Too early
Feeding warm-season grass before green-up pushes growth the roots cannot support and feeds the winter weeds instead of the lawn.
Lawn and property care guide · North Alabama
Fertilizer, lime and soil testing
Why a soil test comes before anything else, when each grass grown here is fed, and what a lawn actually gains from lime.
Start here
A soil test before anything goes on the lawn
Without a soil test you are guessing at the two things that matter most: what the pH actually is, and which nutrients are genuinely short. A test costs very little and it is good for several years.
Alabama soils vary enormously over short distances, sometimes within a single yard. The front lawn that was scraped flat when the house was built and the back lawn that kept its topsoil can want different things, and nothing about the surface tells you which is which.
The pH is usually the headline. Most of the grasses grown here prefer soil on the slightly acid side, and a pH a long way off will hold a lawn back however much fertilizer goes on top of it - the nutrients are present and the plant cannot get at them. Feeding a lawn that has a pH problem is money spent on the wrong question.
Take the sample properly or the result means nothing. Several small cores from around the lawn, mixed together, rather than one scoop from one spot. Sample the front and back separately if they were built differently.
Where
Testing through the Extension System
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System handles soil testing for the state. Every county has an office, Marshall County included, and they supply the boxes and the form and send the sample to the Auburn lab.
The report comes back with a turf recommendation in plain terms: the pH, whether lime is needed and how much, and where the phosphorus and potassium levels sit. If it does not read clearly, the Extension office will talk it through - that is part of what they are for.
Lime is the recommendation people act on without testing, and it is the one that most deserves a test first. Plenty of soils here are acid enough to want lime and plenty are not, and the two look identical from the surface. Centipede in particular prefers acid soil and can be set back by lime it did not need.
- Contact the Marshall County Extension office for a sample box and form
- Take several small cores from around the area and mix them together
- Sample separate areas separately if they behave differently
- Keep the report - it is useful for several years, not just this one
- Act on the pH first. Fertilizer cannot solve a pH problem
Timing
Warm-season and cool-season grasses run on opposite clocks
Warm-season grasses are fed while they are actively growing, which here is late spring through summer. Tall fescue is fed mainly in fall. Feeding either one at the wrong end of the year does more harm than good.
For Bermuda, zoysia, centipede and St. Augustine, the rule is to wait until the lawn has genuinely broken dormancy - mostly green, and mown once or twice - before feeding it. Pushing top growth in March that the roots are not ready to support leaves the lawn exposed if a late frost arrives, and it feeds the winter weeds that are already growing while the grass is not.
At the other end of the year, feeding stops well before the first frost so the lawn is not pushed into soft growth it cannot harden off. Late nitrogen on a warm-season lawn is a reliable way to increase winter injury.
Centipede is its own case and deserves saying separately: it is a low-input grass, and pushing it with nitrogen is one of the standard ways a centipede lawn gets into trouble. If you have centipede, restraint is most of the maintenance plan.
Too late
Feeding into fall produces soft growth that will not harden off before the first freeze, which increases winter injury.
Too much
Overfed turf grows faster than it can be mowed, is more prone to thatch and disease, and can burn on hot, dry soil.
Burn and weed-and-feed
Two things that go wrong most often
Fertilizer burn and combined weed-and-feed products account for a good share of the lawn damage that gets reported as disease.
Burn shows as yellow or brown streaks that follow the exact pattern of how the product was spread - straight lines, or a fan where a spreader was turned. That pattern is the giveaway, because no disease and no insect produces geometry. Heat and dry soil make burn far more likely.
Weed-and-feed is a different problem. A combined product ties the feeding date to the weed control date, and those two rarely want to happen on the same day. It also puts weed control across the whole lawn whether or not the whole lawn has weeds, and some grasses are sensitive to products that others tolerate.
That is a large part of why weed control and feeding are handled as one considered program rather than one bag off a shelf. What goes on a lawn, and when, follows from what is growing there and what the soil test said. Whatever is used, the label on it is the legal instruction and it comes before any general advice, this page included.
What to expect
How long a thin lawn takes to come back
Usually a season, sometimes two. A lawn that has been thin for years got there through some combination of soil, shade, compaction, mowing height and moisture, and each of those takes its own time to turn around.
Nobody can honestly promise a date, and anybody who does is selling something. What can be done is to look at the property, work out which of those factors is actually the limiting one, and set out a sensible run of work in the right order.
That is what turf management is, as distinct from mowing. Treatment sits under weed control and fertilization. Estimates are free and made on the property rather than over the telephone.
Answers
Questions about fertilizer and soil testing guide
Why should I get a soil test before adding lime or fertilizer?
Because without one you are guessing at the pH and at which nutrients are actually short. Lime a lawn does not need can make matters worse, and fertilizer cannot fix a problem that is really pH.
Where can I get an Alabama soil test?
Through the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Every county has an office, including Marshall County, and they supply the sample box and form and send it to the Auburn lab.
When should I fertilize my lawn in North Alabama?
Warm-season grasses once they are actively growing, from late spring through summer, stopping well before the first frost. Tall fescue runs on the opposite clock and is fed mainly in fall.
Does my lawn need lime?
Only a soil test can say. Plenty of soils here are acid enough to want it and plenty are not, and the two look identical from the surface.
Can too much fertilizer damage grass?
Yes. Burn usually shows as streaks that follow the exact pattern of how it was spread, and it is more likely on hot, dry soil.
Is weed-and-feed a good idea?
Not always. It ties the feeding date to the weed control date when the two rarely want to happen together, and it treats the whole lawn whether or not the whole lawn has weeds.
Read next
Related reading
Weed Control and Fertilization
A service HRH Lawn Care handles.
Turf Management
A service HRH Lawn Care handles.
Lawn Weeds and Pre-Emergent Timing in North Alabama
From the lawn and property care guide.
Why a Lawn Turns Brown, Yellow, Thin or Patchy
From the lawn and property care guide.
HRH Lawn Care Services
Not sure what your property needs?
Call and ask. We would rather come and look at it than guess over the phone, and it does not cost you anything either way.