When To Fertilize Your Lawn
What time of year is best to fertilize your lawn depends on what type of grass you have, cool-season or warm-season. This is because the best time to fertilize is the period when the grass in question is growing most actively, and this period is different for cool-season grasses than it is for warm-season grasses. Nonetheless, there’s no one “right” fertilizer schedule. Different people have success doing it in slightly different ways. All that can be suggested is a typical schedule favored by many.
Best Lawn Fertilizer Schedule: How Often To Fertilize A Lawn
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Lawn fertilizer schedule: Fertilization is one of the most important things for your lawn to keep it evergreen and healthy because it supplies all essential nutrients for lawn grass and plants. Sometimes, it may be referred to as the life of your lawn grass. It maintains the desired green color of your lawn. So, for a lawn owner, it is very important to gain some primary knowledge about fertilizer schedules. It is the combined factor of some easy well-known tasks like the proper time of fertilization, the proper amount of fertilizer, and the proper way of fertilization.
If you want to be a lawn expert you must follow the schedule that you have made at the primary level of your lawn. You must make a preplanned schedule of fertilizer that will be convenient for your tasks and will make your work ease. A healthy green lawn largely depends on how you deal with your fertilization schedule. If you have made any mistake in your schedule you can not achieve your desired goal.
If you do care, you can follow the schedule that I am going to tell you in some easy way. First of all, you must give your attention to this article and follow the schedule slowly. Dont be so hurry. So, lets go.
Contents
Non Organic Lawn Fertilization
Non-organic lawn fertilizer has a much higher concentration of nutrients than organic alternatives. It also contains chemicals that increase the effectiveness of the fertilizers by creating uniformity in the soil. Depending on where you live, they are more likely to harm the environment but could be worse for your lawn.
Traditionally, chemical lawn fertilizer remains the most popular choice and is widely available at hardware stores, big-box home improvement centers, and garden shops. They come in many varieties, including early season fertilizers, mid summer fertilizers, and late season turf builder mixes.
Other fertilizers are better suited for flowers or vegetables. Another category contains herbicides, which feed the grass, kill weeds, and prevent weed growth. Pre emergent herbicides are a combination of fertilizer and crabgrass control herbicide applied in the early spring.
This combination product doesn’t have a full feeding of fertilizer. It slightly boosts grass growth and keeps it alive, while the herbicide in the product restricts crabgrass seedling development.
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Fertilizing Your Florida Lawn
When to fertilize your lawn depends on a few things, but the biggest rule is to fertilize only when your lawn is actively growing.
In South Florida, turfgrass grows year-round, while in North and Central Florida, it grows from roughly March or April through September, October, or November.
The maintenance plan you choose also influences when to fertilize. If you choose a higher maintenance plan, youll fertilize more times during the growing season, while a basic plan will require fewer applications.
Look for a fertilizer with at least some slow-release nitrogen, which releases the nitrogen to the grass over an extended period of time. Be sure that it also contains 2% phosphorus or less in accordance with Florida State Law.
How Do You Fertilize Your Lawn In The Spring
Fertilize lightly in early spring with either slow-release or quick-release fertilizer. Time your fertilization schedule with the local area’s recommended seeding and fertilization date. However, unless you’re aerating your lawn or overseeding it with new grass seed, your fertilizing regimen should not be time-sensitive.
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Fertilizing Warm Season Grasses
Warm-season grasses grow best when the temperature range between 80 and 95 degrees, which means their window for growth tends to be a lot narrower than their cool-season counterparts.
Plan on fertilizing this kind of lawn once a year in the spring, which will prep your grass for its relatively fast summer growth.
When And How To Fertilize Your Lawn
In some ways, lawns are a lot like people. Operating at the peak of beauty and performance requires a good diet and proper care. Lush, thick, green lawns depend on properly timed, properly balanced nutrition to look and grow their best. Understanding when and how to fertilize your lawn can help you and your grass stand out from the rest.
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Fertilizing Lawn Before Rain
Its the least effective method to fertilize your lawn within several days of a heavy rain forecast.
