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Fertiliser Knowledge

Fertilising keeps a lawn growing vigorously, deep green in colour, and full. But there's more to fertilising than just keeping a lawn looking good. The right balance of nutrients in the soil, makes a lawn more resistant to insects and disease, and makes it better able to withstand extremes in cold, heat and drought. Proper fertilising also discourages weeds and moss.

Fertiliser is made up of these three main elements

N = Nitrogen Keeps the lawn green and helps with disease and wear tolerance
P = Phosphates Promotes root growth
K = Soluble Potash Strengthens lawn against climatic conditions, i.e drought and cold.

In a perfect world our lawn would be self-sustaining. However, under maintained situations, (e.g. regular mowing) turf grass does not receive the proper amounts of nutrients for superior growth from nature alone. It must be supplemented by the addition of nutrients.

How often and how much we apply, is governed by: -

  • Environmental stress (climate), usage and wear factors, height of cut.
  • Soil fertility.
  • Grass species.
  • Role of soil type in nutrient retention. (How long the soil can hold the nutrients)

All these are important for a perfect lawn. However, when it comes to fertilising, it is the type of soil on which the lawn is growing, that has the greatest bearing. Course, sandy soils tend to have low nutrient retention, and are readily leached, whereas the fine textures of clays and loams have a greater ability to retain nutrients.

This is the main reason you must make a choice in feeds for each lawn.

DO NOT OVER FEED with the same feed every season.

Poly Coated Slow Release

Lawn Master use balanced feeds, still slow release (non poly), but also containing trace elements. Then we can use lower nitrogen levels, thus causing less sponge in your lawn, but maintaining the deep green colour.

In the lawn treatment industry, this product is the usual choice in feed, because it has a special coating, is non-scorch, lasts a long time, and is one of the easiest to apply. This little orange feed is 40 percent nitrogen, and therefore achieves a green lawn.

This product is generally a good feed, but caution is needed when choosing to apply it. If it is over-used (more that twice a year), it can cause spongy lawns, an abundance of top growth problems and tight knit sward. This can result in extra scarification work being required.

We have encountered lawns that have been fed with this feed year on year by some operators, and subsequently the customers now have ruined lawns.

It is possible to use this product on about 50 percent of domestic lawns, but not all lawns respond well with it. Lawn Master prefers to use a wide selection of feed ranges.

There is no point in feeding a lawn, and then creating other problems whilst doing so.

Lawn Master as a company, use a range of balanced feeds based on trained expert knowledge. The feeds that we use may still be slow release feeds in some cases, but there are hundreds of quality feed choices available that will last as long. Some contain trace elements and soil conditioners, thus allowing us to use lower nitrogen levels, causing less sponge in your lawn, but still maintaining the deep green colour.

Please remember:

Lawn Master is the only company that shuns the ‘one suit fits all’ method.

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