It takes a lot of effort, time, and patience to maintain a beautiful, healthy, and lush lawn. Aside from regular watering and mowing, it’s also crucial to apply the right types of grass fertilisers.
The right fertiliser for your grass will help you ensure that your lawn will receive all the essential nutrients required for it to grow healthy and strong.
But with all the different options available in the market right now, it can be a bit confusing to choose the best one for your garden.
To simplify your decision-making, this guide talks about the different types of fertilisers that you can consider for your grass and lawn.
The right fertiliser for your grass will help you ensure that your lawn will receive all the essential nutrients required for it to grow healthy and strong.
Table of Contents:
Fall Fertilisers
Fall fertilisers are meant to establish stronger roots and get your lawn ready for the winter months. These fertilisers usually have a higher content of potassium or phosphorus compared to other synthetic fertilisers. This helps the grass withstand disease and cold temperatures
Fall fertilisers should be in granular and slow-release form all the time to ensure that your grass doesn’t get stressed out too fast right before the start of the cold weather. It’s important to use fall fertilisers at an ideal time, approximately six weeks prior to the first frost. This will help guarantee that your lawn will receive optimal benefits.
Slow-release and Granular Grass Fertilisers
Granular fertilisers are pellet-like dry granules that should be applied to the surface of the soil and watered over your grass. These pellets break down little by little to gradually release the nutrients into the soil.
These fertilisers offer constant nutrient release over time which can benefit the long-term health of your lawn. It means you won’t see instant results unlike what you can expect from liquid fertilisers.
Granular fertilisers are pellet-like dry granules that should be applied to the surface of the soil and watered over your grass.
However, patience is extremely important if you want to make your lawn better. These types of grass fertilisers are known for their long shelf life and easy storage.
Fast-acting and Liquid Fertilisers
Liquid fertilisers are a type of plant food in liquid form that allows easy application and quick absorption. These fertilisers might also be available in concentrated form. You need to mix them with water first before you apply them to your lawn.
Among the biggest benefits of liquid fertilisers is the fact that these are fast-acting to offer immediate results. These are also excellent options for people who like to spot-treat certain parts of their lawn or apply fertiliser using a hose-end sprayer.
Liquid fertilisers, however, can evaporate when exposed to the hot sun during summer, while rainfall can quickly wash them away after application before they even get absorbed. To prevent these issues from happening, you should only use these grass fertilisers on days when no rain is expected, preferably during the late afternoon.
Nitrogen-Based Fertilisers
Nitrogen is proven to enhance your lawn’s green colour, encourage leaf growth, and boost root development. These fertilisers are available in various formulations including controlled-release, slow-release, and quick-release. Depending on the specific needs of your lawn, you can select a suitable type of nitrogen-based fertiliser. Nitrogen is considered the most critical ingredient in synthetic fertilisers.
Organic Fertilisers
Organic fertilisers are made from plant or animal-based materials and are also known as natural fertilisers. These fertilisers are known for their slow and natural release of nutrients into the soil. This makes them an ideal option for the long-term health of the soil.
These fertiliser varieties don’t provide instant results unlike what synthetic fertilisers can offer. However, these are better options if you want to maintain the health of the soil, which will mean healthier and more verdant grass down the road.
Organic fertilisers, unlike synthetic fertilisers, don’t list an NPK ratio on the package because their nutrient content tends to vary a lot depending on the source material. Among the biggest perks of organic fertilisers is that they increase the population of soil microorganisms. This can enhance the availability of nutrients and the capacity to hold water.
Spring fertilisers are meant to encourage new growth and make your lawn green-up after winter.
An easy way to distinguish between synthetic and organic fertilisers is that the organic ones focus on enhancing the quality of soil which can promote grass growth. On the other hand, synthetic fertilisers focus on producing green grass fast by directly feeding it.
Some of the best examples of the types of materials and ingredients found in organic fertilisers include alfalfa meal, bone meal, compost, corn gluten meal, egg shells, manure, kelp, and rock phosphate.
Phosphate-Based Fertilisers
Phosphate-based fertilisers are richer in phosphorus compared to the other two macronutrients. It helps encourage root growth and allows more effective absorption of nutrients into the plants.
This particular type of fertiliser is great for lawns with poor soil quality or those that are newly seeded. Using phosphate-based fertilisers supports the lawn in establishing a healthy root system and improves its resistance to pests and diseases.
Potassium-Based Fertilisers
Potassium-heavy grass fertilisers can help your lawn endure extreme conditions of the weather like drought and heat. This particular type of fertiliser can help repair damaged lawns and promote recovery following stressful situations. These fertilisers can enhance the tolerance of grass to stress and improve its resilience and overall health by strengthening the grass’s cell walls.
Spring Fertilisers
Spring fertilisers are meant to encourage new growth and make your lawn green-up after winter. These fertilisers are often rich in nitrogen to encourage quick growth. This type of fertilisers also produces a green lawn right in time for the summer months when you will spend more time outdoors. But it’s important that you don’t over-fertilise during early spring because it may result to excessive growth that will require more maintenance and water.
Synthetic Fertilisers
Synthetic fertilisers are a type of chemical-based fertilisers containing essential nutrients such as potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. You can readily buy these fertilisers on the market and they also happen to be the cheapest option. These fertilisers are also fast-acting and offer quick results, which make them the best choice for a fast green-up.
Weed and Feed Fertilisers
Weed and feed fertilisers are rich in herbicide and fertiliser. These are meant to kill weeds and provide nutrients to the grass at the same time. These fertilisers are often applied during fall or spring although you can also apply them once the weeds pop up in the lawn.
