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The Benefits of Fertilization for Your Dallas Warm-Season Grass

Your property’s soil is the central station of your lawn, the heart, the brain, and the soul of your landscape. It provides an anchor for your grass, plants, trees, and shrubs. So how do you protect and sustain something so vital and critical to the well-being of your entire lawn? Through fertilization. Today we are going to explain the ins and outs of lawn fertilization, what it is, why it’s so beneficial, and how you can go about providing it for your Dallas area lawn.

What Is Fertilizer?

Fertilizer is a blend of synthetic or organic macronutrients designed to give your grass the supplemental vitamins and minerals it needs to stay healthy. It can be made organically or synthetically. Organic fertilizers are made up of plant or animal sources such as manure, compost, or bone meal and do not have any added artificial ingredients. Synthetic fertilizer is water-soluble and fast-acting. While it comes in different forms, synthetic fertilizers contain the same three primary macronutrients your grass needs.

The Three Micro Nutrients Synthetic Fertilizer Contains

If you’ve ever seen bags of fertilizer at your local home or garden store, you may have noticed that they have a series of numbers on them, such as 16-12-12 or 3-3-3.  These numbers inform you of the amount of the three main ingredients in fertilizer, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, and the numbers are listed in that order. Your lawn needs all three minerals but, too little or too much of each can offset your turf.

What Does Nitrogen Do?
Nitrogen helps with rapid growth and is ideal for adding to lawns in the spring and kickstarting the growing season. Nitrogen helps with leaf development, chlorophyll formation, and photosynthesis. And it comes in two different forms to meet the changing needs of the season: slow-release and quick-release.

Quick-release nitrogen is typically more affordable and offers a faster response. Its best used when time is of the essence and a dark, green lawn is needed fast. The downside of quick-release nitrogen is that it can often cause a large flush of growth, and if not applied evenly, growth can appear uneven, making parts of your lawn appear greener than others. It can also burn your grass if you use too much, scorching the plant tissue and resulting in dead patches.

Slow-release nitrogen gives the soil a delayed and steady release of nutrients over the course of several weeks. It also creates a more uniform growth and is less likely to burn the grass. However, it is more pricy and requires a longer waiting period.

What Is Phosphorous?
Phosphorous is needed for early root growth, seed formation and helps grass reach maturity more quickly. It helps your grass to fend off diseases and stay healthy. However, it is essential to control the amounts being used because, as with nitrogen, too much or too little can cause problems. Too little phosphorous and your grass may suffer from weak roots. Too much phosphorous can cause runoff into Dallas’s streams and waterways, increasing the growth of algae and weeds, leading to the death of fish and wildlife.

What Is Potassium?
Keeping a balanced potassium level in your lawn will help your grass regulate its processes. It’s important to keep a balanced level of potassium because it helps your grass absorb the other nutrients. It helps make it more tolerant to stress and drought, and, like phosphorous, potassium aids with root growth and stem development. 

Micronutrients

Other lesser-known ingredients in fertilizer include what are known as micronutrients. These are the additional ingredients in fertilizer that help keep your grass healthy. Some of these micronutrients include chlorine, copper, iron, nickel, manganese, and zinc. They assist your grass with processes like chlorophyll production, photosynthesis, and disease and pest resistance.

Why Is Fertilizer So Important?

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, your property’s soil is the central station of your lawn. Inside that soil are what we call roots. Like all living things, roots sometimes require supplements to help them stay healthy and strong. Roots are susceptible to illness, weakness, and a variety of other stressors, including heat, drought, excess water, overuse, diseases, and pests. Even weeds can take a toll on your grass, zapping the roots of all the nutrients it once had.

The grass in your lawn has needs and requirements, just like every living thing. Water, air, sunlight, and nutrients keep the grass healthy and continue growing. While water, air, and sunlight come naturally, nutrients are sometimes depleted and need to be applied manually. That’s where fertilization comes in. Fertilizing the lawn is an essential step in every lawn care plan. Whether it be fertilizing in the spring, summer, or fall, it’s important to provide the grass with the specific nutrients it needs to grow and stay healthy.

When Is the Best Time To Fertilize Your Dallas Lawn?

Properly timed spring lawn fertilization helps your warm-season grass wake up from winter dormancy and quickly start growing again. In the early spring, the grass is especially vulnerable to many different threats. Lawn diseases and fungi run rampant in the wet and weakened grass, opportunistic weeds quickly spread, and lawn pests begin to invade. Spring lawn fertilization helps maintain the lawn’s natural immune system by providing it with the right nutrients at the right time. This early boost helps strengthen the grass against these early threats, ensuring the turf starts the year as healthy as possible.

It Is Not Too Soon To Sign Up For Your Spring Lawn Care Program With Lawns-4-U

Spring is an important time for the area’s warm-season grasses. And while it may only be January, spring is not a long way off. Schedule your spring lawn fertilization and other spring lawn care services with Lawns-4-U now and get ahead of your neighbors. Lawns-4-U provides a comprehensive 8-step lawn care program that combines the appropriate amounts of fertilizer needed for the health and maintenance of your Dallas lawn. Our process includes a balanced fertilizer with pre-emergent and post-emergent weed control and insecticides used only as necessary.

Learn more about our 8-step lawn care program by visiting our website today. You can also reach out and contact us online or give us a call at 972-859-0658.

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