When To Start Fertilizing A Spring Lawn (feat My Kikuyu Lawn!)
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Do you know when to start fertilizing your lawn in the Spring? Most people don't really know so they guess what product to use and when to treat the grass. There's actually a lot of nuance to getting the timing right.
In this video I explain who should fertilize their lawn in early Spring and what people should wait while also touching on the types of Spring fertilizers that should be used depending on local conditions.
Notes: My lawn in this video is mostly a mixture of Kikuyu grass, fescue, and annual bluegrass. I'm slowly eradicating the cool season grasses and weeds this Spring to show how a Southern California lawn owner can fix a Kikuyu lawn without taking on a major renovation.
You can see my Kikuyu lawn repair playlist here: • Southern California La...
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► Looking for suggestions for Spring fertilizers? You can see my products pages for my thoughts, recommendations, and reviews: turfmechanic.co....
► If you want to price out the exact fertilizer I used on my lawn this season then see the Grass Genie page here: turfmech.link/...
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10 10 10 on March 10 every year...been doing it since I was a kid with my dad and I'm almost 44 in Michigan
nothing wrong with having a well defined plan! Considering it's a 10-10-10 and you are up north I'd assume it's mostly synthetic Nitrogen making it all available for the early season grass in that cold northern soil.
I live in NJ through my experiments I've learned to let the grass struggle a bit .....I had some humic and a little root growth stimulator and let the grass do its thing with root growth late april or may is when I add my slow release N I feel like people me included smash tjere lawn with N soon as it gets warm and never allow the grass to do its thing n grow strong roots I've learned it's best to let the plant "struggle" a bit builds a stronger lawn
yeah, a bit of hardship goes a ways for sure. That's part of why I suggest more people water once a week instead of every 2-3 days; promote deep rooting and keep the upper layer of soil dry and the plant has to "figure out" a way to survive.
One the best preseason vid. Soon as the 3 ft of snows gone. I'm on it. Thanks
Thanks so much for the super cool comment! I'm always trying to add valuable thought to this space so it's great to hear that it's working for people out there. Also, good luck with that snow. It's been a nice winter for me, first one in a decade where I never had to shovel snow. Crazy place this SoCal is!
After the rain wednesday just got to finish leveling and will start hopefully next wkend just got to test the temp of the soil and i will be using Tall Fescue with RTF Grass Seed Blend by water saver
I had always understood that organic fertilizers needed microbial activity and so you really needed to wait until you had higher temperatures for them to work well.
I would say that's fully accurate if you are wanting to get a faster breakdown of the product and response from the grass. If you apply it early though it will simply be broken down and used later when the conditions allow. Think about it like this; if you put a sandwich on the counter at 70 degrees it will spoil in a day. If you put it in the fridge at 40 degrees it will still spoil but it may take a couple weeks because bacterial activity is sluggish. If your soil is cold and you apply organics it will still breakdown by microbes; it just takes a lot more time.
Thanks brother
We just got 12" snow today. I spray a light feeding of fish/molasses mix after the first mow of the year, followed by a granular application approx 10-15 days later. First spray should be Apri 20-30.
Sounds like a solid start to the season to me! Just 4 more weeks! :)
Yeah, I'd really like a low N, high K fert with chelated Iron. Probably require monthly apps due to the short iron cycle, but I'd do it. Especially if it had some biochar, kelp, humic and maybe some other minors. I would blend in sulphur separately until my ph gets down where I'd like it.
Anyone needing to put down multiple products could combine it right in with their other products, assuming granular products.
I put mine out ( flagship 12-12-12) because it’s growing and I’m trying to get my numbers up based on my soil sample. It was low on NPK and lime. I put lime on it in the fall and I added the nutrients they recommended and then I’ll put out some fertilizer from GCI turf and some rgs and humic12 . I’m not really wanting to push high nitrogen like in the past.
12-12-12 Flagship? Where did that come from? Never seen those numbers on Flagship.
@@desmorider747 it’s a starter fertilizer sold by them.
New ball cap!
I like Hybrid fertilizer for spring. This way whatever weather trends we have or switch between. I will not loose to much if any Nitrogen.