As weve already explained, fertilizing before rain is a bad idea for a few reasons heavy rainfall leads to run-off, which carries your newly-added nutrients away from where you applied them. This causes certain areas of your lawn to be either over or under fertilized, leaving it partially or completely malnourished and/or burnt. Another knock-on effect is that the fertilizer ultimately ends up in nearby bodies of water, where it can be harmful to the environment and wildlife.
Most Lawns Only Need Fertilizer Once Or Twice A Year
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With some exceptions, your lawn likely only needs to be fertilized one to three times per year. If thats a surprising number, you might have confused fertilizer with plant food. Its a common misconception, especially among those who are new to lawn care.
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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.
What To Know Before Fertilizing Your Lawn
When you think about lawn care, fertilizer is often seen as optional. But skipping this step could be detrimental to your turf.
Fertilizer is essentially plant food that helps your lawn stay healthy, grow robust root systems, and provides enough nutrients to allow your grass to withstand whatever the growing season throws at it.
The soil provides some nutrients, but typically your grass will need more to grow strong. Proper fertilization reduces weeds and helps them recover from pest and environmental damage. Additionally, it helps promote more profound root growth, as well as healthy grass blade development.
Before fertilizing your lawn, there are a few things you need to know about your turf to provide the correct nutrients.
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How Often You Should Apply Fertilizer To Your Lawn
Though fertilizer has its benefits, you dont want to overdo it. A full feeding is recommended at least 5-6 times per year. You want to feed your lawn when its growing most rapidly. However, you should base the frequency on your climate and the type of grass you have. For example, cool season grasses can be fertilized in late spring, but only if necessary.
Warm season grasses, like Bermuda grass, St. Augustine, zoysia, centipede and buffalo grass, should be fertilized in spring. Depending on the amount of water your grass gets, aim to reapply your fertilizer every 6-8 weeks. Keep a watchful eye on your grass. If it looks thick and green, you can probably skip the feeding. If its starting to look brown or black, give your lawn some TLC.
Fertilizing Lawn After Rain
Depending on the type of fertilizer you use, you can fertilize your lawn within days after a heavy rainfall.
If fertilizing the lawn after rain, you need to wait until the lawn is slightly damp to completely dry before applying your fertilizer. Liquid and organic fertilizers are safe to use when the lawn is slightly damp for most other fertilizer products, you need to give the lawn a chance to dry out before application. Before fertilizing, check the weather forecast and make sure there is no heavy rain forecast with the next few days.
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How To Fertilize Your Lawn In Fall
Should you add lawn fertilizing to your fall to-do list? It depends. Learn what you need to know about fall lawn feeding.
Fall brings a host of favorite activities football, whipping up steamy pots of chili and finding the perfect pumpkin. It’s also the time to start prepping your house and yard for cooler weather to come. In the midst of that flurry of chores, your lawn needs some attention, too. Treating your turf right this fall can help ensure a lush carpet of green next year.
How To Fertilize Your Lawn With Fertilizer
This can be a challenge if you do not have a good understanding of the process. With all of the equipment readily available, it seems very simple.
If you have a deep hole in your ground, you can put a few bags of fertilizer in, spread them out evenly, and watch them go.
However, the phosphorus content and the potassium content of a bag of fertilizer may not be the same. If you are not using a deep hole or a bag, you will have to do a couple of things to compensate for your lack of proper knowledge.
If you want to know the best time to fertilize your lawn, you should never apply fertilizer directly to the grass.
The fertilizer may give off nitrates that will kill the grass. You should never apply fertilizer directly to the soil because the soil will become full of nitrates before you can even apply fertilizer.
Final Verdict on Best Time to Fertilize Lawn
You should fertilize your lawn by spreading a good quality lawn fertilizer will take some effort, but it is enriching. You should make fertilizing your lawn a regular part of your lawn care routine because it will help keep the lawn healthy.
There are many different fertilizers available, and it can be a challenge knowing which one is the right one for your needs.
You should learn about the nutrients contained in various fertilizers and also learn about the differences between organic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers.
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Leave Grass Clippings On Lawn
Another good general lawn practice is to leave the grass clippings on the lawn after mowing. Grass blades left on the lawn act as a natural fertilizer and compost, enriching the soil with nitrogen as they break down.
