Spring is in the air!! Warmer temperatures means that the soil will soon warm to a level that our warm season turfgrasses like St. Augustinegrass and Bermudagrass will begin to grow. This also means that its time to plan a turf nutrient management program for the year. Taking a soil sample is a good first step in this process. It will provide useful information pertaining to the level of nutrients in your soil and can assist you in developing your year long environmentally sensitive approach to nutrient management.
In the spring, it is recommended to apply your first fertilizer application after your lawn has begun to grow. Typically around here that is the day that Uncle Sam wants his taxes, April 15th. You may want to wait until after you have mowed your lawn 2 to 3 times. Applying fertilizer too early can cause undue stress to your turf if a late freeze occurs, and you can also inadvertently fertilize your winter weeds. Apply fertilizer in measured amounts to your lawn. This means you need to know the surface area (square feet) of your site and how much of a nutrient your particular turfgrass requires in a given application and in a given year. To measure square feet in your yard there is a simple and easy way to do it. Square feet is calculated as length X width. Simply walk the length of your yard and record the number of steps from one end to the other, then do the same thing on the width of your yard. Multiply the numbers together for number of yards then multiply by three to get your feet. You can use a tape measure to get an exact measurement, but stepping it off works just as well. If its good enough for the NFL to step off yards for penalties then it should be good enough to figure the square feet on your yard.
Fertilization should be done about four times a year on average. The easiest way to remember when to fertilize is to simply remember the holidays, Tax Day (April 15th), Memorial Day (May 30th) Independence Day (July 4th) and finally Labor Day (September 5th). Fertilizing on those dates should help with having a green beautiful lawn all summer long.
For more information on “Lawn Fertilization”, contact the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service of Austin County at (979) 865-2072, visit our website at http://austin.agrilife.org and click on the Ask the Agent tab.
