertiliser Should You Use
There are many different types of fertiliser on offer. Most lawn fertilisers will contain nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus as base ingredients but can contain other trace element nutrients that can be beneficial for lawns. You need to be careful not to buy cheap fertilisers that contain too much nitrogen. Having too much nitrogen in a fertiliser will very quickly improve the quality of your lawn but will not hold up in the long term. Generally you can buy fertilisers in granular or liquid forms and options are available for different soil types . Wiltshire based lawn care provider, Lawntech, recommends their own mix of granular fertiliser that includes a blend of nutrients including iron, magnesium and pure hydrated manure. A professional lawn care technician will be able to identify the right proportion of active ingredients needed for the time of year and type of lawn.
Best Time To Fertilize Lawn
Fertilizing in the morning allows the soil to take in the most nutrients, soak in the morning dew and take advantage of cooler temperatures. Thats the best time. Do not apply fertilizer on an abnormally hot day, not even in the morning. Wait until the weather cools back down to a normal temperature.
You can mow anytime after fertilizing with a granular treatment. With a liquid treatment, wait a day or two.
Shutterstock
Also Check: How To Get Rid Of Grass Gnats
Does It Matter What Time Of Day You Fertilize Your Grass
Time of day doesnt matter. But what does matter is the temperature. If its above 90 degrees, then avoid fertilizing. This is because you could burn your lawn the hotter it is outside, the faster things will move through the soil.
