How High To Cut St Augustine Grass In Florida
St. Augustine thrives best when cut to 34 inches in height. This allows St. Augustine to become a thick, weed-preventing ground cover. St. Augustine grass cut too short will look sparse and leave exposed soil where weeds can take root.
- When St. Augustine is green and growing, mow grass to 34 inches in height.
- Mow higher if you are battling weeds. Longer grass will shade weeds and crowd them out.
- Never mow dormant St. Augustine. This can damage or kill the grass.
In North Florida, where St. Augustine enters winter dormancy, do not mow in winter. Once the grass greens up, mow at a height of 2.5 inches through April. This will help get rid of dead growth. In May, raise mowing height to 34 inches and continue to mow at this height until grass goes dormant in winter.
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How Often To Fertilize Your Lawn
A typical lawn care program in Idaho Falls includes five fertilization treatments, two of which include some form of weed control, usually a pre-emergent herbicide in spring and a post-emergent herbicide in summer.
The full, five-step program is crucial to a truly healthy lawn.
One fertilization treatment each year really doesnt do enough to help give the lawn the nutrients it needs you wouldnt notice a real positive difference.
It takes multiple applications. Even four treatments are just Okay. That fifth treatment, which is usually done around late October, is one of the most important for winterizing the lawn and helping it come back rejuvenated the following spring.
Also, consistency is key with turf fertilization. Caring for the lawn one year and then ignoring it the next doesnt mean you wont have problems such as weeds slowly start to creep up. A lawn consistently fertilized will slowly get to a prime and healthy growing place.
How Do I Know How Often To Fertilize Lawns
If you fertilize too little you wont feed your lawn with the nutrients it needs, and it may turn brittle and yellow. Apply too much fertilizer too early or late, and you can burn the blades.
Most lawns will do fine with fertilizing one or two times a year, in the early spring and the fall, but this depends on the type of lawn you have. Some people do it four times per year. In this case, we recommend keeping in mind the big holidays to do it: around Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Halloween.
Depending on your lawn, you can fertilize up to once every four or five weeks if using synthetic fertilizers. If you have a slow-release organic fertilizer, you can space out the applications for eight to 10 weeks.
Avoid fertilizing in the peak temperatures of the summer. The heat and blazing sun together with the fertilizers can damage your grass.
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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.
Mulch Your Grass Clippings
If youre tired of bagging grass while you mow, weve got good news. To help your lawn stay greener year-round, you can leave the grass clippings on your lawn. When grass clippings break down, they provide your lawn with beneficial nutrients. While you dont need to buy a new mower blade, it doesnt hurt to install a mulching blade so that the grass is cut into smaller pieces. Learn more about recycling grass clippings here.
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Using A Broadcast Or Rotary Spreader
A broadcast or rotary spreader works well when you’re fertilizing larger lawn areas. Before filling the hopper, make sure it’s closed. It’s a good idea to fill it on a tarp, so you can easily gather any spilled fertilizer. Apply fertilizer around the perimeter of the lawn first, and then start to move back and forth across turf in an orderly pattern. Overlap application strips slightly to ensure that you cover the whole lawn evenly with fertilizer.
Rotary Spreader With Fertilizer
Tip: Before filling the hopper of a rotary spreader, make sure its closed. Also, consider filling the hopper over a tarp so you can easily gather any spilled fertilizer.
©Scripps Networks, LLC
Scripps Networks, LLC
Tip: Before filling the hopper of a rotary spreader, make sure its closed. Also, consider filling the hopper over a tarp so you can easily gather any spilled fertilizer.
Nitrogen is every lawn’s most important ingredient, and each type of grass demands different amounts to display peak growth and performance. How often you fertilize affects not only lawn appearance, but also maintenance level. The more you fertilize, the more you’ll have to mow, for instance.
More: How to Choose the Right Fertilizer
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Can You Fertilize Every Week
About every four to six weeks after planting, its recommended to applyfertilizer in clay soil. For plants growing in organic soil thats rich with organic matter, only fertilize a little at a time. Fertilize your plants in the spring and early summer when the soil is warm and moist. If youre planting in an area with a lot of shade, you may want to wait until the fall before fertilizing.
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.
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How Often To Fertilize A Lawn
Differenttypes of grasses have their own growing season and you must make a differentfertilizer schedule for different types.
Schedule for cool-season grass
Cool-season grasses are actively grown in spring and fall when the average temperature fluctuates between 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. You have to follow heavy fertilizer in fall and light fertilizer in early spring. You can use either slow-release or fast-release fertilizer.
You must apply these fertilizers before the very high temperature in summer when the grass will remain in dormant conditions. One pound of N-rich fertilizer is very effective for 500 square feet area of your lawn for cool-season grasses. Special cool-season fertilizers are available in the local market which facilitates your lawn to protect your grass during the winter season.
Schedule for warm-season grass
Warm-season grasses are actively grown when the average temperature fluctuates between 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit that means in late spring and summer. You might notice that your lawn grass turns green in the late spring and this is the best time to fertilize your lawn. Slow or fast release fertilizer can be used for these warm-season grasses.
