Written by: Tom Andrews
Our “The What, When, & Why of Fertilizing” guide taught you the importance of fertilizing and mowing, but summer has another major factor for your yard to keep in mind!
Summer Fertilizing
No matter how great your lawn looks, summer is a time to slow down the feeding in the yard or switch fertilizer types. Throughout the year, my preferred fertilizer is in a granular form. During the summer, I minimize the granular form and add a liquid fertilizer with more “K,” or potassium. Potassium helps battle the summer stress. I like to use a granular fertilizer like a starter or even lower nutrient rates, such as a 7-1-2. With that, I will also apply liquid fertilizer with rates such as 0-0-26. The liquid product allows for quicker absorption into the plant, while most (not all) granular products have slower absorption rates.
I will only make 1-2 applications of the “high K” fertilizer but spread my low-rate granular applications from every 30-45 days; to every 45-60 days since the lawn growth has slowed during the summer heat.
Summer Mowing Tips
The most important tip of the summer: make sure your mowing height is at the highest setting. This allows the grass blades to shade the roots and keep the roots slightly cooler. Then, when you start to notice dry spots in your lawn, you can bring out those sprinklers.
Watering is the Key to Summer Survival
Watering “deep and infrequent” is critical in your summer watering. You want to ensure your lawn is getting about 1.5 inches of water per week. Doing this every few days at 10-20 minutes helps encourage deep root growth.
When you water a ¼ inch per day, your roots begin to be trained to only have short roots because all the water is always at the top of the soil. Deep and strong roots allow them to flourish in extremely hot and dry summers, which pop up late fall freezes.
One product I would keep on your radar in the summer is a granular and/or liquid fungicide. Summer is when funguses tend to pop up and sometimes pop up overnight. Preventative applications of fungicides wouldn’t hurt, but if issues start appearing, you can contact your extension office to help identify the problem and provide recommended products to tackle or address it. Just know that not all issues are the same, and while you may think it’s a fungus or another problem, your local office will help quickly identify them.
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