Benefits Summary:
- A lawn that is provided adequate, balanced nutrition in the spring will be healthy and green into the summer.
- Nature provides some essential elements for plant nutrition.
You’ve spent hundreds of dollars creating beautiful landscaping around your home including a lawn. During the spring in Central Oregon, grass plants are waking up from a long winter of dormancy. The soil is too cold to provide the nutrients the plants need to green up and fill in during this time period, so you need to provide some nutrition in the form of fertilizer.
Watch your lawn for evidence of growth, starting in mid-March. As soon as you see new growth, you can fertilize your lawn. Select a fertilizer that provides Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K), in a ratio of 3-1-2. A typical fertilizer analysis for NPK would be 21-7-14, 27-9-18, or something close to that. (Always follow the directions provided on the bag.) This application of fertilizer can be made with or without added ingredients such as weed control depending on what you are seeing for weed pressure in your lawn.
Now that you have fertilized the lawn, consider turning on your sprinkler system. Once the grass plants start to take in the nutrients you have provided, they will be thirsty. If you need assistance with the start up of your sprinkler system, click here for sprinkler system tips.
This Tip provided by:
David Roath, 7 years experience as Head Golf Course Superintendent at Sunriver Resort’s Meadows Golf Course, Turf and Landscape Management Hortculture Degree from OSU, LCB#15512.