I love the concept of applying early Spring and not having to worry about timing it so perfectly; that's why I've used Milo so much in past years. I'm curious though; what is your definition of hybrid fert in Spring? I could probably label a few different plans as hybrid but not sure how exactly you go about it.
@@TurfMechanic For me it's fertilizer with synthetic and organic food. I try took get as close as possible to 50/50 fast and slow release N. I also enjoy blending my own but totally understand buying premade.
I gathered that you're having a 100% kikuyu front lawn and 100% buffalo parkway strip and then a kikuyu / tttf blend in back. Is water going to cost too much more to use in CA vs. OR to maintain kbg or ryegrasses in CA? I wonder if a cool season soil is typically different than your native sandy soil to support the cold season grasses and if one was willing to buy dumptruck loads of loam and spend copious amounts on irrigation if cool season grasses could excel there. I wonder if there are any moneys-no-object people growing cool season lawns in So Cal and actually had success.
A variety of great questions in there Justin. My next video for either monday or tuesday will go into this a touch more but I"m leaning towards buffalo on the sidewalk strip for the bushy look. The backyard I will probably not do a major reno this year because I don't want to work around the dogs main living space - my big dog is 140 pounds so we just can't keep him inside all day for weeks on end while renovating the yard; I'm going to experiment overseeding back there heavily with a drought strong TTTF while experimenting with a special herbicidal application every four weeks or so that is supposed to slowly slow down and kill off kikuyu in a cool season lawn. I'll also be adding a small section of hybrid turf near our back door wear the dogs hang out to give it more durability. Hybrid is an artificial turf underlayment that natural grass grows through. The artificial base protects grass crowns and helps keep grass blades from getting matted down into mud from dog paws. Big experiment. Main front lawn I'm showing how to make a SoCal Kikuyu lawn look great in half of a season before transitioning the entire lawn to low cut Buffalograss. Next to the driveway by my neighbor's yard where the straight dirt is now will be eventually a boutique (improved) variety of Kikuyu called Whittet that acts more friendly to residential lawns. Before It goes in though I've got a fun project for that space that hopefully will make a big splash on the UA-cams in April. *secret project". :) For KBG and PR, most places in Cali shouldn't grow either due to water requirements and because so many parts of California get crazy hot during the summer. You could though if you had very deep pockets so long as you weren't in the areas that are over 100 degrees for 5 months straight. But, as you move up in the higher elevations some cool season grasses will become more common and as you move to the extreme coastal regions the cool season lawns could work if you could keep up with water. Kikuyu is common here because it won't be such a water hog even in coastal communities where heat isn't that big of a deal. I would like to do a series on straight California lawn issues but I am admittedly still learning a lot of nuance to the region and issues that affect lawns around here.
@@TurfMechanic You're the best. I wonder what kind of grass CA DOT uses along the highways for erosion control as well. I'm not sure what NTEP programs exist in CA they would have studies on what performs the best there also.
I'm trying to gather information, as we delve further into organic plant nutrient science, what and how all the (not sure how many) amino acids play different roles in plant processes. Some exist in animal, plants, and soil. It's a huge world of amino acids out there, some ferts contain protein hydrolysates, I used a game bird starter feed with mostly soybean meal, some wheat middlings, as a cheaper alternative to, say the andersons innova 7-1-2, that's roughly half the price. I'm hand puling the poa annua as well so I don't spread the seedheads with my mowing in which I don't bag the clippings, I see less and less every year.
Hey Brian, I thined out St. Augustine grass pulled out some dead stolens, put some plugs in the real bare spots and used Fertilome w atrazine as my dry fert for the season. I'm curious if I should also use a higher potassium granular or liquid soluble fert to help strengthen the roots or maybe a lower percentage of soluble urea 33-0-0? Any thoughts?
What are your thoughts on using growth regulators to encourage lateral growth and thicken a lawn? I've never used T-NEX because of the price but BioAdvance has a granular product with the same active ingredient.
