Lawn Fertilizers

Controlled-Release Lawn Fertilizers
Why they’re a better choice for a healthy lawn, year-round.

Do you know the difference between an outstanding lawn fertilizer, a merely good one, and one that will offer only marginal benefits to your lawn? You should – because price isn’t always a reliable guide … and whatever your budget, you want to make sure you’re getting top value for your dollars.

Make no mistake, the quality of the lawn fertilizer you choose, and the strength of your lawn feeding program, is just about the most important decision you can make concerning the quality of your lawn. A lawn that is fed right will be thicker, lusher, and much more able to fight off the stress of insect and weed competition, adverse environmental conditions and wear.

Let’s look at life from a lawn’s point of view. Like humans, a lawn has some essential needs that must be met in order for it to be able to survive, and thrive. These include; A healthy growing environment, Protection from harmful elements, Water, light and food.

For a lawn, a healthy growing environment includes a good bed of quality topsoil. If your soil is compacted, or poorly drained, too sandy or otherwise inhospitable, you will not be able to grow a lush lawn despite you best efforts. A lawn also needs to be protected from harmful elements: Weeds, insects, or conditions that might cause stress or promote disease will definitely prevent a lawn from reaching its full potential. They may even destroy it.

Water and light are critical … there must be enough of each, but not too much. And it’s the same with food. Too little fertilizer, and the lawn will go hungry. Its growth will be stunted. And too much food, as with humans, can be bad for turf. It can burn or, in extreme cases, kill grass.

So how do you decide which fertilizer is right for your lawn? Well, make sure it’s one with enough nutrition. All green plants need higher levels of nitrogen for healthy growth. On a bag of lawn fertilizer, it’s represented by the first of three numbers. (For example, Fabulawn 24-4-16 means 24% Nitrogen, 4% Phosphorus and 16% Potassium.) While Nitrogen is the element that promotes green growth, Phosphorus encourages strong root growth, and Potassium strengthens the plant overall and helps it resist stress.

A bag of 7-7-7 general purpose fertilizer, or even a 10-6-4 lawn fertilizer contains hardly enough nitrogen for adequate feeding. There’s a reason why these formulations are usually economy-priced. They contain low nutrient levels, usually lower quality ingredients, and a lot of filler.

Higher levels of nitrogen are not a guarantee of quality either. If they are not in a “controlled-release” form, they can release nitrogen too fast, especially in wet weather, burning the plants. Most last only 6 to 8 weeks at best. Most top-quality fertilizer lines offer a full range of formulations, too. So you can choose to control harmful elements like weeds or insects while you feed the lawn.

Ask your lawn & garden dealer to recommend a lawn feeding program that’s right for your environment. You’ll see a difference in a thicker, healthier lawn this season.

The “Environmentally Friendly” Lawn
Organic or conventional fertilizer?

A well-maintained lawn acts like a giant air filter, constantly removing pollutants and carbon dioxide, and replenishing the oxygen supply. The average lawn will supply the oxygen requirements for a family of four. A lush green lawn makes a better air filter than one that is allowed to run wild. A healthy lawn also provides cooling, prevents erosion from water run off, and reduces noise pollution.

A lawn is a valuable addition to every home environment, regardless of its size. Today, most homeowners want to keep their lawn looking green and healthy so it adds beauty to the house and enjoyment to the family, while increasing property value as well.

At the same time, people are increasingly aware of the environmental aspects of lawn care. For many, natural or “organic” options seem to be the way to go. There is a lot of confusion in the lawn and garden market about exactly what is meant by the terms “Natural” or “Organic”. In fact, some products that are positioned as organic can actually be more harmful to the environment than “conventional” products.

Let’s take a look at lawn feeding from the plant’s point of view. All plants require 3 major nutrients – nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potash (K) – to survive. These 3 elements, often referred to as “chemical” fertilizers, are actually produced from elements found in nature… they’re refined from minerals mined from the ground. All fertilizers – conventional or organic- must contain some form of these three nutrients for healthy plant growth. On a bag of fertilizer, a number represents the percentage of each element. For example, 24-4-8 lawn fertilizer contains 24% nitrogen, 4% phosphorus and 8% potash as active ingredients. On the extreme “organic” side, cattle manure for example contains less than 1% each of N, P and K and may contain a lot of weed seeds. It is good for the lawn or garden, but more useful for building up organic matter in the soil. It is unlikely to be able to supply enough food for healthy plant growth. Higher quality natural fertilizers deliver N, P and K in the form of unprocessed or homogenous ingredients, such as blood or bone meal. They typically have lower N, P and K numbers than conventional fertilizers, but can provide a balanced diet to meet plant nutritional requirements.

Nitrogen promotes healthy green foliage, phosphorus develops strong roots and plentiful fruit or flowers, while potash improves overall plant hardiness and disease resistance. The plant takes up only as much of these elements as it needs. Any excess amount can be leached away into the environment – whether the source is conventional or organic – so it’s just as important not to overfeed as it is to underfeed.

This is where high quality “conventional” fertilizers can sometimes offer an advantage. They would appear to pose more of a risk because they contain much higher quantities of N, P and K. But in fact, in a high quality fertilizer the nutrients are designed to be released slowly, giving plants only the food they need, over an extended period of time. This reduces the risk of elements leaching into groundwater, and has the added benefit of reducing the number of applications you need to make over the growing season.

The key to maintaining a healthy, environmentally friendly lawn is in feeding it just the right amount of nutrients for healthy growth, without overfeeding. You can achieve this with either “natural” or “conventional” fertilizers