can someone explain to me why N burns the grass in the summertime? i see everyone sayin not to apply N in the heat of summer. or if applied then very small amounts. could one of you guys explain this in detail? thank you as always
Well up here in Virginia as well as the majority of the US we have fescue grass. Since you are about 900 miles away I would guess you have Bermuda, ST. Aug., Centipede, or some other warm season grass. If we fert fescue now with anything like 24-5-11 it will likely burn out the lawn because it is under such high amounts of stress that it just wants to be left alone. If you do fert it then it will attempt to grow but unless you irrigate the lawn 10 hours a day it will burn out. BUT I personally maintain a couple of bermuda and zoysia lawns that absolutely love a good heavy dose of Nitrogen right now. Go to a local fertilizer supplier and they should have some good info for you.
lugnut, I think that rule generally applies to cool season grasses. I applied 28-3-10 in May/June, and 24-2-?(cant remember right now),in July, BUT I use 50%SCU, so not to burn. I dont use any kind of fert on fescue after April. My fall ferts are always high in N for all grasses.
We apply every 8 weeks, never any burn. Just last week we did an application, 7 weeks cause the rains spent the prior application.
If you spray urea nitrogen you have a great chance to burn in the summer. Granular nitrogen has differing amounts and types of coated nitrogen that release at different rates and times depending on a number of variables. When a lawn is heat stressed nasty things can happen if you don't know what you are doing.
