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When To Fertilize Lawns in Texas?

I live in east Texas. When would be a good time to fertilize my lawn? And what is a good fertilizer? I have some triple 13, triple 8 and some Southern Lawn Fertilizer by Scott's. Thanks........

Comments (5)

  • 6 years ago

    If you have bermuda, then you can use any of those fertilizers on a 6-8 week schedule throughout the growing season.

    If you have St Augustine, do your first application on Memorial Day, second one on Labor Day, and third one around Thanksgiving.

    I use only organic fertilizers, so none of those is my favorite. If you want to know what I think is good, then alfalfa pellets and corn meal are what I use. Both are available at a feed store in 50 pound bags. Application rate is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

  • 6 years ago

    Thanks for the information! I grow roses and use alfalfa pellets, I have horses so get them from my feed store. I know about how alfalfa pellets work but how does cornmeal work? I have San Augustine. Appreciate your help!

  • 6 years ago

    Oh, one more question....what is your opinion on weed and feed? I have a large front yard that is mostly native grasses [back yard is san augustine]. I basically keep the front watered, havent fertilized it but in certain places I have this awful spreading weed that looks like a little strawberry plant, it has tiny strawberry looking "berries" on it and it is insidious and I hate it. I have been hand spraying parts of it with roundup and that kills it in that spot but I have to stay at it as it wants to spread. My local extension agent had no clue what it was nor what to do about it. Thanks!

  • 6 years ago

    Here is my go-to herbicide for St Augustine lawns.



    Use it anytime the temps are below 90 degrees F. I typically will use it in mid April once all the weeds are up and growing. It takes a few weeks to see the full benefit, but "suddenly" you'll notice all the weeds are gone. It should work fine in the front. Just spot spray on the weeds. This is nasty stuff. Don't walk through it as you spray. Walk backwards and leave yourself an opening to get to the hose shutoff. If you spray it on your back yard weeds, they will likely all turn brown and die. That would be a good time to introduce some St Aug from the front yard to the back, and it will take over for you.

    Corn meal is just like alfalfa pellets as far as being organic. Microbes decompose the corn and turn it into plant food. Corn has a lower protein level than alfalfa, so it doesn't last as long. Corn meal also has the effect of "curing" the soil surface of diseases like black spot. I like to keep a mulch under the roses so rain does not splash soil up on the plants. Then I supplement that with corn meal as a sort of fungicide...without being a true fungicide.

    Weed and feed products have problems. They fall into the category of too-good-to-be-true. If you want to kill weeds, apply an herbicide in mid April. If you want to fertilize plants, apply a fertilizer in late May. Those timings are not arbitrary. They coincide with the whispers of Nature which most people don't listen to. If you dump wnf products at one time or another, you're going to miss the timing on one or the other product. Further, the herbicide in a wnf might go to work immediately, but weeds are killed out better when they are well fed. It can take days or weeks for the fertilizer to kick in to the point where the weeds would be killed out the best. Also, wnf products almost all need to be applied to wet grass so the granules will stick to the blades and weed plants. If you try to water the yard and then apply wnf, by the time you get to the end, it needs to be watered again, because it has dried out. Wnf products generally apply herbicide in places where they are not needed. That's a waste of product and an injustice to the environment. With a liquid spray herbicide you can spot spray just the weeds thus conserving product and not covering areas which don't need it. Just stay away and use separate herbicides and fertilizers.

    alameda/zone 8/East Texas thanked dchall_san_antonio
  • 6 years ago

    What great information!! Thank you so much!