If you fertilize with a fertilizer that relies on urea or any other organic source of nitrogen (blood meal, feather meal, hoof/horn meal, alfalfa meal, boiled rice hulls, etc) there is a considerable risk of ammonium toxicity if soil temps are below 55-60*F or will be below 55* at some point in the near future. Immediately after nutrients are absorbed they are deposited in plant cells. If the nitrogen is in nitrate form, this is not a problem for plants; however, if nitrifying soil bacteria are inactive due to low temps, they are unable to convert ammoniacal nitrogen to nitrate. This causes ammonium to accumulate in plant cells with a high potential to damage the cells (at temps below 55-60*F). If you do fertilize, using Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 wouldn't be much of an issue because it supplies >2/3 of its nitrogen in nitrate form; however, most other 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers (like 24-8-16 and 12-4-8) rely completely on urea as their source of nitrogen and they would very likely create toxicity issues. Hobby growers almost always misdiagnose ammonium toxicity and attribute its symptoms to unrelated causes. In addition to being a frequent problem when grow media are below 55-60*F, the toxicity is also extremely common in waterlogged media or in plantings with compacted grow medium and/or when roots are congested; this due to the paucity of oxygen and high levels of CO2 in waterlogged or compacted media. BTW, if you will be keeping the chives in a pot, you should divide them every year, taking one or two divisions from the perimeter of the clump - not from the middle. The planting will need fertilizing if you keep it in a pot, but probably won't need fertilizing if planted out. Every plant needs a full compliment of nutrients essential to normal growth to be at it's best, and the only way to tell if your garden/ beds need supplemental nutrition is by way of a soil test. Al

You also get the wisdom of the ages and people who might not have the same experiences. The advice I gave is based on years (and years) of reading and moderating forums for amateurs and professionals. Applying fertilizer on Memorial Day might be too late in your area due to the onset of summer heat, but as a starting point, it is a very easy date to remember. Whether you get disease or not depends also on grass variety, air circulation, dew, humidity, soil type, and other factors. I'm not sure why Georgia would be much different from other places where the taller grasses are the healthier ones. At the same time that the wisdom of the ages sounds like a good idea, you also get the senility of the aged. Tupersan is relatively new to my repertoire of garden products. I became 100% organic before I heard of it and seem to have a block about that product. In general I don't put any faith in preemergent herbicides but people I respect tell me they work. I do recall from my relatively recent reading that Tupersan works as tiemco says. Professional grass growers (livestock producers) fertilize with 1/4 of their annual nitrogen in the spring, and they always apply it after the initial flush of green growth has ended. They apply 3/4 of the annual nitrogen in the fall. They do it this way to minimize their mowing workload and to spread the productive growth along throughout the entire growing season. The wisdom of the ages here at GardenWeb also agrees with tiemco that combination fertilizer/weed killer products are not going to do what you expect them to do and it is better to use different products for the different requirements. Yes Mother Nature has Her own ideas about watering, but for what you do, you do not have to encourage weeds. Far too many people set their sprinkler to operate for 10 minutes every day. That schedule is going to germinate every seed in the garden. You have control over your own watering. Allowing the soil surface to dry out as much as you can will develop deep, drought resistant roots as well as minimize weed seed germination.

For a bermuda lawn in the south... 1. Water a full inch once per week until the high temps fall below 90 degrees F. Then back off to watering once every 2 weeks. 2. Mulch mow at 1.5 inches at least once per week. 3. Fertilize with a high N fertilizer monthly during the growing season. 4. Spot spray the clover with Weed-B-Gone Clover, Chickweed, and Oxalis killer about 2 weeks after you fertilize. Let the crabgrass die out by itself. Once it does, the bermuda will refill. It might not happen until next spring. The reason you have crabgrass is most likely to be from watering too frequently and allowing the bermuda to get too tall. Tall bermuda becomes thin and allows weeds to get a foothold. It is also likely you are not fertilizing often enough to keep the turf dense. Clover is an indicator weed. It can thrive in poor soil while other grasses and weeds cannot. If you improve the soil with proper watering and regular fertilizer, the clover will not have a chance to get going. Clover leaves a lot of seed behind. If the grass thins out, you'll see it again. Hit it with the WBG-CCO again when that happens. If your bermuda is a hybrid Tif 419 sod turf, then NEVER apply bermuda seed. Seeded bermuda and sodded hybrids are very different plants. The difference is like the difference between gorillas and humans. They are related but not the same. Now if your bermuda is just common bermuda that invaded and became the lawn, then you can seed. Still, bermuda is such an invasive plant that seeding is very rarely needed. If you decide to seed, then do it next June when the soil is warm and the air is hot. But by then you should have a dense turf that needs no seed. I would also suggest using one application per year of organic fertilizer to improve your soil health. The one I like for now is simple alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) applied at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Sometimes when you stick to the same chemical fertilizer for many years, the lawn might crash under a drought stress. By using the organic fertilizer once a year (or all the time), you should avoid the crash.

Yeah, I was just reading online how to fill in all the holes that were inbetween fescue (since I couldn't seed more fescue in hot weather). I probably won't be adding anymore bermuda, just stick with the tall fescue. Which is wierd, if it's a cold season grass, then how does it grow so good in this zone 9 110 heat? Shouldn't it be the opposite? I noticed it goes somewhat dormant, and doesn't grow hardly at all for about a month when it's over 100...but it stays nice and green! I mow at about 2.5" and the bermuda doesn't seem to mind. The bermuda grows good too, but I like the way fescue looks better...and it's about half the price. I'll probably stick with fescue since it'll be green in winter too. So what schedule should I use if I'm going to stick with my fescue mix? Should I aerate, seed, or fertilize first?