Cheapest Way To Fertilize A Fall Lawn // Synthetics Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- This video explains a lot about standard lawn care fertilization techniques in the Fall that center around Urea and synthetic fertilizer blends that are commonly sold in big box stores everywhere.
This style of lawn fertilization is the cheapest but it also forms a dependency on more and more inputs year after year because most synthetic fertilizers are somewhat lacking in the less obvious nutrients and deplete the soil over the years rather than build it up.
I believe however there is a place for synthetic fertilization so I explain what place it has in this video along with my preferred techniques to make it more sustainable over the long term.
One of my favorite ways to marry synthetic fertilizers with natural fertilizers and biostimulants is with a new product called Soil Fit. It's roughly half synthetic fertilizer and half natural and it even includes additives that help your lawn use the nutrients with less waste or loss.
► Soil Fit: shrsl.com/46j4i
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Very informative video, thank you!
Really informative video. Thanks so much for making it easy to understand for a rookie!
thats my job; glad to be helping out so many :) Have a great weekend! We're hitting 100 degrees today; should be a fun weekend of water play with the kids in the back yard before summer comes to an end. :)
If the lawn is mostly green when it's long, but shows yellowing areas after cutting. And if you dig deep with your fingers and see yellow blades down deep. But the moisture meter says good, what might the problem be.
Should mention the lawn was immaculate, nice deep green and thick. Then we got 2 months of hot dry weather and a few days of heavy downpours followed by 90+ again. Started seeing signs of deep yellowing where the low spots are. Should also mention this lawn is only 3 years old over drainage stone with once was 4" to 6" of good top soil. Lawn has always looked thick and dark green. Lots of lime and ironite 2 times or more a season with the regular Scotts maintenance fertilizer and grub killer. I was told 2 weeks ago to stop watering and let lawn grow long. Said it's been too hot and then heavy rains. But it's showing signs of more yellowing.
I did a test section of dethatching at highest position and it thin it out and shows more of the deep yellowing below blades just above soil. Not sure if I should go all out and scarify and air rate or not. Any suggestions?
I just tried an experiment with 'weed and feed'(again) and that was to dump a whole bag down on ~2000sqfeet to *kill that area*
...I did this once before, not knowing what I was doing 10+ years ago, and it actually was the very first time I'd ever used any lawn product; but I'd just taken a red plastic cup and tossed it out - a week later I had dead zebra stripes all over that yard, so next I had to buy my very first bag of grass seed and my obsession with lawn care had begun
anyway, I wanted to revisit that "method" of grass kill off as I have an area that I'm changing the grass type on - so at least this time I did use a drop spreader to get even coverage, and I had an old bag of the 'weed-n-feed' I wasn't using so I thought I'd give it a shot - the grass area had all kinds of weeds in it that I had been spot treating but having a hard time keeping up with, and it was an older Rye grass that I got some cheap seed from a big box store and wanted to upgrade to a much nicer and darker Rye I'm using in other nearby areas that is higher performing ...the *over dosing of nitrogen* this time didn't work great, killing I'd guess 70% of the grass altho I can't find a weed anywhere out there now - but *I would not do this again* because a bag of that stuff is ~$27 or whatever and something like glyphosate would cost less, work faster, and not leave the soil so fried ....it has now been over two weeks since I did the n-dump, and yesterday I started the chemical final kill off passes, then the top soil will be lightly tilled/verticut and leveled/smoothed - but it should be fine to plant in after that? idk
So I'm seeing a lot of diesel exhaust for Urea as the cheapest, and then Lowe's brand Sta-Green for ammonia nitrate (which I like because of the Ph lowering).