In addition to this, the grass clippings also act as a mulch to protect your soil and reduce the evaporation of water. Although this may seem counterintuitive for this article, improving your soils water retention in turn helps to reduce soil compaction. This allows your soil to better absorb any fertilizer or treatments you apply to it throughout the year.
When To Fertilize The Lawn In Spring
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Your lawn may be looking a little worse for wear after the winter. As a homeowner, it’s important to have a healthy lawn. Fertilizing your lawn not only makes it healthy but also creates a welcoming first impression.
The best time for the first application is late spring, just as the green lawn is beginning to grow eagerly. In early spring, the grass is putting energy into root development. By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to fertilize at the right time and get your lawn looking lush again in no time.
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Fertilizer Leaching And Runoff Pollutes Nearby Environment
On top of harming your lawn, fertilizing wet grass can also cause problems for the environment and water bodies nearby. When your lawn is wet, the water drains out of your soil towards the nearest body of water. With the water goes all of the substances that your fertilizer contains, polluting nearby ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams. Synthetic fertilizers are the most damaging to the environment, as the chemicals can severely affect aquatic plant life and organisms. Even organic fertilizers can be harmful, as their nutrients can trigger unnatural algae blooms in ponds and lakes.
Should I Fertilize Right Before Winter
Applying Fertilizer Before the First Freeze
Winter is coming. This means your lawn is about to go dormant. Ensure your lawn’s health come spring by applying a fertilizer application to strengthen its root system before the first frost occurs. Read on to learn more about applying a winter lawn fertilizer.
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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.
The Best Time To Fertilize Your Lawn
Fall is a great time to fertilize the lawn. Lawns are hungry now and they will develop most of their root systems during this season.
Labor Day is a good time to fertilize lawns. Lawns are actively growing and this fertilizer promotes vigorous blade growth and stronger root systems.
A soil test is recommended to determine exactly what fertilizer your lawn needs. In most cases, a winterizer fertilizer is recommended. Formulations vary, but most winterizer fertilizers are approximately 25-3-10 . Winterizer fertilizers provide a little extra potash compared to summer fertilizers. This boost of potash promotes winter hardiness.
Fertilizers with slow-release nitrogen are valuable since they provide a consistent release of nitrogen to the growing plants. They are more expensive, however.
Follow the rates on the fertilizer package. A standard rate is 1 pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. For reference, one pound of actual nitrogen is in four pounds of a 25% nitrogen fertilizer . Excess nitrogen can burn the turf.
Reduced rates can be used in shady spots. They grow more slowly and only need about half as much fertilizer as sunny spots.
To prevent creating dark green stripes in your yard, apply half the fertilizer going back and forth in one direction and the other half going perpendicular to that. For example, apply half going north-south and the other half going east-west.
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Feeding Lawn In The Fall
Fertilizing in the fall is the best time to feed your lawn. The main reason for this is that fertilization can help prevent crabgrass from germinating. It also helps strengthen winter root growth. So if you want to learn how to kill crabgrass and remain with a healthy lawn, then try feeding your lawn in the spring.
Cool-season turf grasses, such as bluegrass and tall fescue, do not necessarily need fertilizing in the fall. They will benefit from it if they were underfed during the growing season. But it’s best to feed them in the spring when their root systems are stronger and more developed.
If you fertilize your lawn in the fall, do not wait until it gets cold. It’s best to apply a slow-release fertilizer in early October. This will give the nutrients enough time to seep into the root zone before winter.
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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When To Fertilize Warm
When to fertilize depends on what kind of grass you have. You want to time fertilizing so it occurs just before grass enters its peak growing phase. If you live in southern areas where lawns feature warm-season grasses, fertilize turf in late spring or early summer, just before grass kicks into high gear. Make a second application in late summer. If your warm-season lawn goes dormant in winter, don’t fertilize after the first of September.
Warm season grass types include bahia, Bermuda, St. Augustine, centipede and zoysia. Warm season grasses typically thrive in frost-free areas and grow best at temps of 75 degrees to 90 degrees.
When And How To Fertilize New Grass
If you’re starting a new lawn from seed, sod or plugs or you’re 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 you’re 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 you’re 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 you’ve mowed your lawn at least three times.
Weed & feed fertilizers kill tough weeds and feed your lawn.
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