Did I burn It?

15 years ago

I worked so hard, and read, and read, and read... But I think I may have burnt the lawn in areas. The fertilizer was Vigoro 13-13-13 general lawn fertilizer. It said for established lawns to apply at 3/4 to 1.0 lbs. per 100 square feet. That would be 0.975 to 1.3 lbs. per 1,000 square feet. The spreader setting for my Scotts Deluxe Edgeguard was 12 (which I thought was kind of high, but it's only a 13-13-13, so I knew it was going to take more material than a 27-X-X). I ended up using 3 40 lb. bags on a 10,500 sq. ft. lawn. I was making 3 foot passes, as opposed to 5 because it didn't look like the fertilizer was being thrown that far to the sides.

So, Saturday I core-aerated, overseeded, and applied the fertilizer. I watered it in pretty good afterwards. Now, because I overseeded, I had gradually mowed it down, almost scalping it. I could tell this stressed the grass out, because it was fairly brown looking. I also know that core-aerating stresses the grass out as well. So, I can't tell if the areas that are shown below are just areas that are still stressed out, and will come back, or if they are areas that got burnt by the fertilizer. It's really kind of sickening to have this happen as I thought I'd done everything right. Is the grass going to continue to die if it is burn?

Here are the pictures:

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Comments (5)

billhill
15 years ago
It does look burnt in that first pic. If you are watering everyday, then you should be allright. It might be a good idea to throw a little more seed down in the suspect areas for insurance.
eriocaulon
15 years ago
You did not really over apply fertilizer and if it were burn, it would probably be in the form of stripes where you overlapped rows. In any case, you also watered afterward, so sounds like you did good. hard to say if the affected areas are stressed, dormant or diseased. Just keep watering to germinate your seed. At least in my area, we have had a taste of fall weather but daytime temps have recently spiked again and no one's lawn around here looks any better than yours. So no, I don't think you did anything wrong and there is plenty of fall yet to go!
philes21
15 years ago
I think you're fine. Not tidy, but fine. Give it two weeks. Water lightly, don't float that new seed, just keep it moist. The fert will resolve itself, largely because it really needed it anyway.
soccer_dad
15 years ago
Well that is a pound and a half of nitrogen per thousand and all quick release probably. Just keep watering and time will heal.
skizot
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the assurance, guys. I was just pretty worried (and still sort of am) that I'd completely screwed things up. Live and learn, I guess.

One thing I did notice, and will never do again, is do the edges with EdgeGuard on, and at the full spread setting. The rest of the lawn gets half the rate one way, and half the rate the other way (crisscrossed). I think that when using the EdgeGuard, a lot more fertilizer gets dumped right in the center, which is where all of my grass looks like it may have gotten burnt (on the edges of my yard).