Most places have shorter mowing seasons than south Louisiana. Your lawn has more time to grow when spring comes early, winter comes late, and the weather stays warm all year long. No matter how short the break is for your mower, you need to prepare your grass for winter. Fertilizing in the fall for the winter is a key part of this process. Here is everything you need to know to prepare your lawn for winter and feed it.
What is Winter Fertilizer?
Winter fertilizer is a great product that can rejuvenate your lawn and recover from the wear and tear it goes through in the spring and summer. This fertilizer not only helps bring the lawn back to life but also gives it the food it needs during the winter. This treatment will help make sure that your lawn is healthy when it’s time for it to grow again.
You should choose a fertilizer that has a lot of nitrogen and potassium. It’s important that the grass and soil get all of the nutrients they need from these things. Nitrogen will bring back the carbohydrate reserves of the lawn. During the cold months, potassium will help the roots grow and give the plant the strength it needs to deal with cold weather, frost, ice, and snow. By building up and strengthening your lawn’s root system, nutrients and water can be absorbed more efficiently. This leads to a faster green-up in the spring and more stable growth during the summer.
When should you use winter fertilizer?
Before your lawn gets its first frost, you should spread fertilizer on it. This makes sure that the fertilizer can get to work while the grass is still growing. After putting down a winterizing fertilizer, you should water it down into the soil and grass roots, or you can put it out just before a light rain is expected. If you have an irrigation system, you can just put down the seed at any time and let the irrigation zones run to water it in.
Fall Fungicide Application
A granular systemic lawn fungicide is an often-overlooked but helpful application that many people do not know about. This can be done at the same time as putting down fertilizer for the winter, and it has a number of important benefits. The first and most important benefit of fungicides is that they help stop fungal infections from happening in the first place. Changes in temperature in the fall tend to put both grass and plants under stress, and when they are stressed, they are more likely to get fungal infections. Some grasses, like St. Augustine and some types of Zoysia (depending on where you live), never go completely dormant. They can get fungal infections that spread all season long. The most common type of fungus is Brown Patch, which causes large brown circles. In St. Augustine, the blades will die, leaving a tan area of dead blades. When centipede grass is completely dead, this usually looks like it has been trampled or matted down. Take All fungus, unlike Brown Patch fungus, spreads quickly and causes severe, and sometimes irreparable, damage to the turf. It is important to treat your lawn before symptoms appear or quickly after symptoms appear to make sure your lawn stays healthy and can recover quickly if damage has already been done.
Baton Rogue Landscape Pros has experts who can help you keep your yard looking great all year long. Baton Rogue Landscape Pros has kept homes and businesses in Baton Rouge clean and green for more than 14 years.
