I have it entered that I have rye/fescue/bluegrass and I did the pre emergent with fertilizer like it said. But, I keep hearing only to fertilize in spring and fall where the app says twice more in the middle. Is this just them trying to maximize profits at my expense?
by Substantial_Bad2843
11 Comments
Apply spring pre-emergents when the 5 day average soil temps are in the 50-55F range. Or use [this tracker](https://gddtracker.msu.edu/).
If you have a question about pre-emergents, read the entire label. If you still have a question, read the entire label again.
Pre-emergents are used to prevent the germination of specific weed seeds. They don’t kill existing weeds.
Most broadleaf weeds you see in the spring can’t be prevented with normal pre emergents. You’d need to apply a specialty broadleaf pre emergent in the FALL.
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Of course the Scott’s app is trying to sell you fertilizer but it doesn’t seem like they are over doing it either. It’s perfectly fine to put down a slow release fertilizer during summer. They are also having you put down a weed killer and insect killer which are perfectly fine. I put this stuff down but separately from my fertilizer, whereas Scott’s is all in one. I generally like to go heavy on nitrogen in the fall because cool season grass thrives during this time and your summer weeds are dying out.
This guide from /u/nilesandstuff is good to follow. Depends on how much you water and if the lawn needs it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/Lu1HqDpPXT.
Ultimately, scotts has an incentive to get you buying more fertilizer than you might need or is recommended.
Their specialty mixes seem appropriate for year-round lawn care with these mixes and blends. I would do it if I could afford it 😁
Scott’s is reasonably good when you are first starting out, but yes you can do a lot better once you get familiar with lawn care. As mentioned, Niles has put together a great guide.
If you like pretty charts and graphics, [here](https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/ay/ay-22-w.pdf) is a nice guide from Purdue for cool season grass. Page 6 if you want to skip to the good stuff.
To be honest, I have used Scott’s and they worked just fine. But now I buy a much bigger bag of better locally made stuff and I stopped following the Scott’s schedule and started doing microfeedings once a month during spring/summer and then in fall I just do the one heavier fall feed.
I live in northern Illinois and found that that’s a similar schedule I follow. I just laid pre emergent, and for the first time also put down some nitrogen to get the lawn growing.
But i only apply lawn food throughout the summer every 6ish weeks. And then I’ll spot spray weeds. I don’t like using weed n feed. It’s messy and you don’t need to put weed killer on your entire lawn.
So this year it’s looking like I will put down lawn food 4x’s (1 app was with my pre emergent) and then a fall feed in September sometime.
I went to my local ACE Hardware and saw that Scotts had a 4-step program all laid out. They advertised their Turf Builder products as the four steps and told you when to purchase and apply them.
I don’t see anything wrong with it, if you want to go that route. The ACE Hardware early spring fertilizer is comparable in its mix, but it doesn’t include the weed prevention, just the fertilizer, so it’s cheaper. If you don’t have your weeds under control before you apply the ACE fertilizer, you just end up fertilizing the weeds. Scotts seems to be a jack of all trades, so its strength is to simplify things.
There are many ways to manage turf. The people who have the toughest jobs get paid big money to keep grass green and playable. Playable. Pro turf managers working for pro sports teams and high end golf course superintendents. For them fertilizer application depends on climate and location. For them, generally the goal is to apply 0.5 to 1 lb of actual N per thousand square feet of turf area in the seasons when grass is actively growing.
Homeowners and others in less intensive management situations can get away with much less, even no nitrogen fertilizer although a healthy turf needs lots of nitrogen to maintain its vigor. A pound of N in the spring and a pound in the fall, all at once or in split applications is entirely reasonable for most of us.
You can choose to fertilize as much or as little as you want/need.
Personally, I use granulars 4-5 times per year, and liquids every 2 weeks. It takes a lot of patience to dial it in.
The 4x schedule is a good, generic “safe” schedule for the average joe. With a well established lawn, you can fine tune based on your natural soil/climate, muching vs bagging practices, etc to economize fertilizer usage.