When do i put fertilizer

To avoid damaging your lawn, consider this rule of thumb: The best time to fertilize is when your grass is actively growing—and this, in turn, is determined by where you live and what type of grass you have. So, to figure out when you should fertilize, you need to know your grass type, your growing zone, and the best fertilizer for the job.

Within the United States, there are two types of grasses: warm-season grasses and cool-season grasses. As well, a large cross section of grasses are considered transitional, which means that they can be grown successfully in the central portion of the country, a region that is typically too warm for cool-season grasses and too cool for warm-season grasses.

Your lawn fertilizer schedule will depend on the type of grass you have, but remember that it takes constant commitment to any routine to guarantee year-after-year success.

Across the board, most fertilizer manufacturers are overzealous about their recommended dose and feeding schedule. Start light with half the recommended amount and rate of fertilizer. You can reapply if you don't like the results. Over a season or two, you'll get a clear sense of how much it takes to get a healthy lawn. A healthy lawn will be a relatively light shade of bright green. A lawn that is a deep, almost blackish green, has been very heavily fertilized. The dark green color comes from a lot of nitrogen-based fertilizer used on the lawn.

It is highly likely that some of that fertilizer has run off into the streets, storm sewers, and has made its way into local streams and rivers. Homeowners who prefer organic fertilizing methods might do a single "turf-builder" application in the early fall to build root systems. In the spring and summer, most may omit all fertilizers and rely on the nitrogen from mulched grass clippings to feed their lawn.

Homeowners using traditional fertilizer might want to apply two or three light applications per growing year—one in the spring, one at midsummer in regions where it is necessary, and one "turf-builder" application in the early fall.

The actual timing depends on your region and the type of turf grasses you have. For information on the best recommendations for your area, contact an expert at a local garden center or reach out to the nearest cooperative extension office. Once you have figured out the best time, try to plan the fertilizer application with a short period of rainfall.

If not, when you apply the fertilizer, you will need to supply your lawn with at least a quarter-inch of water. However, do not apply fertilizer before a massive storm. If you fertilized your lawn the previous fall, especially late in the season, then the slow-release function of that fertilizer will help grass growth in the spring. Fertilizer manufacturers or lawn care companies may tell you to fertilize your lawn in early spring, but instead, consider the guidance by turf specialists and agronomists soil experts who say to hold off.

Wait until the late spring late May or early June just before the heat of summer begins and after the grass is thriving before you fertilize the lawn. Feeding your lawn at this point prepares the grass for summer.

The goal is to understand your soil, build it up, and then simply apply fertilizer to the soil ever year to maintain the basic fertility level. You may even find that if your garden has been fertilized for years, you have high levels of nutrients. Read more about how to take a soil test. A fertilizer bag will be labeled with a combination of numbers such as or , or These three numbers refer to the three most important nutrients plants need: Nitrogen N , Phosphorus P , and Potassium K.

The numbers refer to the percentage of weight of each nutrient in the bag. There may also be other nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese. To start your garden, use a general vegetable fertilizer.

For vegetables, we use an herb and vegetable plant food with a number. For tomatoes, we use a separate fertlize with a ration which also contains calcium to help prevent blossom-end rot. Note the nitrogen first number is lower. Ever seen tomato plants that have lush leaves but no flowers or fruit? Later in the season, some plants benefit from a nitrogen side dressings sprinkled in middle of rows. The demand of the plant for nitrogen often exceeds that supplied by the first two, and a nitrogen side-dressing is needed.

But it depends on the vegetable. The fertilizer bag should tell you the amount to use per 1, square feet of garden area.

You can always ask the nursery staff for help translating to your garden space. Read more in our article on fertilizer basics and the NPK ratio. Chemically, the nutrients for processed and organic fertilizers are the same. Ideally, slow is the way to go. In terms of cost: While organic fertilizers can be more expensive upfront than processed fertilizers, they are often still economical for small gardens. When you add the long-term benefits to your soil, organic outweighs processed. If your plants are already growing, cultivate gently so that you do not damage any roots.

So, a bag will have 20 percent nitrogen, 5 percent phosphate, and 10 percent potassium. The rest of the bag usually contains filler material that helps ensure an even application of the fertilizer. By the way, a lawn fertilizer is a good basic mix to use in spring. Slow-release lawn fertilizers break down their nutrients over a longer period of time, so you can wait longer between applications.

That saves you both time and money. He recommends a slow-release that contains nitrogen, but not too much. The grass can't get any greener than that. If you use more, you're only going to make the grass grow faster so you have to mow more often," Turnbull explains.

So, over four weeks, that's a quarter pound of nitrogen per week, which is way too much," Turnbull says. When professional landscapers apply fertilizer, they often drive up in a tanker truck and spray your entire lawn in a remarkably short amount of time. But pros do this every day, so they know how to factor in for the wind and make sure the yard gets even coverage. And they have the proper equipment to get the job done right. Homeowners, on the other hand, should use granules, which are super simple to apply using a spreader see tip No.

Now, the second feeding should happen about four weeks after the first application, around mid-May or so. Then fertilize every six to eight weeks after that straight through to October.

For the third feeding, use an organic material, such as manure, instead of a traditional lawn fertilizer. And remember that fall feeding is critical, too. The roots are going down into the soil and they need fertilizer," Turnbull says.