Princess cut lawn care huh. Nice.
yeah I think he was the first to really make this look like a viable option
quite possibly the cheapest is fish tank water for those of us with fish tanks that need to do periodic water changes and steeping spent coffee grind or collected grass clippings into an organic fertilizer "tea"...but those are messy and not easily scalable. DEF is a VERY cheap option for Urea but I haven't jumped on that bandwagon yet. IMO it's kind of like caveman fertilization, right up there with spraying household Ammonia on the lawn for Nitrogen. In the context of this video Urea is what I classify as semi-synthetic. It's not what I like to use and even though it may be cheap for N per pound by dollar spent a lot of Urea is lost in lawn applications to the atmosphere via gassing off (volatilization). This would affect DEF as well. I have to look closer at the sta-green product to comment, if I remember this evening or weekend I'll give their stuff a closer look.
Commenting for the algorithm!
I’m starting to cut lower in preparation for a dethatch, aerate, and overseed. Recommend any fertilizer for over seeding in particular?
Always appreciate the algo push! :D As for the question I like to recommend anything that contains some (doesn't have to be a lot) of NP&K. I also would suggest using something that's not fully synthetic as it gets used up too fast and if the conditions call for it it can dehydrate seedlings a bit. At time of overseeding anything soybean meal based would be fantastic. Soybean meal is naturally 7-1-2 and will act slow and is almost nill on the salt index. I've used this stuff in many different products on the channel, most recently it's been through Anderson's Innova where I "branded it" a Milorganite alternative. th-cam.com/video/VP5J5gzymc4/w-d-xo.html If you want something cheaper or possible available locally then look for Scotts Naturals Lawn Food which is an 11-2-2 using predominantly feather meal for N and bone meal for P. You can usually find that stuff in a variety of big box stores; just not all of them. Here's a vid I made on it: th-cam.com/video/6-EAznxD6yc/w-d-xo.html - Last option is to just juice the overseed with a low dose NPK fert containing high levels biostimulants like kelp. Most recently I've been recommending Total Lawn from Lawnbright for that: turfmechanic.com/products/#fert - Hope all that helps!
I've tried organic fertilizers and I've haven't noticed much improvement in my front yard because it gets so much sun, when I apply some ammonia It pops, my back is a different situation It gets less sun and it looks good with out much fertilizer.
yep, that makes sense. all the synthetics work like a shot of adrenaline while the organics work like diet and exercise. LOL - If the hot sun is keeping that front yard dry then the organics might break down slower than they would in a warm and slightly damp yard. For me I run the organics for full seasons at a time and eventually I look at the lawn and hardly think it ever needs anything at all. It's just constantly on fire.
What bug defense do you use, cause when we add nitrogen we start getting CLOVER MITES and they’re a mother to try and get rid of.
clover mites are something I haven't dealt with personally and haven't researched a lot either. In 4.5 years running this channel you are the first person to ask me about them. What I do know is that they are typically a spring and fall problem. They tend to be somewhat dormant in the summer so it makes sense that you only see them as a major problem when you are fertilizing because the seasons overlap. I use very little insect control overall. I use BT to prevent grubs in very early summer and occasionally I spray Cedarwood oil on the lawn to control ticks and fleas on the pets in our home but that's it. I personally trust DoMyOwn for a lot of their info, this is what they have labeled for clover mite control: www.domyown.com/clover-mites-ap-28.html - I'd start on that list with my research and compare active ingredients to see what option seems best.
I look forward to your videos.. I watch them all!.. I have a question. A small portion of my SMALL front lawn gets tons of shade.. minimal sun ..I want to use one of those patch repairs from pennington or scott's ez seed. I have a tough time growing grass... Even though i try,lol... ANyways, I have been told by my uncle that I have have a blend of rye, some fesscue and some bluegrass. I live here in new york. ANy suggestions on one of those products I can use? I'm so confused with the descriptions.. One says dense shade , but it says tall fescue, etc.. Nothing says all 3 together... Thanks!
