Simplify Single Application Lawn Fertilizer Plus Crabgrass Preventer Review

Catherine is a proponent for responsible stewardship of our natural resource and covers topics of plant life and sustainable living.

Instant gratification may exist the manner of the earth today, but nature runs past a different clock. Gardening teaches patience and forces us to irksome down and follow the seasonal cycles of residue and growth. Reducing fertilizer utilize is a good get-go pace.

v Reasons to Avoid Fertilizer Overuse

1. The accumulation of salts volition weaken both plant health and soil structure.
2. As well much fertilizer will promote new growth flushes and increase insect damage.
3. Rapid growth ways an increased need for h2o. This is impractical with critical drought situations throughout the world.
4. The run-off of phosphorus promotes algae bloom in our streams and ocean. Information technology is a serious neurotoxin to our ocean mammals.
5. Domoic acid toxicity in seafood and shellfish is condign a bigger threat to ocean food bondage. Algae bloom from phosphorus pollution is prevalent in many coastal areas like California and Florida where sightings of beached sea animals is becoming all also mutual.

The algae blossom from fertilizer run-off is deadly to sea mammals.

The Benefits of Organic Fertilizer

I can certainly appreciate a person's desire for magnificent, non-cease blooms and lushness which can be had with weekly feedings from a sprayer. These fertilizers strength plants to maintain top performance which depletes vigor for successive seasons; therefore, these water-soluble fertilizers work best with showier annuals in containers. On lawns and in garden beds, a slower organic arroyo is smarter for a number of reasons.

• They are non only feeding our plants, they are helping the microbial life in soil that supports healthy roots and efficient nutrient uptake.
• Composting is a recycling process in itself. Information technology provides food for beneficial decomposers and aerators like pill bugs, ants, and earthworms which interruption down the carbons in organic matter and make them readily available to plants. Worms increase the corporeality of humus in the soil and get out behind mineral-rich excreta.
• Monthly meridian dressings of well composted organic materials add together construction to the soil, reduce the need for water, and help control weed growth.
• Organic fertilizers and compost contain fewer salts which are toxic to plants in high amounts. Instead of spraying a commercial fertilizer each week, consider the option of a bootleg compost tea.

How To Utilise Fertilizer

When it comes to fertilizers, both organic and inorganic varieties provide the same chief nutrients. The 3 primary ones - nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium- ever appear on production labels, showing as 5-3-1 or 15-15-15 for case.

• The commencement, nitrogen, promotes practiced foliar or green growth;
• The second, phosphorus, encourages flower and fruit production.
• The 3rd, potassium, ensures overall health, strong roots, and good cellular structure.

Inorganic fertilizer like Ammonium sulfate is great for rapidly greening copse and shrubs, but organic fertilizer is less likely to burn because concentrations are less. In that location are besides macro and micronutrients to consider like manganese, magnesium, iron, zinc, boron, copper, etc. which are already present in compost. These assistance west/ blueprint yellowing, veining, purple leafage coloration, and pest resistance.

In that location are many plant specific fertilizers, many of which have the same ingredients. The most of import of these are:

• Acidifying fertilizers for plants like camellias, hydrangeas, azaleas, gardenias, & blueberries. Organic equivalents are chicken manure, peat moss, java grounds, and compost
• High phosphorus fertilizers for greater flowering potential. Organic super flower foods are bat guano and mushroom compost.
• All purpose fertilizers are those containing humus, worm castings, mycorrhizae, fish emulsion, kelp and seaweed blends, and compost.
• Rose fertilizer equivalents have alfalfa meal, bone meal, fish emulsion, and soybean meal. Coffee grounds can be scattered effectually roses as well.

Always follow directions carefully. Water well before applying liquid fertilizers for ameliorate absorption. Granular and pellet fertilizer should be water well immediately afterwards application. Manure, which is high in salts, should be thoroughly composted and watered in well after awarding. Slow release fertilizers like Osmocote or Jobe'southward spikes are good commercial alternatives to organic feedings simply offer no advantages to soil tilth. They are practiced for indoor containers.

Consider growth cycles and dormancy before feeding plants. Colder atmospheric condition may wearisome a establish's uptake of nutrients, and then it's all-time to expect even if some leaves are yellow.

Lawn Fertilizer

• Consider the type of turf grass in your yard. Cool season grasses like rye, fescue, and bentgrass tend to deadening their growth in the heat of summertime. These lawns do all-time when fertilized during the autumn when growth is most active.
• Warm season grasses similar Bermuda, Zoysia, and St. Augustine get dormant and plow dark-brown when temperatures dip. These grasses should be fertilized in the spring when the backyard has greened up. The final application of the season should be 6-8 weeks earlier the first frost.
• In that location are lawn specific fertilizers which are primarily nitrogen based, and in that location are other products which tin can be cast all over the garden to feed lawns, trees, and shrubs. I of my favorites every bit a philharmonic is humic acid based Gro-Ability. A good organic backyard fertilizer is leonardite, a natural lignin by-product derived from nearly-surface mining. Compost and compost tea applied past sprayer are as well excellent.
• It is of import to thoroughly read labels for proper awarding so equally to non burn down the grass or release too much into tempest drains from run-off.
• If a non-organic fertilizer is the norm for your lawn, cut the application amount in half and spread the feedings 2-iii months apart. A commercial backyard service will feed lawns 4 times per twelvemonth with each season. Spring applications include herbicides for pre-emergent weed and crabgrass command, summer ones add extra nitrogen for green-upward and pesticide to impale turf pests, autumn and wintertime feedings are higher in potash to encourage strong root structures.
• Lawn programs result in prissy looking lawns, only imagine what poisons linger there when walking barefoot. Pets like to eat the grass, and kids play on it. What well-nigh those golfers who lick the golf balls for a make clean putt? Yech!

