When To Fertilize Warm Season Grasses

To achieve optimum turf health, it's important to apply fertilizer at the proper times.

In this FAQ, Christina Burton, Maintenance Channel Manager for Horizon, describes when to fertilize warm season grasses like Bermuda, St. Augustine, and Zoysia grass.

Fertilizing Warm Season Grasses - Video Transcript

So warm season turf, as we talked about, includes species such as Bermuda grass, Zoysia grass, St. Augustine grass. These are grasses that are usually growing in the very southern parts of the U.S.. Think Florida, Arizona, southern parts of Texas, southern parts of California.

These are grasses that are growing actively in the spring and through the summer and in most cases are going completely dormant in the winter if they’re not overseeded. So meaning they’re off color. And again, overseeding will come in another session, but the only way to keep a green lawn in the winter then is to put different type of turf over it.

So the primary reason it’s important to stick with fertilizing in the spring and kinda through the summer, tapering off in fall on warm season turf is that at this point in the fall, Bermuda or other warm season grasses are wanting to harden off in preparation of the winter. These grasses are not meant to be awake, so to speak, in the wintertime for those cold temperatures.

So if we keep fertilizing and those tissues are really soft and tender, the first cold snap that comes through can really kill off some of that grass and by the time you get to spring, you really have a weakened stand.