Lawn Fertilizing Info

Once a licensed applicator has completed the application, it is important to keep pets and children off the lawn until it has fully dried.

Preventive grub control is the most effective product used to prevent future grub problems, not to control the grubs present in the lawn in the spring. If you confirmed grub damage the previous fall or spring, meaning you found lots of grubs, then you may want to use a preventive insecticide for one or two years to build a denser turf that will be tolerant of grubs.

Curative treatments are short-lived compounds that kill all life stages of grubs. If the need should arise to use a curative compound, make sure to keep the infested lawn watered and fertilized and treat the area again with a preventive application the next summer or the problem will likely reoccur in the fall or the following spring.

Perimeter pest treatments work to create a barrier around your home that repels a variety of insects, such as spiders, mites, roaches, and ants. It also can help keep your landscaping and lawns directly around the exterior of the home clear of plant eating insects.

Crabgrass is an annual weed that reproduces by seed in late summer and fall. It can become quite large with hundreds of stems which root into the soil at every joint. A single plant can produce up to 150,000 seeds and all of those can be ready and waiting to produce crabgrass seedlings that take over your lawn the following spring.
Elevated mowing heights and judicious nitrogen fertilization can be extremely effective at reducing competition from crabgrass. Research studies have shown up to 95% reduction in crabgrass when mowing height is increased from 1.5 to 3.0 inches. Thin turf in the spring or drought conditions often lead to major infestations of crabgrass.
To be safe you want to try to get your pre-emergent down before May when crabgrass generally starts to germinate in the spring. If the product is put down too early, it will break down before most of the seeds have germinated, and you will be dealing with this weed all summer. Put it down too late, and it will have no effectiveness at all
Post-emergent control is generally more effective when crabgrass is younger before it has tillered. As crabgrass matures, post-emergent control becomes more challenging and multiple applications spaced two to three weeks apart are necessary to achieve control.

In general, you want the top 6 – 8 inches of soil to be moist, but not soggy – which translates to 1 – 1.5 inches per week. The precise number of minutes for each watering will vary from lawn to lawn, depending on factors like the size of your lawn, the type of sprinkler you have, and its settings. Watering deeply, but infrequently, leads to stronger root development and drought-resistance than watering briefly every day. You can break up these waterings into twice a week during most of the year, or three times a week during the hot summer months.

“Cut it high” is more than a slogan; a higher mowing height helps crowd out weeds, promotes deeper roots, helps the lawn withstand drought conditions and prevents grub damage. We recommend you mow the lawn between 2.5 and 3.5 inches because higher cut lawn grasses are more stress tolerant. This is especially important during the summer heat period. Raise that mowing height even in the fall considering Michigan turf grasses, like Kentucky bluegrass, grow best during cool, moist weather. Cool conditions in the fall are perfect for improving the health of your lawn and one simple practice to benefit the lawn is to raise the mowing height to 3.5 inches.