No need to hurry home; the lawn can wait! High on your ‘return home’ list could be getting the lawns up and growing as early as possible. Grass plants need to grow roots each spring to ensure viability through the full growing season. Before growing new spring blades, a lawn will first deepen its roots to ensure the ability to reach groundwater later in the summer when drought conditions may last for several weeks. Many spring lawn fertilizer products contain high amounts of nitrogen to force quick growth of fresh green turf. But applying nitrogen fertilizer too early in the spring interferes with the lawn’s natural growth pattern. When summer weather begins to stress the lawn, the turf may thin out as individual grass plants have insufficient roots to cope with intense heat, drought and low moisture conditions. A healthy lawn with strong roots can become temporarily dormant, and then put up new green blades when environmental stress factors ease. But a lawn with insufficient roots will thin out permanently, as a percentage of grass plants are unable to sustain themselves. The best plan is to allow the lawn to grow its spring roots in April and hold off on applying fertilizer until sometime in May. You’ll be following the natural schedule for lawn growth and ensuring an increasingly robust turf grass. You can be kind to your lawn with a second feeding of autumn fertilizer in September, knowing that you’ve provided the best yearround nutrition program for your turf grass. Gardening CSANews | WINTER 2023 | 45
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