Fertilizer schedule
Comments (11)
morpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
4 years ago
Rohit Naval
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoRelated Discussions
Blueberry fertilizing schedule
Comments (19)Dave, most commonly blueberries are installed with a lot of well mixed peatmoss which has a reputation for being acidifying but once it breaks down, not so much. After the installation an annual application of wood chips, preferably soft wood but whatever is available will insure a rich black soil over time (even if it's just on top). 2 or 3" is enough and at least 6 months of aging a plus. I was just reading the NAFEX list and another knowledgable grower stated the same about blueberries thriving in a relatively high pH....See MoreLawn fertilizer schedule
Comments (5)Caveat: The following are supported by at least some type of study (or possibly an informed opinion) by a university turf program or turf organization. Common to all cool season grasses: Root growth is at its maximum when soil temperatures are between 50 and 65F. (spring and fall) They exhibit a spring flush. Top growth slows/stops and they tend to go dormant in the heat of summer and when drought conditions are present. Top-growth slows significantly or stops in the fall. They can go dormant over the winter. They exhibit a tendency to store carbohydrates at various times for survival. (early summer to allow recover after drought dormancy and in late fall for recover after winter dormancy) Spring fertilization has been tied to increased susceptibility to disease. Specific to rhizome grasses -KB: They exhibit greater root growth during the fall/winter than during spring/summer. They exhibit greater spreading ability in the spring than in the fall. Fertilization programs are or should be designed to fit those characteristics. A late fall fertilization ( applied after top growth has significantly slowed or stopped--called winterizing) is pretty universally advised for all cool season grasses to promote root growth, carbohydrate storage and early spring green-up. A mid-late fall fertilization is optional but advised when needed to stimulate the turf and promote continued photosynthesis so the turf can efficiently use the winterizing application. This application should be avoided if it promotes continued top growth -suspected in the increased incidence of snow mold. A late summer fertilization is advised for all cool season grasses to help the the turf recover from summer dormancy and stress. It is applied after the turf begins to green up and top growth resumes. A late spring/early summer fertilization is advised for all cool season grasses to promote turf health, continued growth and carbohydrate storage to prepare the turf for the heat of summer. It should be applied once the spring flush dissipates. An early spring fertilization is sometimes recommended when a winterizing was not done the prior year. It can also be applied to rhizome grasses-KB to promote spreading when there are bare or thin areas throughout the lawn but should be avoided when those lawns are healthy and thick. The use of this application needs to be balanced with the increased chance of disease. It is advised that it never be applied to fescue lawns due to disease susceptibility. (It is also suspected that this application promotes top growth at the expense of root growth). The best schedule is one based on observation. Hope that helps you develop your program and schedule. This post was edited by yardtractor1 on Tue, Jun 3, 14 at 14:42...See MoreHelp with fertilizing schedule for veggie garden
Comments (2)Frequent applications of fertilizers is a hold over from the "conventional", or synthetic fertilizer, gardening concept where those fertilizers are highly water soluble and flow out of the soil and into the ground water as pollution and are not available to the plants growing there. If you get your soil inot a good healthy condition, well endowed with organic matter so the nutrient levels are not so readily availlable the Soil Food Web will convert the nutrients in that organic matter into the foods your plants need when they need it, as they need without the need to reapply "fertilizers" every so often. That is the objective of an organic gardener/farmer. When first starting, and before you get your soil into that good healthy condition you may need to apply a balanced, organic fertilizer which can be difficult to find, but whatever is used the label directions should be followed, closely....See MoreSeeds in Turface fines - fertilizing schedule?
Comments (5)Dave, I always just figured max sun possible for the seedlings, especially when it's not that hot right now. 72 tops? That or soil-borne reasons sound feasible; I am relatively certain it's not the seeds themselves as I have 6 from an earlier sowing that all made it and 12 more coming up right now without problems, so far, in pure Turface. But after reading your suggestion of sunburn, I peered into my seedlings in Turface and I kind of see some browning similar to that previous batch, as shown below. Does that look like sunburn possibly? Agreed on the feeding seedlings, but I guess I am more concerned solely because Turface has no nutrients vs. my regular seed mix would have some. I made a really weak batch of Foliage Pro in water (1/2 tsp for 40 ozs) in a spray bottle and spritzed them yesterday but perhaps this, too, is unnecessary. But yes, I realize that I wouldn't get many replies to this in terms of what to do. :-) but now I've learned I can burn my seedlings! :-) Susan, I never got any feedback re what it might be! (And to be clear, the green sprout was the normal one; the brown ones were the oddities, haha.) I have strong shiso going right now (6 weeks plus?) so I am really inclined to think it isn't the seeds themselves. But having said that, I'm still at a loss. I'd heard of damping off, but thought it affects the stems first. The stems remained upright and green until almost the end when they withered away and disappeared. The leaves changed color to brown while looking healthy in texture but towards the end, they dried up. Most bizarre. But in the end, dead is dead, and these were dead dead dead. Boo!...See Moremorpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
4 years agoRohit Naval
4 years agomorpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
4 years ago
mishmosh
4 years agoRohit Naval
4 years ago
dchall_san_antonio
4 years agoABC of Northern Lawn Care. Southern lawns have different grasses with different care in some cases. Note that I'm from San Antonio. I lived in Dayton for 18 months about 20 years prior to my learning about lawn care, so my experience with a northern lawn was done in complete ignorance. What I know about Northern lawn care comes from reading and consolidating stuff on this and other forums. For your situation (NY and KBG), you need to listen very closely to what morpheuspa has to say. He has KBG in Eastern PA that looks like this...on the right.
