Lawn Care Forum banner
21 - 37 of 37 Posts
I'm pretty sure I saw someone in my neighborhood spreading fertilizer towards the end of February or early March. I'm in mid Michigan. It seemed early, but I'm not a professional fertilizer/lawncare person. I know it was cold.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
I'm pretty sure I saw someone in my neighborhood spreading fertilizer towards the end of February or early March. I'm in mid Michigan. It seemed early, but I'm not a professional fertilizer/lawncare person. I know it was cold.
Ground was probably still frozen then. Lets just say, they probably could have been turned into your State Dept of Ag for negligence or gross malpractice or something like that.
 
Ground was probably still frozen then. Lets just say, they probably could have been turned into your State Dept of Ag for negligence or gross malpractice or something like that.
I'm pretty sure it was a professional outfit and not just a homeowner up spreading fertilizer at 7:30am. I'm pretty certain it was within the last 4-6-7 weeks. I just remember thinking it seemed quite early.

I grew up on a farm. With the exception of anhydrous, we weren't terribly picky about when we put our fertilizer down, but I'm sure the circumstances are different.
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
I'm pretty sure it was a professional outfit and not just a homeowner up spreading fertilizer at 7:30am. I'm pretty certain it was within the last 4-6-7 weeks. I just remember thinking it seemed quite early.

I grew up on a farm. With the exception of anhydrous, we weren't terribly picky about when we put our fertilizer down, but I'm sure the circumstances are different.
Ya rules are a little different on turf vs. field crops.
 
Did anyone see what they were applying?

I mean, could it have been a 0-0-7 with pre?

Are you sure they were applying N at all?

Now I'm not making excuses for them because applying on lawns with snow on them is just wrong...No way you could control weeds in patchy areas with snow...just wrong.

Predicted rainfall is just that...a prediction. That's out of your control and about all you can do is keep a close eye on local radar and forecasts on almost a day to day basis and use your best judgment based on what you see in the forecast for the next 24-48hrs. 5-10 day forecasts are generally not real reliable.

And, I'm not going to lie, we apply plenty when it is in the 35-45 degree range. (Absolutely no snow on the ground...anywhere) We use a hose and gun to apply. Are there cool season weeds out there to kill at that time? I don't know about your area, but in my area there is. Fert in the mix is generally higher in K and lower amounts, if any at all... N.

I started spraying around the first of February here. It very possibly could have snowed mid February covering apps I had done for 2 weeks prior and as long as they had that post emerg on them for 24 hrs before snowfall, I would have confidence in the kill. If your pre emerg doesn't last longer than a few inches of snow on top of it for a few days then you're using the wrong Pre...or you're applying it wrong.(We apply almost the max rate of Prodiamine for approximately 5-6 months control. Our growing season is longer than yours) Again, weather is out of your control.

This is just how I see it. We do have quite a few accounts and there is no way we could get them done in 2 or 3 weeks though.
 
Broadleaf Post-'cide applications are really only useful when the braodleaf is actually actively growing...

I don't worry about the weeds 'actively growing' in my area until the dandelions are blooming, then I spot spray...

Our snow is going away now so with any luck I may be able to do decent 'cleanup' by noon of each day until it actually warms up enough to get out in the morning... for this area, cleanupand overseed is as far as Spring has progressed,,, 'cides and ferts at this point are only detrimental to the root growth of turf when applied now... :)
 
Yes, I realize we are in 2 different worlds. In your world, you do seeding and apply N to cool season turf in the Fall .

In my world, we apply Fall pre's and K fert to warm season turf that is going dormant. When we see cool season weeds begin to appear in our lawns in the Spring, they are(the weeds) actively growing

I was in no way trying to make excuses for larger companies in your area and I certainly am not trying to tell anyone in your area how things should be done.

I was just trying to look at it from different angles as an explanation of why they might be out there applying...besides the fact that the weather is making them fall behind with their schedule.
 
I was just trying to look at it from different angles as an explanation of why they might be out there applying...besides the fact that the weather is making them fall behind with their schedule.

This seems to be the norm nowadays, it's all about their schedule ? What about the turfs schedule and needs, this all gets left behind in favor of getting all the apps done in a certain time frame for "them" :confused:
 
I was just trying to look at it from different angles as an explanation of why they might be out there applying...besides the fact that the weather is making them fall behind with their schedule.

This seems to be the norm nowadays, it's all about their schedule ? What about the turfs schedule and needs, this all gets left behind in favor of getting all the apps done in a certain time frame for "them" :confused:
I think some , not all of it does get left behind at times. One of the pitfalls of owning/running it as a business instead of a hobby I suppose.

There are definitely times I wish I had only 30-40 accounts I could do full maintenance on and "baby" them and give them what they need exactly when they need it. However, the reality is...I don't. I only provide custom weed control and fertilization so I try to do the right things for the lawns at the right times to the best of my ability.

Sadly, there aren't more that do operate this way than there are that don't.
 
I do it that way. Sometimes people get upset with me because it seems like I have not treated their lawn in months. I do not control the weather. At that point they can get upset with someone else. They do not have to "splain" to the DOA agent why a product with a wind prohibition was being applied during a high wind warning. Or a product with a runoff and groundwater warning applied before a flash flood. Likewise, warm season weeds and grasses do not respond in a positive and predictable manner in cold, cloudy weather. I would feel like such a schmuck and shyster spraying someone's lawn when I knew it would not work.
 
"When I know it would not work"...

If indeed,,, there were lco's that actually knew:

* "when it would NOT work...* "
 
I was just trying to look at it from different angles as an explanation of why they might be out there applying...besides the fact that the weather is making them fall behind with their schedule.

This seems to be the norm nowadays, it's all about their schedule ? What about the turfs schedule and needs, this all gets left behind in favor of getting all the apps done in a certain time frame for "them" :confused:
Nicely stated.

I wonder about those guys around me who put their Pre-m down before the 9" of rain so far this month, topped off with a low of 25* yesterday AM. So not even a hard frost, it was a hard freeze.

Grass just turned green last Thursday.

Gotta get it down.

Shoot, I was in Fort Wayne over to Lima over the weekend and I saw forsythias blooming down there. That means we're quite some time away from the traditional need to apply.
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
It has not even greened up here yet, and the turf is horribly soggy. I am at least a week out from applying and that is if we get that nice warm up mid this week. More likely, 2 weeks out. I will be doing very little spraying 1st round, as there isn't an actively growing broadleaf out there at this point. Rollover dandelions are still beet red.

Woe to those around here who threw pre 2 weeks ago. That is washed away for certain.
 
Here the snow is gone, for the most part and there is a lot of green grass now exposed... I'm afraid that a couple of nites of hard freezes,,, may have us with BROWN everywhere again...
 
The grass is greening up in Lansing, Michigan. Considering the weather we've had, I'm surprised. I'm not ready to mow. I haven't sharpened my blade, don't really have anything to do it myself, and don't really want to pay someone. I have a lot of pine bark mulch that has blown out of my beds and into my yard. As Ron Burgundy might say, that mulch may have been a bad choice.
 
21 - 37 of 37 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top