Nitrogen
Nitrogen is the most important nutrient for your lawn. According to the University of Minnesota, high maintenance lawns where grass clippings are mulched (not bagged and removed) should be treated with 3.0 lbs. of actual Nitrogen per year for best results. For those of you considering doing this yourself, actual nitrogen means the real amount of nitrogen contained in the fertilizer by weigh, as opposed to the bulk weight of the fertilizer itself.
In accordance with the U of M’s recommendations and our experience in achieving best results, we apply 3.0 lbs. of Nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn for our premium fertilizer package. This ensures that your lawn receives the highest recommended amount of Nitrogen per season. Each of our treatments contains ½ lb. nitrogen per application to ensure the lawn is being fed regularly throughout the season and this rate reduces the risk of burning the lawn to virtually zero. Spoon feeding the Nitrogen, as it’s called, also reduces the risk of Nutrient runoff and leaching (washing off the lawn or filtering too deep into the soil for the grass roots to reach). Leaching means more nutrients than the lawn can use are applied all at once allowing rain to wash away the extra material before it can be consumed by the grass.
We use both liquid and granular Nitrogen fertilizers to achieve fast acting greening and slow release feeding throughout the growing season. For instance, slow release fertilizers are best used during the hot summer months when the lawn is using less Nitrogen between rains falls and periods of heat stress. However, quick release Nitrogen is best for winterization applications in the fall to make sure the lawn can quickly metabolize and store the Nitrogen before going dormant for winter.
Spoon feeding (applying lower amounts of nutrients more often) is the most reliable method to ensure proper timing of nutrient applications, even more so than using one of the several types of coated Urea’s as a slow release Nitrogen. This is because all forms of coated Urea used as slow release products release their nutrients based on how often they get wet. So, if we received wet spring with several big rain storms in a row or if you run your irrigation system regularly the Nitrogen will release much faster than the label shows. So treating your lawn with a ½ lb. of Nitrogen once a month is a more reliable method for timing than applying 1 lb. of slow release once every 2 months (because it may release a lot faster than the 2 months shown on the label).
Forms of Nitrogen
Our conventional lawn care treatments utilize nitrogen in the form of stabilized Urea to feed your lawn. Urea is an organic compound that is produced synthetically, using inorganic compounds. For these reasons, Urea is considered a ‘synthetic organic’ compound. Urea is naturally found in the urine of most living animals including our own, as it is the waste product of the body’s process of metabolizing proteins. The table above shows more forms of both quick and slow release nitrogen. Visit the link below for more information!
http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/lawns/fertilizing-lawns/