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Scott's starter fertilizer plus weed preventer

7 years ago

What are your thoughts on using this starter fertilizer? I am planning to reseed a pretty crummy looking lawn that has a lot of crabgrass and foxtail. I plan to scalp the lawn short and bag first, aerate like crazy, then lay the seed. Will this starter fertilizer kill any existing weeds while the seed germinates? Is it worth the cost? I'm dealing with around 20k sf, so trying to find a way to preserve the grass I have (without doing a total kill off with roundup now). Thanks

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Comments (3)

danielj_2009
7 years ago
Are you going to "reseed" or are you going to "overseed"? They are two very different things. It looks like you are intending to overseed, which is a way to thicken your lawn in the fall if you have annual grasses.

I think you should kill off as much of the weeds with a targeted week killer like Weed B Gone (or Weed B Gone CCO) before doing anything with seed. If reseeding, the usual practice is to kill everything, water for about a week in order to germinate any weed seeds and then kill it off again. Repeat if possible. Then you are ready to reseed. This will allow you to water and germinate mostly grass instead of grass and weeds.

Starter fertilizer is good to use, but it won't do anything about the weeds.

If you are going through the effort to redo 20K sf, I would recommend you post lots of pics in this forum first and get some recommendations on a direction. This is a lot of work and it would be a shame to go off in the wrong direction if it can be avoided.
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aluvaboy
7 years ago
One more thing to consider when seeding a large area like this: How are you going to keep the seeds moist to get better germination. Grass seeds needs to be kept moist by watering the seeded area every 3-4 hours in the first few days of seeding and then couple of times a day until the grass is established. Do you have a sprinkler system? Or are you going to depend on Mother Nature for watering. In my opinion, tackling this in small sections will be the way to go. Like four 5K sections. To your original question: starter fertilizer will not kill weed seed. In fact it will boost the growth of existing weeds.
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Ouch. It's getting quite warm for some of that. I'm assuming that you have bluegrass or fescue - both of which - but especially fescue - if over-fertilized, will be more susceptible to brown patch. If it were me I would spot treat with a liquid selective herbicide like Weed-B-Gone or something that is labeled for use on the weeds you want to kill. You should wait for the coolest day possible, and spray carefully, knowing that it could also kill the grass. Also, with warmer temperatures, spray can volatile and drift to non-target plants (i.e. trees, flowers, shrubs) very easily.
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I got my soil test results back from the university this afternoon and to be quite honest, it's looking way++ better than I thought it would, but I have this one question/doubt about my plan of attack... -------------------------------------- Water pH - 6.1 Phosphorus - 120+ ppm (very high) Potassium - 320+ ppm (very high) Calcium - 1280+ ppm (sufficient) Magnesium - 64+ ppm (sufficient) Organic M. - 2.9% Lawn, Cool Season ESTABLISHMENT: Apply 4.4 lbs. of 34-0-0 or 5.0 lbs. of 30-3-4 or 5.4 lbs. of 28-3-3 or 29-3-4 per 1000 sq. ft. A slow release formulation of nitrogen may give the best results. Select an appropriate maintenance schedule (see section B below) and begin following that schedule the very next spring or fall season after lawn establishment.... It goes on to say in the maintenance schedule how I need to choose fertilizers that contain very low amounts of P & K at the along normal KGB fertilization schedule. -------------------------------------- Here's where I'm concerned. The original plan was to lay down an application of Scott's Starter Fertilizer (20-27-5) on top of the freshly sown seedbed of my Galaxy Plus KBG but looking at the recommendations and how high my current potassium and phosphorus values are I figure that's out however I'm unsure if putting something that is so very high in nitrogen onto the newly sown seedbed is safe...? If so, can anyone recommend a product along those lines ( 34-0-0 ) that i could use on what will be my freshly sown seedbed?
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Will it kill the lawn? Nope. We're complete and utter sticklers around here, so we tend to do what's best at the exactly proper time. The nitrogen in the feed will force the lawn to grow green blades instead of grow roots the way it wants to right now. That won't kill it, but it'll render it a bit weaker than it would have been. It looks better, but it's actually not nearly as healthy as my slow-growing, puttering lawn. That difference reverses in July when my root systems can tap deeper sources of water and the early-season fed ones dry up and go into dormancy. It's not that mine doesn't, but it takes longer and requires less water to keep it going. If you used a winterizer, you don't need to feed right now and you're better off waiting until late May. If you didn't, an application of Milorganite would be better for it as the nitrogen is organically locked and takes much longer to be available...and won't force the lawn into overgrowth. Not much, anyway. Is this the best time to use a pre-emergent? It's getting really close. The forsythia are just starting to open here, which is the exact right moment. For you in MA, that will differ.
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Seeding in the middle of June is a recipe for disaster. The Turf Builder product you purchased should have gone down with the seed. The good news is, cool season grasses aren't affected by the weed preventer in that product so you can seed again. Here's information on lawn renovation: http://lawniac.com/lawn-renovation Start with the fallowing right away and plan on seeding late August. If you need quick establishment stay away from Kentucky Bluegrass or mixes and go for a 100% Tall Fescue lawn. You will need 8-10 lbs of tall fescue seed per thousand sq ft. I would suggest calling The Hogan Company and having them recommend a fescue blend for your area, they sell good quality seed. http://www.thehogancompany.us/home.html Stay away from Kentucky 31 fescue, it's pasture grass. Stay away from big box store seed, it's poor quality and full of weed seed.
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Kris Shifler
7 years ago
The active ingredient in Scotts Starter Plus Weed Preventer is Mesotrione - the same active ingredient as Tenacity. Mesotrione will prevent new weeds and kill existing ones. I've read good things about this starter fertilizer and seriously considered using it in my lawn renovation this year. I decided against it because of cost. For me, buying starter fertilizer and an 8 oz. bottle of Tenacity is much more cost effective.

One other nice thing about the Scotts starter with Mesotrione is that it eliminates a step (applying Tenacity) in the overseed/reseed process - with 20k sq ft that might be significant for you.

Good luck!
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