Top 9 Best Fertilizer For St Augustine Grass (2020 Review)

Caring for your Lawn and the Environment

Read useful information on lawn care files.nc.gov

Fertilizer for St Augustine Grass – Buying Guide

Choosing the right fertilizer for your St Augustine Grass might be a challenge for you as there are many fertilizers available in the market. Here we will try to guide you on this query https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer.

What Types of Fertilizers for St Augustine Grass Exist?

The first that will pop up in your mind is should you go with the organic or synthetic fertilizer. Should it have heavy doses of nitrogen or potassium or phosphorus? Well, there are several types available in the market.

• Organic: This is typically the best solution for any lawn. It has no chance to burn your lawn and also it will make sure that your lawn and grass are getting proper nutrients. Yet, Advanced 16-4-8 Balanced NPK can be considered the best liquid fertilizer available for St Augustine Grass.
• Synthetic: Also known as inorganic. There are tons of synthetic fertilizers are available in the market. The thing you should keep in mind that these are instant nutrients suppliers. Use these only when your lawn and grass are in a great deficiency of nutrients.

When to Fertilize St Augustine Grass?

Fertilization depends on soil type and grass type. Depending on your soil, and the need for your grass you should feed them. For this, practice using organic fertilizers for healthy and strong grass by providing proper nutrients along with making a friendly and harmless environment. However, you can fertilize your grass by the below schedule, but it is advised to conduct a soil test for better results.

February – May: Apply a complete fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 16–4–8 at the rate of 1 lb. nitrogen per 1000 ft2. A complete fertilizer will contain all three Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus nutrients.

June – August: Fertilizer with slow nitrogen release can be a good solution for this time-bound. You can also fertilize using 1 lb. of nitrogen per 1000 ft2. fertilizers without phosphorus are good for this time.

September – November: It is good to apply 1 lb. of slow nitrogen release fertilizer per 1000 ft2. For North Florida use this a complete fertilizer. For South Florida use this for September and October. No nitrogen is required after that. Apply 1 lb. of potassium per 1000 ft2 using 1.6 lbs muriate of potash (0–0–60) or 2 lbs of potassium sulfate (0–0–50) before one month of the expected first frost. This will increase the winter hardiness of the grass. You should not apply potassium during hot periods or low moisture conditions.

December – February: you do not need to do fertilization during this time.

How Often Do You Need to Fertilize St Augustine Grass?

The continuation of fertilizing depends on lawn and soil types and their need. If you use slow nutrient release fertilizer, you can apply fertilizer after a long break. Though to maintain green color in your grass, you can apply Iron every 6 weeks.

Other Things You Should Keep in Mind

Along with fertilization, there are other things that you should keep in mind.

• Mowing: To maintain a perfect St Augustine turf by keeping your grass height even, you can use a rotary mower. You can keep 3-inch grass on a low maintaining lawn where it is advised to keep 2.5-inch grass on high maintaining lawns. You should use a sharp blade while mowing your lawn.
• Irrigation: For a lawn, the most important thing is irrigation. Irrigate your lawn properly to tackle drought. Based on the soil type, you can apply water to your lawn every 7 to 14 days during winter. The rest of the time you can water your lawn at 3 to 4 days interval.
• Weed Control: Proper mowing and fertilizing your land can control the weed. Healthy and strong turf can also be a way to control the weed. Applying herbicides may result sometimes by damaging your lawn. So be careful to use herbicides, use if it is only necessary and your lawn is healthy.
• Insect Control: You must control the insect to get the best lawn. You should look for white grubs who usually eat roots. If there is any existence of them found, then you can use pesticides.
• Thatch Removal: Undecomposed leaf blades, stolon, roots and crowns intermixed with soil is known as thatch. If you over-fertilize your lawn or overwater or mow your lawn improperly, then thatch may develop. You should clean them up to get a beautiful lawn.
• Disease Control: if your lawn gets expose to any disease, you should take the necessary steps. Mainly these occur from overwatering and over-fertilizing your lawn. So, to get a healthy, strong and green St Augustine turf, you should follow fertilizing rules. Also, if get lawn gets affected by fungus, you use a fungicide to control the issue.
• Nematode Control: Take proper steps to control it because nematodes will weaken your grassroots.

Lawn Fertilization

Read a detailed guide on how to effectively fertilize your Texas grasses during the warm season austintexas.gov