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More Natural Tips for a Healthy Lawn

• Cut fertilizer amounts in half. Cut back on feedings may be a hard habit to grade but is well worth the effort. The transition should be gradual for best results.
• Leave grass clippings every bit natural mulch. This will encourage earthworms and ameliorate h2o penetration and healthy roots.
• Keep mower blades sharp. Set mower blade elevation 2 1/2"- three" in summertime.
• Avert removing more than i/3 of grass height at a time.
• Water twenty minutes twice times a week in hot seasons instead of daily for 5-10 minutes. If smaller areas are dry out, they tin can be watered with a hose-terminate sprinkler.
• Adjust timers to meet seasonal needs.
• Aerate the lawn every ii years or when it's compacted. This should be washed at the same time as the commencement feeding for the specific grass blazon. Plugs tin can exist left to interruption downwards with irrigation. Do not aerate dormant turf.
• If water penetration is a problem, water until the point of run-off, turn off the sprinklers, let the water soak in, and so cycle once more 1 60 minutes afterward. A surfactant like yucca extract can assistance percolation on hydrophobic soils by breaking the surface tension.
• Invest in a moisture meter. It'due south an essential tool for checking uneven distribution.

Natural Solutions for Mutual Lawn Problems

• Dead spots can be fungal related and are made worse past overwatering whereas wilted grass will take on a bluish tint and won't spring back when touched. Accept a moisture probe reading. Fungal issues tin treated with the proper fungicide for turf grass, and sprinklers can exist adapted. Toadstools and slime molds are indicative of aplenty wet and are innocuous.
• Lawn Insect command should really only be used when specific pests have been identified in large populations. Benign nematodes tin be diluted and practical by sprayer to accost grub, chinch bug, and other turf pests. These biological controls can exist ordered from www.tiptopbio.com. A great source for help is your local integrated pest management or IPM website.

Henderson Fertilizer

Going organic may seem ho-hum at outset, like putting coins in a jar. If yous keep at information technology, however, you will somewhen see a large payoff with a thick lush backyard, healthy drought-tolerant roots, and fewer weeds. In that location is likewise the confidence that comes from knowing that your beautiful greenish areas are not harming your health nor that of your children, pets, and wild animals.

This commodity is accurate and true to the best of the writer's knowledge. Content is for informational or amusement purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, fiscal, legal, or technical matters.

Questions & Answers

Question: Tin I over fertilize to become rid of creeping charlie?

Answer: Fertilizer should but be used as directed on the package, especially in the case of Weed and Feed formulations. Lawn fertilizer contains primarily nitrogen which promotes quick growth including that of undesirable weeds. If you are having a problem with creeping charlie, I would recommend a spray herbicide that will specifically target broadleaf weeds but not the grass. Y'all tin can find information technology at garden centers.

© 2011 Catherine Tally

Catherine Tally (author) from Los Angeles on July 07, 2019:

Y'all're welcome, Louise89. I'one thousand glad you found my article helpful.

Louise89 on July 07, 2019:

Cheers for the great advice.

FlourishAnyway from USA on April xv, 2015:

I'1000 so glad you provided an alternative. This is a very timely hub this time of year. Anything we can to to help give back to Mother Nature.

Catherine Tally (author) from Los Angeles on Apr 07, 2015:

How-do-you-do Ted. Cheers for sharing the blog. I think the reasoning makes sense, and timing IS everything. Aye, fertilizer is to be practical when growth is active and does best before the stress of heat. Healthy roots will crowd out weeds too. Here in drought-stressed So. California it is imperative to irrigate deeply and less oftentimes w/ our h2o restrictions. Fertilizer stimulates new growth which requires more water, so it should exist done sparingly. Keeping blades longer and leaving mowed clippings on the backyard helps the turf stay cooler and the soil moist longer. Give thanks you for stopping by to read. I appreciate the thoughtful comments.

Cat:)

Ted Tanka on April 07, 2015:

Great Hub. Cheers.

I constitute some other web log on a blog I similar to read for lawn tips where the author talks near how to remember when to fertilize. I like how he links information technology to holidays every bit a really like shooting fish in a barrel fashion to remember.

Permit me see if I tin find the weblog.... here goes....

http://grassundermyfeet.com/easter-fertilizing/

Catherine Tally (author) from Los Angeles on April 02, 2011:

Thank you,dobo700. I'chiliad glad y'all constitute information technology helpful. Hope y'all driblet by again :>)

dobo700 from Australia on Apr 02, 2011:

Nice Hub - excellent tips and advice.

Catherine Tally (author) from Los Angeles on March 03, 2011:

Cheers, Harlan. That's quite a compliment! Cheers for following.

Harlan Colt from the Rocky Mountains on March 01, 2011:

This is a keen hub. I am going to book mark information technology. This is too the first hub I have bookmarked. Welcome to hub-pages Discourse Cat. I look forward to more of great hubs. I am voting upwards!

- Harlan

salleydubtep.blogspot.com

Source: https://dengarden.com/landscaping/4-Reasons-to-Avoid-Over-Fertilizing-Your-Lawn-and-Garden

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