I haven't spent much time doing deep research on PGR's but if you can find something cheaper using that Trinexapac and want to experiment then I'd say go for it. I push cytokinins which is basically a PGR to some extent so encouraging the plant to grow in the most desirable way for our lawns and liking is something I can get behind.
In the fall before winter i overseeded my lawn with grass seeds. Peet moss and Scott’s starter fertilizer. In the spring now when I got to fertilize, should I use Scott’s starter fertilizer again or just use a regular different fertilizer? I’m located in Canada also.
If you still have some left then go ahead and use it, otherwise if you have to buy something new for Spring then you probably don't need a starter fert, just use something that has some of all of the big three or a balanced ratio like a 10-10-10.
Here in So Cal with all the rain we been getting and this coming week (around March 28) will be getting another round of rain. It’s been great as my sprinkler system has been off since December. I have a 15/15/15 blend made by Southland. I’m anxious to fertilize. So - can I apply the fertilzer during a break in the rain (meaning if say Weds the 29 in the am the rain stops but is supposed to start up again in the afternoon) or wait till this week end or even the weekend after? Wondering if I can use the rain to my advantage without out using the sprinklers. Or wait till mid April? Oh, I have a Fescue/Calif native blend grass. Thanks.
Oh yeah, if I were you I'd totally take advantage of the rain we have coming. My forcast shows the rain coming in later in the day on Monday and for sure on Tuesday so late sunday or early monday you could apply and wait for the rain instead of turning on sprinklers. Since you're in SoCal your soil is plenty warm for your grasses and I'll add this, something I didn't say in the video. Fertilizing for thickening is important in the earlier half of Spring to give weeds a harder time establishing. If you drop fert going into the rain next week it will be responding to it and thickening up going into mid April giving weeds less space to invade.
@@TurfMechanic Fantastic, thanks. And nice to know I don’t have to water immediately after fertilizing. The other “fun” thing with all that rain is build up of moss on the dirt in one corner of my backyard as it gets no sun until Summer.
@@sethi100 yeah, it's been weird seeing moss here too, I never got it in Oregon before our move and never expected to see it here either but what's life without these little joys? 😃 as for the fert, if you haven't applied already, wait until the last minute before the next round of rains come if possible. The less time the stuff is on the ground prior to rain the better. Applying fertilizer before rain is a novel practice for us out here, we don't get to do it that way most years so we're out of practice. 😆
Hey. I have a question. I live in NC and put some pre-emergent down a while back and it didn’t stop all the weeds from coming up. Being impatient 😞 I used image post emergent to kills the weeds I had. My grass wasn’t out of dormancy yet when I sprayed it. Now my grass is green and all the spots I sprayed are brown. I think I used too much. What do I do to revive those brown spots? Any help would be awesome. Thanks!
man, hard to say with authority but considering you are in NC you are probably running fescue which means it's a bunch type grass that won't spread. The weeds were probably growing in the gaps between fescue clumps so killing them off exposed the holes in your turf. Image is a brand that has a few products, you might have used the product that that contains sulfentrazone which should stunt or kill poa annua which would be a weed that greens up and grows prior to fescue emerging from dormancy. Without knowing more info I'd probably recommend deeply raking the dead spots and then seeding them with another fescue to try and match your existing grass. Try to confirm your type before overseeding though because if you have a KBG or maybe a Zoysia (which I doubt) those spots may self-repair with fert and water. See this vid I made a while back on the differences between KBG and fescue to help you identify your type if you don't know already...then if it actually was poa annua you killed off then you should consider putting a pre-emergent down in the fall to stop this problem next year. FYI, one of my next vids, probably later this week will be about killing poa, might not be perfectly applicable to you but should give you extra info nevertheless.
right now, I am still trying to figure out how to stop my yard from turning white
(snow again!?!? darn it)
You ever accidentally run your sprinklers at dawn during snow with temps in the 20s? I have and the result looked crazy! Ice crystals everywhere...but no snow on the grass! 😁
Milorginite is stupid expensive this year.
I agree, it's getting out of hand. This is the first year I haven't bought it in a long time.
@@TurfMechanic I'm staying away from phosphorus, my levels are really high.
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