dchall_san_antonio
4 years agoNormally in an ABC discussion I would discuss the benefits of using organic fertilizer, but it didn't fall naturally into that particular take on the ABC basics. So here it is. Organic fertilizer is not compost. For most of 60 years people thought compost was organic fertilizer, but in the late 1990s it came out what was really going on in the soil. There are microbes in the soil which create plant food. Who'da thought!! The only trick is they need to be well fed and watered. The deep and infrequent part of watering is fine for these beneficial little critters. Feeding them is done much better with...organic fertilizer. Now if you look at lots of bags of organic fertilizer you get the drift of what's in them. Basically it is grains like corn, wheat, soybean meal, and alfalfa. In other words, food. This stuff is food for people and all animals including microbes. You will also find animal byproducts in the bag. Products like feathers, poultry poop, and fish meals. What all these things have in common is a mix of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Food. Protein consists of amino acids which contain nitrogen. When the microbes finish with the protein, the nitrogen gets released in the form of plant food. Mother Nature has been perfecting this process for billions of years. It works. By using organic fertilizers you are distributing the food relatively evenly across the soil so all the soil microbes get going at the same time. The application rate for the grain based fertilizers is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Now here's a secret. Commercially bagged and branded organic fertilizers cost about $10 per 1,000 square feet to apply. But if you buy a bag of soybean meal at your local feed store, and apply at 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, the cost drops to more like $3-5 per 1,000. For a comparison, commercially bagged chemical fertilizers can cost more like $2 per 1,000 square feet, so there is a cost associated with organic fertilizer. You'll have to decide if this lawn hobby is work a few bucks more. The cost of compost can be $45 to $75 per 1,000 depending on whether you have it delivered, so that is waaaay out of my hobby budget.
Does it work? Here is a picture taken by mrmumbles many years ago (ca 2010). He tossed a handful of alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) into a spot on the zoysia lawn. He did it in mid May. The picture was taken in mid June.
You can easily see the improved density, color, and growth. I've been using this picture ever since to convince people that organics work. That pic has sold tons and tons of alfalfa pellets - so much that my feed store now asks me if I'm going to use the alfalfa pellets on my lawn or to feed rabbits. Feed stores have caught on. Anyway I get similar results on my lawn. In that picture of morph's lawn...his happens to be fertilized with organics, but he attributes the striking difference between his KBG and the neighboring lawns as being due to deep and infrequent watering (#1 on the list in the ABCs post).
Organic fertilizer has other advantages. Without getting into the academic benefits of organic over synthetic chemicals, one advantage is that you cannot overdo them. Morph tried several years ago by applying a full dose of two different organic fertilizers every week for much of a season. I've done something similar with corn gluten meal. The only thing that happens is the fertilizer benefit lasts a lot longer in the soil after you stop using it. Another advantage is you don't have to water it down to prevent burning. Organics cannot burn like some chemical fertilizers. Something I have noticed sometimes you will get a bunch of birds flocking to your lawn after you apply. Some people want to chase them away, but they cannot eat it all, and they leave enough poop behind to make up the difference. I count birds as a benefit. I have also noticed the population of insects in my lawn is much more stable. Before starting with organic fertilizer I would get the occasional year of the pill bugs or even ladybugs. You do NOT want a thousand ladybugs getting into your walls. The use of organics seems to stabilize Nature in the garden.
There are disadvantages too. Organics will get moldy and buggy sitting in the garage or shed. I use it anyway no matter how bad it gets. Organic food would eventually get moldy and buggy in the soil, so why not use it. If you have some left over at the end of the growing season, you may as well dump it on the lawn rather than store it until spring. Another diss, organics weigh more than synthetic fertilizers. More 'tonnage' needs to be applied to get the same benefit. Here's my observation: with synthetic fertilizer you might apply 3 pounds per 1,000. With organics it's 15-20 pounds. With compost it's 700 pounds (not joking). That's what is required to get a reasonable amount of fertility out of the materials. Another diss, organics take 3 full weeks (21 days) to see the benefits. Some synthetic fertilizers can show results almost overnight. But once you get in the groove, the grass should never really fall behind on appearance.
Rohit Naval thanked dchall_san_antoniomorpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
4 years ago
dchall_san_antonio