You’ve probably heard us talk about how important fertilizer is for your lawn. It provides essential nutrients that your lawn needs to perform its best. When you fail to fertilize your lawn, it has to rely on what’s already in the soil. Since suburban residential soil is typically quite depleted, the end result is a thin and discolored lawn.
Even if you’ve heard us talk about lawn fertilization before, we know that you might have some questions about fertilizing grass in the spring.
We’re here to help answer your common spring lawn fertilization questions. We want you to feel confident as you begin to fertilize grass in the spring and beyond.
We’ll cover:
1. When to start fertilizing grass in spring
2. How to fertilize grass in spring
3. How often to fertilize grass
4. What type of fertilizer to use
5. When to mow after fertilizing grass in spring
After reading this article, you should be ready to go with spring lawn fertilization.
At Oasis Turf & Tree, we include fertilization in our first round of applications, which begins in the early spring (March or April) here in the Cincinnati, Dayton, OH, and Northern Kentucky regions.
Since we’re also performing preventative crabgrass control at this time, it’s important to base the timing on the soil temperature. Crabgrass germinates when the soil temperature is approximately 55 degrees (usually in mid-April), so we’re applying these products before that occurs.
The exact timing can differ from year to year. If you are working with a lawn care professional, they’ll be keeping a close eye on soil temperatures to determine when to begin the first round of applications.
The early spring application of fertilizer is important to start your lawn off on the right foot. This first-round application consists of a wake-up fertilizer for the lawn, which will help your lawn to “green up” as it begins growing again.
There are a couple of things to understand about how to fertilize grass in spring (and subsequent seasons) in order to achieve maximum success.
Fertilizer is applied via a granular application that should be spread uniformly throughout the lawn. A common application mistake is to fail to distribute the product evenly. That could even mean overapplying fertilizer in certain areas. If this occurs, you could risk burning your lawn.
Of course, underapplying could mean that your lawn isn’t getting what it needs nutrient-wise in certain areas.
This is why it’s important that whoever is applying fertilizer to your lawn is not doing so haphazardly but rather in a calculated and strategic way.
In understanding how to fertilize grass, it’s also important to know that the optimal amount of nutrients for your lawn is going to change throughout the seasons. In our next section on how often to fertilize grass, we’ll explain how fertilization helps your lawn not only during the spring season but throughout the growing months.
Lawns can benefit from fertilization throughout their entire growing period (spring through fall). We perform fertilization during all six visits of our lawn care program. This is strategically timed and spaced out.
But the lawn’s needs will evolve and change throughout that period. The key to success with any fertilization service is that your lawn is getting the nutrients it needs when it needs them.
In the spring, when lawns are growing vigorously, a slow-release granular fertilizer will supply valuable nutrients needed to support that growth. Nitrogen plays a critical role in helping your lawn to green up during this time.
But as we transition into summer fertilization, backing off on nitrogen will be critical to prevent lawn burn.
Finally, as we move into the cooler weather, fertilization in the fall will help set your lawn up for success in the coming dormant season. Each season of fertilization is important for its own reasons and should not be skipped.
It’s a common misconception that all fertilizer is the same. The stuff that you’re picking up at the hardware store is not going to be as high-quality as a professional-grade fertilizer that a conscientious lawn care company is investing in.
As far as what type of fertilizer to use, homeowners are often confused by the numbers that they see on the bag. This can lead to some common myths, such as assuming the higher the numbers on the bag, the better the quality (which is not how it works).
The three numbers on a bag of fertilizer (N, P, and K), represent the three macronutrients that are used by grass plants. These are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K).
The ratio (written as N-P-K) represents the percentage of each nutrient. But what really matters is the application rate. This is a pretty complex issue that a lawn care company needs to calculate.
At Oasis Turf & Tree, we take lawn fertilization and other lawn care products quite seriously. In addition to a high-quality fertilizer, we also use bio-nutrition in our lawn care program.
This is because we know that the secret to the best lawns lies in healthy soil.
Lawn bio-nutrition works with lawn fertilizer to help make it even more effective. The microbes in your soil require a sufficient amount of NPK in order to thrive. But this lawn biology also helps roots to better absorb these vital plant nutrients.
While a lot of people fertilize their lawns, we’re building even healthier soil with the use of both fertilizer AND bio-nutrition.
We know a lot of people worry that mowing will impact fertilization. But the truth is, it’s not going to have any significant impact.
It’s a myth that fertilizer products get “sucked up” by a mower and it’s not going to move around enough to change the distribution of the product.
However, a reason why you should wait around 24 hours to mow after an application is because of the weed control products applied. You do want to give the weed control product some time to work before mowing.
Hopefully, this answers some of your questions about spring fertilization. Fertilizing grass in the spring is just one step that you should be taking to get your lawn off to a healthy start.
There’s also weed control as well as keeping a watchful eye out for pests and diseases. As your lawn starts growing again, this is a critical time to make sure it’s getting everything it needs.
We understand you probably have better things to do than worry about what your lawn needs to perform its best. Lawn care can be complicated and you probably don’t want to have to figure it all out.
In the end, instead of having to worry about any of this, you can hire a professional to take away your worries. When you take advantage of professional lawn care services, you can feel confident that your lawn is getting everything it needs no matter what the season.
When it comes to getting the most out of lawn care services, you’ll want to be sure that you partner with the right professional.
That means choosing a lawn care pro that truly has your best interest at heart. Your lawn should be receiving high-quality fertilization plus biostimulants in order to grow the healthiest it can. However, some lawn care companies fail to invest in top-notch products as they want to make more money off their services.
By choosing Oasis Turf & Tree to care for your lawn, you know that you are making a wise investment in ensuring your lawn has everything it needs to thrive. That means truly letting go of your worries and gaining peace of mind that your lawn is in good hands.
Want to learn more about professional lawn care services for your Cincinnati, Dayton, Ohio, or Northern Kentucky home? Request your quote, choose the lawn care program that’s right for you, and then sit back and relax as the pros help you get the lawn of your dreams!