thanks for the compliments and for your trust. If you were my neighbor or family member or friend I'd suggest scrapping the patch kits and buying a small bag of fine fescue on amazon, probably creeping red fescue for it's lateral spread, and then overseeding the entire area with that. Possibly dust a small bag of peat moss over the seeded area and then call it a day. For about two weeks straight water the patch for five min or so every evening and then forget about it. The fine fescue is what provides shade tolerance. The fine fescues are usually blended with rye, tall fescue, and/or bluegrass to give them better wear tolerance (durability to foot traffic and usage) but so long as the spot isn't heavily used all you need is extra fine fescue growing in the shady spot. I'd feather out the application outside of the shady spot to blend it into the rest of your lawn a bit but that's all thats needed. It's a very simple job you can have done in 30 min and the seed itself will probably cost less than the patch repair kits. A quick search on amazon shows outside pride (a company that I've bought from multiple times before) selling a few different 5lb bags of fine fescue for roughly $30-$40. Small bags of peat moss can usually be found in garden stores locally or online for less than $20. It's the best way to go IMO.
@@TurfMechanic thanks so much! ..Looking forward to the next video... Good day to ya.
Does anyone make a weed killer for all weeds? It seems weird they leave out herbicides so you have to buy another product with different herbicides
The more you learn about how herbicides work the more you realize how close to impossible that is. Just imagine if you had 10 kids in the house - two of them were allergic to peanut butter, two were lactose intolerant, two had egg allergies, two couldn't eat gluten, and two others had allergies to shell fish. Now imagine that you wanted to get everybody sick with breakfast except for you (LOL, I've morbid sense of humor this morning), what food would you make? :) The analogy isn't perfect but I think it illustrates the point well enough.
you know you can get the concentrate of Spectracide, and it would be a lot cheaper.
you are absolutely right, point is to encourage lawn owners to go beyond the ready-to-spray bottles into any concentrate. They tend to work better and are cheaper in the long run.
Do you like the Jonathan green products?
some of them, I like their organic lawn food, a 10-0-1 based on mostly feather meal and their corn gluten meal is an option for organic fertilization with the minimal chance of weed suppression. I don't get excited about too many other products in their lineup though.
@@TurfMechanicI want to use mostly organic product what brand do you recommend
These days I use mostly Lawnbox products (granular) which currently fall under The Anderson's umbrella. And for liquids I use Lawnbright products...even though some of lawnbrights products use urea. Big box store options I like a lot include Jonathan Green Organic Lawn Food as previously mentioned and Scott's Naturals Lawn Food which is an 11-2-2 if memory serves correct. I have links to a lot of that stuff here: turfmechanic.com/products/ - an extra option is to find a garden supply store (or just buy on Amazon) straight alfalfa meal and/or soybean meal and dump it on the lawn. These are usually options that gardeners till into their soil but they usually spread very easily on the lawn and work great. The alfalfa meal is very mild NPK but it's a huge organic matter addition to the lawn that comes with naturally occurring triacontinol (a growth regulator that pushes slow top growth and enhanced root growth). The organic matter addition also aids the soil in increases its cation exchange capacity meaning nutrients are less easily lost and more easily plant available. I'm starting to preach here though so before I make another youtube video here in the comments I'll leave it at that. LOL
@@TurfMechanicyou should make a video on the brands you like
@@TurfMechanicmy lawn is really low on Copper Zinc and Boron what should I use
New video from the old house? 😊
It's a reedited version of one of that last videos I made at the old house 24 months back. I cleaned up some of the sound issues and shortened it up about 10% for better viewing. New title and thumb all makes it feel new. I'm always hopeful the redo vids I put out from time to time like this one are well recepted by you all. I never want to be considered a guy that reuploads the same video over and over.
@@TurfMechanic Love it. I do miss seeing your old place. Though the new videos are good as well, they are not cool season so don't apply to me as much.
yeah, I'm doing the "bad" tactic of not niching down to a single grass type these days. I'm making a lot of mixed content now on both warm and cool season grasses and it splits the audience a bit. Glad to have you in the fold still though...and no joke, sometimes editing footage from the old house makes me emotional. That old place was like paradise and now we're just in a neighborhood of track homes from the 70s. Cali is just so crazy expensive!
Wait.. is this your old house?!
yep, we moved away for good in Nov 2022 and officially sold in Jan of 2023. Miss it dearly too. I don't however miss the braces. :D