Best time to fertilize lawn before or after the rain?
On the other hand, after heavy rainfall fertilization, gives an effective result for your lawn. It helps to reduce the chance of fertilizing running off that can not pollute near water sources and rest environment clean.
Should You Fertilize Your Lawn
There are many things to consider before answering this question. Not everyone’s goals and circumstances are the same. So the answer will vary from individual to individual.
If you want a great-looking lawn, and if you have the time, energy, and money to achieve that objective, then the answer is unequivocally yes. Proper fertilization is one factor that can make one lawn in the neighborhood stand out above the rest. Which brings us to the question, How often should you fertilize your lawn? Because, if you truly care about showcasing your lawn, you will want to fertilize it more than someone who is content with a patchy lawn. For the ultimate manicured lawn, you should fertilize it two or three times per year.
But not everyone needs a lush lawn. There are homeowners who value low maintenance over having the showiest lawn on the block. There are some homeowners who are organic gardeners, who shy away from using chemical fertilizers. Homemade compost can be applied to a lawn, instead, but there is work involved in making compost. Gardeners may value what compost is available too highly to waste it on lawns rather than on vegetable gardens. And there are some who simply hold lawns in low esteem for them, grass-covered areas are utilitarian, functioning merely as spaces for walking from point A to point B in the landscape.
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How Is Fertilizer Applied
In order to get your grass ready to receive fertilizer, its important to mow the lawn one or two days in advance. On the day of application, check your fertilizer brand to determine whether its a drop spreader or a broadcast spreader. With drop spreaders, you should apply two distinct strips across the ends of your lawn and then apply back and forth between the strips, each application slightly overlapping the last. With broadcast spreaders, you should first apply on the outside of the lawn and slowly work your way in, also overlapping each application as you proceed.
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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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.
When To Put Fertilizer On Lawns
All lawns need fertilizer in early spring when the grass begins to green up. Your fertilization schedule for the rest of the season depends on the type of grass in your lawn, the type of fertilizer you use, and your climate. Most lawn seed is a mixture of several different types of grasses, and both spring and fall fertilization are appropriate.
The label on a bag of lawn fertilizer will recommend a schedule based on the type of fertilizer it contains. The label is your best guide to how often to apply the product and how much to use. As long as you dont overdo it and avoid fertilizing in the hottest part of summer, your lawn should thrive.
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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.
Milorganite 0636 Organic Nitrogen Fertilizer
- Unlike most other slow-release fertilizers, youll start seeing results after about two weeks of application.
- It contains iron that helps grow a lush green, thick St. Augustine grass.
- Being a slow-release Nitrogen fertilizer, it wont burn your lawn.
The reason why Milogranite organic nitrogen fertilizer is great for St. Augustine lawns is its slow release nature. If youve tried another lawn feed before and ended up burning your lawn, I would recommend this particular product.
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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.
How Often To Fertilize Lawn
Over-fertilizing is a thing. If once a year is right for your lawn, stick with that and dont get carried away. Fertilizer can be a valuable tool to keep a lawn healthy, dense and looking great, but it can also create environmental concerns if not used responsibly. Follow the label instructions on your fertilizer as each product has unique specifications and needs.
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What Happens If You Apply Fertilizer To Wet Grass
Fertilizer applied to grass that is damp or wet but not soggy will be just as effective as fertilizer applied to dry grass. It will lose up to 80% of its effectiveness if it is applied to grass that is in soil that has standing water on top of it. If you apply fertilizer to wet grass, be sure to apply it in a well-ventilated area.
Granular Fertilizers Vs Liquid Fertilizers
Granular lawn feed as the name suggests is composed of granules of fertilizer. Liquid fertilizer on the other hand consists of a water soluble particles that mix with water to form a liquid solution.
Liquid fertilizers get absorbed almost immediately, directly through the roots and leaves. And Depending on the quality of the lawn beforehand, you may need to apply the liquid fertilizer about once or twice a month.
Some granular fertilizers on the other hand will only require two applications per year, and this is because they release their nutritional value to the soil far more slowly than their liquid fertilizer counterparts.
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When Should You Fertilize Your Lawn
While the late summer is indeed an ideal time to fertilize, the best time to apply your fertilizer will also vary depending on the type of grass you have. According to The Spruce , if you are using a slow-release fertilizer and applying it twice a year: cool-season grasses, which are often found in the Northern territory and include the likes of Kentucky bluegrass, should be fertilized in the late spring, and then again in the early fall. While warm-season grasses, which are found in the south, such as Bermudagrass, should be fertilized six weeks after the last spring frost and again in the late summer.
If you want to apply your fertilizer more regularly though, according to Scotts , best practice is to feed the grass both in early and late spring, as well as in the summer and the fall. So your first feeding would be between February-April, followed by April-June, then June-August and finally August-November. Try to leave 6-8 weeks between each application, and use a soil test regularly to keep an eye on the conditions. We recommend the Luster Leaf rapitest Soil Test Kit ). Make any necessary amendments to your fertilizer and application depending on these results.
