Newly seeded lawn/ Fall fertilizer ?

Mr. Detail – posted 24 September 2007 08:16

Hello all, this is my first post here.I just finished re-seeding my backyard (completely killed off all vegetation first)and wanted to know if the following advice from a local agri-guy I trust sounds right.He suggested after cutting the new grass 3 times, (can’t imagine doing this before it gets cold) but he said the new grass seedlings should be “hardened” sufficiently enough to feed it with 20-8-8 50% organic fertilizer and then in late November feed with a 30-10-10 20% SCU winterizer. Does any of this make sense to you folks? Thanks for your advice as I really want to succeed in having a beautiful backyard for a change.

cohiba – posted 24 September 2007 13:49

Where are you located? What type of turf?

Thanks.

Mr. Detail – posted 25 September 2007 06:44

I am located in southeastern Pennsylvania and the grass seed I bought was named “Triple Threat” although I am still trying to find out the exact seed content.Fairly sure it is a mixture of perrenial rye, tall fescue and one other.

cohiba – posted 25 September 2007 12:35

In that case I would say the recommendations sound reasonable. The only thing I would do differently would be to take a soil test to see what, if anything is lacking in the soil. Then build my fertilizer program around that test result.

The 30-10-10 sounds good but leave out the SCU. Use straight urea so the plant takes it all in and it’s there in the plant in the spring. Reason: that SCU won’t become available for the plant until mid December. That’s when the plant is really headed to dormancy. The urea would probably leach away over the winter before the plant could really use it.

My two cents…………from southern NJ.

Mr. Detail – posted 25 September 2007 12:52

COHIBA;I did actually have a soil test done from Penn State for about $9.00. It said my pH was off a bit hence my agri guy suggested 2 50# bags of calcitic lime because the soil in my area in acidic clay type. Can you please define what “SCU” stands for?

cohiba – posted 26 September 2007 14:06

Your guy is right on about Calcitic or hi-cal lime. It’s almost always the way to go with our soils.

SCU is short for Sulphur Coated Urea. The sulphuir coating breaks down slower than straight urea. Thus it is considered a slow release fertilizer. There are lots of them: BCMU, IBDU, ect.

If you need calcium but don’t want to change the pH you can add plain gypsum (calcium). What was the magnesium and calcium levels on your test results? How off was the pH?

Just Curious…………….

Mr. Detail – posted 26 September 2007 14:37

Magnesium= 11.4Calcium= 43.2pH= 5.3

My agri guy says he likes to see a 7:1 ratioof Calcium to magnesium.