Date of first fertilizer application

[NutterButter]

I've seen a few dates thrown around for this. The article for cool season lawn care says mid-may. I think I've also seen someone say memorial day which seems awfully late. Is there some type of indicator like we have for preM using forsythia bloom that's specific to your part of country? Is it just when the grass starts to actively grow? I get the urge to apply so that my lawn can start to green up and fill in sooner but I do believe the idea is not to do it too soon as that will cause more top growth and less root growth.

[andy10917]

There are too many factors that go into a decision about to start fertilizing, and probably each thing you read was right in its specific context. If you did the Fall Nitrogen Regimen, it will be later as the grass stored the fertilizer over the Winter. If you didn't, then a PR lawn might need it as early a mid-April in your area.

I have have a very slow-greening cultivar of KBG and I'm 15 miles north of the NY/NJ border. It snowed today (not much more than flurries, but it did snow).

Seriously, the best way to know when to fertilize is when the grass looks like it's a bit tired after the first spurt of growth.when

[NutterButter]

Yeah, today was cold. Luckily, it looks like one and done. Not sure exactly what the fall nitrogen regimen is exactly; went with a 10-10-10 app on 8/28 and then another app on 10/12 as advised. Another reason I ask besides just the look of the lawn is that the date of the 1st app also affects the weed control schedule if I'm going with the triangle approach. The grass actually looks pretty good; part of me is just being greedy and part of me is having flashbacks from previous years where it looked good in the spring and then went to hell (for a variety of other reasons that I hopefully have addressed) so I probably just need some professional help for my head and not my lawn. For the most part, just trying to make sure I've got all my i's dotted and t's crossed.

Have you seen any evidence in general that a PR lawn needs fertilizer earlier than a KBG lawn?

[andy10917]

No. It greens up sooner than most KBG cultivars, so it's at the early end of the spectrum. If not fed in the Fall enough to store away, it will definitely run out of gas before a well-fed KBG one will.

Not sure exactly what the fall nitrogen regimen is exactly

Typing just those three words into the search tool yields 507 matches, and one of them is over 60 pages long.

[MorpheusPA]

My rule of thumb is "never during spring growth flush." Which will never end before May first.

If you ask me for a hard date, I'll always say Memorial Day for synthetics. It's late enough that the flush is over, the grass has gone into storage mode no matter where you are...but it might be a bit late for transition zone folks. For north New Jersey, it's fine. Knowing that there are some who can't keep their hands off the trigger, giving a date this late hopefully keeps them from feeding before May. April feeding is simply a really bad idea.

For organics people, May 10th or so. Again, a bit late down south.

When do I go? I can't wait until the gas tank is empty, it's never empty. Seriously, in late April, the grass is deep green and the organics from last year are still decaying. I'll feed around mid-May, which will begin delivery around the end of May and strongly through early June. Eventually you do get a feel for these things, but you also rapidly learn that the optimal date is later than you always thought it was...

[NutterButter]

Typing just those three words into the search tool yields 507 matches, and one of them is over 60 pages long.

Fair enough

[Masbustelo]

What about kbg seedlings that are one month old today?

[MorpheusPA]

That's a tough one. The gas tank there is starting to empty, but again, you don't want to send them into a growth flush in spring and seedlings are always going to want to do that. I'd be inclined to go with a 1/4 to 1/2-strength synthetic or 1/2-strength organic (if the weather is up to it, which if you managed to get KBG to sprout in late March, it certainly is). Then feed full strength in another month (synthetic) or three weeks (organic).

I'm less concerned with pouring it on organically than synthetically. It just doesn't tend to kick the systems into high gear quite as much, although...I've managed. You've seen photos of the gardens.

You're going to have to coddle those through the summer no matter what you do...but there's no reason to make it any worse than you have to by draining the roots repeatedly.