Spring Over-Seeding vs Fall

I've always suggested to over-seed in the fall as soil temps are ideal and the daytime temps begin to cool. You get the germination process to begin in the fall and then the lawn goes dormant for the winter.  Then spring comes and your lawn is ready to go.

This past summer (2012) we went through a severe drought and there are a lot of lawns hurting right now, especially if they didn't get over-seeded in the fall. So, do you over-seed in the spring?  You can, but it's not ideal and currently we going through a stretch of below normal temperatures. The average for right now is about 61 degrees, but for the past two weeks we've been at least 10 degrees below average.

For seed to start to germinate the ideal daytime temps need to be in the 60-70 degree range and right now we're just not getting it.

Then those of us in the lawn mowing business we're now past mid-April and in the state of Iowa not many (if any) have started mowing yet. Why is that?  Well for root growth we need temps to get into the 50-65 F degree range and for shoot growth temps need to be in the 60-75 F range and we're well below that.

Right now our soil temperatures in Central Iowa are in the low-mid 40's.

So, as much as we need our rain, which I'm very thankful for, we also need temps to warm up. Is that going to happen?  Here is our 7-day forecast (thanks to WHO-13).

There's some hope at the end of the week, hopefully that is the start of some consistent weather. If we get that coupled with the rain amounts we've received so far this Spring, the lawns will take off and if you over-seeded in the spring you should soon see positive results.  But, for future reference, plan ahead and try to have the lawn aerated and over-seeded in the Fall.

Drought Update

Latest reports came out and the state of Iowa is making progress on its drought conditions, but where do we stand? I wrote a blog in January after some significant snowfalls to see where we stood after the drought of 2012. At that point we were 12 inches of rain short.  Since then we have received some additional snow, but not enough to get the Des Moines area out of a "severe drought".  Here is the comparison between then and now:

January/2013-

And now, April/2013

As you can see, the SE part of Iowa is normal, Central and NW Iowa are still in a severe drought or worse. Thanks to Ed Wilson, from WHO-TV13, he provided me with a link to see where we are supposed to be precipitation-wise, it looks like we haven't made much progress here in the Des Moines metro area.

The positive is that since January/2013 we're almost right where we need to be for this year, but we're still close to a 1/2" short.  The negative is we haven't made progress on the drought of 2012. 

How Much Fertilizer?

Have you gone to the local garden center and grabbed a bag of fertilizer and when you bring it home, you get your spreader out fill it up. Then, you need to set your spreader to the right setting.  Most bags have spreader settings for a select few types of spreader, but you don't have the exact type that they have listed on the bag. So what do you do?  Guess? Please don't, too much fertilizer can burn your lawn. Regardless if they have your spreader or not, you will want to calibrate your fertilizer spreader to get an accurate application.

Well, to get the correct amount of fertilizer applied to your lawn there are essentially 3 things to take into consideration:

Take notes for each step that you do, so that you don't have to repeat it every time.

1. Swath: There are a couple ways to do this, but in the most simplistic form, put a little fertilizer in your spreader and go about 10 feet at a steady pace.  Measure the effective width.  You will take the width and then determine what distance you need to walk in order to get 200 sq ft. If you have a width of 10 feet, you have to walk 20 ft. If the width is 8 ft, you have to walk 25 ft.

2. How much fertilizer do I apply?  On each bag there are 3 numbers such as 24-10-10, the first number is the Nitrogen.  To determine how much fertilizer should be applied per 1,000 square ft, take 100 divided by the percentage of nitrogen.  Say your bag says 24 percent nitrogen you should apply 4.17 lbs/1,000 sq ft.  Since you're doing a 200 sq ft test area, that is 1/5 of 1,000 you want to take 1/5 of the weight.  So, you would place 0.83 (4.17 divided by 5) pounds in your spreader for the test.

3. Calibrate your rotary spreader:  I have an Earthway rotary spreader and I would start out by referring to the owners manual to get the suggested settings because that should at least get me in the ballpark of the application rate per 1,000 sq ft. However, it depends on how old your spreader is and how well you maintain/clean it. Do the test, if there is fertilizer in your spreader, you need to increase your setting.  If it was empty before the end of your distance, then reduce the setting. It's a little trial and error until you have the right amount, but it's definitely worth it as you want to make sure you get the appropriate amount of fertilizer on your lawn.

So that you don't have to do this test again, make sure you record your findings and the setting.