Before I begin talking about the next step in perfecting your lawn I will let everyone know that overseeded sod is now available if you’ve been waiting to sod your lawn.

The overseed season is well under way for most people so I thought I would take a few moments to talk about the next few steps after your seed starts to emerge from the ground. With night time temperatures in the 60’s it makes for perfect ryegrass growing weather so if your BOBSeed has been down for a week you’re most likely starting to see it jump out of the ground. I want to quickly touch on changing your watering schedules once you have an established overseeded lawn and how and when to fertilize and mow. If you’re just beginning the overseed process here is a short video on the process and the link to the instructions.http://mrwisegrass.com/1189

Let’s start with those that have seeded their lawn a couple weeks ago and are looking at a good 1 ½” to 2” of early season growth. The first step is going to be to cut your watering back to once per day for 10-15 minutes first thing in the morning. Most of you have been watering 3-4 times per day for 5 -10 minutes and now that the grass has emerged from the seedling it is a great time to cut back and save some money on your water bill. Now you may notice a little blue/grey tinges to your lawn in the afternoon for the next and if you do go ahead and hit it with a few minutes of water to syringe the lawn. If you’re going to be mowing your lawn wait until after you’re mowing before you put any water on the lawn. It is best to get a clean cut and the best time is when the leaf blades are dry in the afternoon. This will also save you from having clumps of wet grass all over your lawn to rake up. I personally like to dry the lawn down for one day before I mow it and then give it a nice little syringe after I finish. If you do water in the afternoon after the mow then make sure to set you water back to the morning cycle so the grass can take full advantage of the water without any environmental competition.

All this for under $115

At the 10-14 day mark it is a great time to put down your second application of Soil Burst 16-0-4 at 1.5 quarts per 1000 square feet. It is imperative for your lawn to really give it an early season boost and get it all the nutrients necessary so you can have a successful winter season. The 16-0-4 is used to keep your lawn that golf course green all while boosting the plant strength by helping the ryegrass tiller faster. About 10-14 days after this application I suggest putting down the Soil Burst 7-7-7 which is a broad spectrum balanced fertilizer that helps moderate any soil deficiencies and helps maintain plant color and strength with Manganese and Zinc. Not too many products will provide you with these color kick starters so don’t miss this application.

The last application for the overseed season will be the Soil Burst 4-0-6 which is a product that is high in potassium to give your plant and roots strength as we go into a stress period. This application needs to be done before the first frost because you really want the grass hardy going into December and January when there is very little growth. You will not see much if any growth during December and January but you should still be applying one of these three fertilizers once per month depending on your grasses needs at the time. GRANULAR FERTILIZERS DO NOT WORK WHEN THE SOIL IS TOO COLD TO UPTAKE THEM SO DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY. If you’re putting down a starter fertilizer before sod it is okay because the roots will use the fertilizer as the temperatures warm up. Granular fertilizers will not help green up your lawn during the winter and that’s why you see so many yellow lawns around town.

These are some of the easiest fertilizer tips I can give you at this time of the year. As I have said you really need to get the lawn up and growing early or it will be a struggle for you all season long. A lawn that lacks in fertilizer going into the cold season will often show lots of signs of dormant bermudagrass in the turf, sometimes yellow spots till the ryegrass fills in, or you will have a yellow color all season long. The great thing about the Soil Burst is you can buy these in a package and use them monthly during the winter months to keep your turf looking like a golf course. The same stuff that is packaged in those little bottles is what golf courses use all winter long to get that dark green color. So if you learned anything from me in the last few weeks it is don’t cheat yourself and buy a low quality seed and get that grass up and going early with the right fertilizers.

Beware of bargain seed and fertilizers

Once your lawn has been in a month you should be watering no more than once every 3-5 days for 20-30 minutes to allow your roots to take hold. Don’t waste your money and precious water by watering daily after the grass is established. You will flush the grass of all the nutrients and you can also count on having a poor root system. Remember if you watered your tree every day the roots would never need to go get water and it would fall over, the same is true with grass except with water in the top inch of the soil it will never get strong enough to fight back environmental conditions.

BOBSeed filling in great

We appreciate all the kind comments from those of you who’ve bought BOBSeed and Soil Burst products from us this year and in years past. A special thank you to everyone that has purchased our products and allowed us to better serve you by bringing you our product online, through over 100 Ace Hardware locations, Sprinkler World, Preach Building Supply, Elgin Nursey, and Silverbell Nursery. We love that you’ve chosen to buy local and I’m glad to help you have the best lawn in your neighborhood.

Jay

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