What fertilizer to use?

[andy2019]

My grass is starting to get brown. I increased watering from 5 mins to 15 mins, 3 times a week already.

what fertilizer do you recommend to use for grass please? Also when to fertilize (every 3 months???) please and if you can indicate what month, what will be great.

I prefer organic fertilizer if possible since I have fruit trees and vegetable planted on the outside of the lawn.

Thanks

 

[oneeye]

I've used this poultry mix for my go to organic fertilizer for everything. It's very spreadable with a broadcaster and it spreads evenly. It doesn't burn as bad as some do, but it will still burn. I use it on my lawn only one time a year in May and around my trees and shrubs. I would not fertilize any yard 3 times a year with any kind of fertilizer.

 

[Chuck]

My grass is starting to get brown. I increased watering from 5 mins to 15 mins, 3 times a week already.

what fertilizer do you recommend to use for grass please? Also when to fertilize (every 3 months???) please and if you can indicate what month, what will be great.

I prefer organic fertilizer if possible since I have fruit trees and vegetable planted on the outside of the lawn.

Thanks

How much water are you actually putting down? Grass requires an inch per week ON THE ROOTS. The next time you water put a few tuna fish or cat food cans in different places on the lawn and time how long it takes to fill up the cans. After you find out how long it takes to fill up the cans set the timer for that amount of time, once per week.

 

[headfullofbees]

Give your grass some Epsom salts, 30g per gallon in a watering can, covering approx. 10sqyds per can, every time it looks really bad.
As Chuck says, water only once a week.

 

[andy2019]

Give your grass some Epsom salts, 30g per gallon in a watering can, covering approx. 10sqyds per can, every time it looks really bad.
As Chuck says, water only once a week.

So no fertilizer? Only Epsom salts whenever it's brown?

 

[Chuck]

So no fertilizer? Only Epsom salts whenever it's brown?

Epsom salts has no nutritional value but what it does is enable the plant/grass to uptake what nutrition there is in the soil. Living in Calif. I would guess that your grass is some type of bermuda. Just about all lawn grasses with the exception of St. Augustine will turn brown in heat and when too dry. If St. Augustine turns brown it is dead. You probably do not need to fertilize. In zone 10 it stays fairly warm at this time of year and the soil at the root zone is probably dry, thus the browning. If you water sufficiently the grass will turn green again and adding Epsom Salt can definitely help in the greening. On a sprinkler system watering 15 minutes barely gets the top of the soil wet. You need to get the soil wet down to about 2 inches and keep it damp at that depth. On a normal sprinkler system it will probably take an hour to lay down an inch of water. Just put those cans out and time how long it takes. Your grass should green up in about 2 weeks. If the color of the green grass has a yellowish tinge to it then it needs to be fertilized.

 

[andy2019]

Once my grass is green again, to keep it green and healthy going forward, do I need to fertilize it every year also or 1 inch of water per week should be good enough? Thanks

 

[Chuck]

Once my grass is green again, to keep it green and healthy going forward, do I need to fertilize it every year also or 1 inch of water per week should be good enough? Thanks

You need to fertilize at least once a year no matter what, but, to keep the grass green you MUST keep the roots damp, and this requires at least 1 inch of water per week no matter what. You can fertilize until hell freezes over but without sufficient water it will brown out.

 

[andy2019]

Thanks

 

[SubbuPD]

"Epsom salts" should work

 

[andy2019]

"Epsom salts" should work

Yeah, here's what I'll do every year. Apply Epsom salts in may (and whenever things are bad) and water once a week for at least 1 inch all year round

 

[Chuck]

Yeah, here's what I'll do every year. Apply Epsom salts in may (and whenever things are bad) and water once a week for at least 1 inch all year round

And don't forget to fertilize at least once per year. With organic lawn fertilizers, you can fertilize any day of the year but with synthetic/oil based fertilizers you are date restricted and amount restricted. Remember that Epsom Salts is not a fertilizer

 

[DirtMechanic]

My grass is starting to get brown. I increased watering from 5 mins to 15 mins, 3 times a week already.

what fertilizer do you recommend to use for grass please? Also when to fertilize (every 3 months???) please and if you can indicate what month, what will be great.

I prefer organic fertilizer if possible since I have fruit trees and vegetable planted on the outside of the lawn.

Thanks

Does your grass look like the blades in the picture below except for the browning? I mean the blades are sorta skinny and not wide? Fescue will go brown now in hot areas as it is coming off its cool growing season.

If you have Bermuda, and its green and its summer hot, you also have the worlds largest grub salad. Beetle and moth larvae love it longtime. These show up as big spots usually in the sunny areas, but not really large areas like drought soil would show. Here the dry bermuda takes on a different blacker grey look as it dries out, grub damage makes it look like light tan straw because its dead at the root. In fact if you tug on it with no root it will come up in your hands.

 

[andy2019]

Attached is my grass. I think it's Bermuda. I'm not sure.

I also called my local farm store to see if they carry organic grass fertilizer and they carry Down To Earth Bio-Turf. On their website, they recommend to fertilize about 3 times a year using this Bio-Turf so I guess it's because it's organic fertilizer. I'll check it out.

 

[Chuck]

That looks like a good fertilizer. Personally I would only fertilize twice a year, in the spring and fall. Don't forget that fertilizing will not make bermuda grass green, water does. It does make green grass a better green.