Now is the time to get serious about managing your turfgrass/lawn. The hot summer days are behind us and most areas did receive some rainfall last week so we have some soil moisture to work with. Extension Specialists say that fall fertilizer applications are most critical.
The ideal time to fertilize your turfgrass in the fall is six seeks prior to the first expected frost. In our area the first frost is said to be approximately November 15thso now is the time. Fall fertilizer applications help the grasses recover from summer and accumulate energy reserves to survive winter dormancy. Do not get too ambitious and put out too much fertilizer. One pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 sqft of lawn is all you need. So if you have a 50 lb bag of fertilizer that has the numbers of 13-13-13 we want to use the nitrogen amount to determine how much total fertilizer to apply. The first number is nitrogen, the second is phosphorus and the third number is potassium. If we have 50 lbs of total fertilizer in the bag and the first number is 13 that means there is 6.5 ibs of actual nitrogen in that one bag. If we intend to put out the fertilizer at a rate of 1 lb per 1,000 sqft then that one bag will cover 6,500 sqft of lawn.
With once/week outdoor watering we may need to break up the fertilizer application and only put fertilizer on the amount of turfgrass that you can water and then treat the remaining area the next week. Most fertilizers need irrigation water to soak them into the top of the soil profile where they can be broken down into forms of nitrogen that the grass roots can readily take.
Weed control is another key part of fall turfgrass management. If your yard has an abundance of weeds it would be best to control them first then apply fertilizer. Otherwise you would be fertilizing the weeds as well as the grass. Be very careful about using the” weed-and-feed “all in one products in your yard if you have very many shade trees. The” weed” part of those products is an herbicide that can and does harm shade trees if it gets to the tree roots and it taken up into the tree’s vascular system. The safest method of controlling weeds in your lawn if you have shade trees is to use one of the post emergent herbicide sprays that are labeled to control your particular weed. Just be careful when spraying these herbicides and don’t get any of the spray on tree leaves. Lawns that have had the weeds controlled in the fall usually come out of winter dormancy faster and are in better condition to recover quickly in the spring and then go on to compete more effectively with summer weeds.