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| Lush Summer Lawn |
It is tempting to do a light mid-summer lawn
fertilization, because it sometimes produces a rapid rich luscious green lawn growth.
Sometimes, on the other hand, it thins lawn growth or even turns the grass brown (fertillizer burn). Scotts makes a mid-summer fertilizer mix (light on nitrogen) and
claims it won't burn the grass. In the fine print, though, Scott's warns
homeowners not to use the mix if the temperatures will be rising above
90 degrees. Other fertilizers which claim their supplement is specially adapted for
summer are "Seed Starter" - the numbers are 10-10-10, and "Turf
tone" by Espoma, which has almost the same formula.
But
what is the truth about summer fertilizing? First off, summer grass is not actively
growing. What, you are thinking, my grass grows and I mow the lawn every
summer. Yes, but active grass growth means the tiny plants are storing food in
the roots, growing and developing the root system, forming rhizomes, and
tillering (producing new shoots). During
the hot stressful summer, the blades grow, but the plant is, if anything,
utilizing and not storing root food. And it is best to give grass fertilizer when
the grass in the active growth mode. Fertilizing in the summer causes unnatural
rapid shoot growth. Underground the roots become flimsy and succulent, unable
to penetrate deep into the soil like healthy roots. So even if the above ground
grass growth looks vital and green, underground you are damaging the plant.
Over time you will compromise the plant's health, making it vulnerable to
stress, and impairing its growth.
Fertilizing
with an organic supplement is a healthy alternative to summer fertilization.
Organic mixes such as Milorganite, soy bean meal, and others feed soil
organisms and not the roots. Soil organisms contribute to healthy grass growth
and also slowly metabolize the supplement, turning it into nitrogen that will be available
for the grass growing seasons. Synthetic fertilizers, on the other hand, (Scott's
et al) feed the grass and cause the unnatural harmful growth alluded to above. So
this summer or the next, if you must fertilize mid-summer, choose a healthy
organic supplement instead of a synthetic fertilizer.
For expert lawn care in the Westchester and Putnam County areas, contract the Turf Barbers. 929 Quinlan St, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, United States; +1 914-302-2469; http://www.trufbarbers.com
