Lawn Treatment And Cultural Practices
The best lawn treatment for any lawn, is to make sure that the lawn is healthy. No amount of any other lawn treatment can overcome the damage done by poor cultural practices. No lawn treatment known to man can benefit a lawn as much as good cultural practices!
What are cultural practices? They are the practices used to maintain a lawn. The day to day activities performed in lawn care. This includes such things as mowing, cultivating, fertilizing, irrigating, and yes, even lawn treatment practices.
Lawn treatment and cultural practices
Mowing as a lawn treatment
Mowing is the biggest part of, and the primary activity in lawn care. Mowing frequency has more to do with the health of a lawn than any other activity for producing a healthy lawn. There are still plenty of other cultural practices.
Your lawn needs air, water, nutrients, and an easy way to get them all into the root zone where those plants can make use of them. With that in mind, we will start with lawn cultivating. There is no need in fertilizing and irrigating if the ground is so compacted that it has no air space. Air, nutrients, and water can’t get into the root zone if there is no space for them to occupy. They will just run off into the drainage system. Cultivating will provide the needed space.
Cultivation as a lawn treatment.
Cultivating is not needed as often as the other items on our list, but it is a very important part of lawn treatment.
If you have a thatch build up, or compaction problems, aerifying, or verticutting will aid in keeping your lawn in good condition. Thatch hides insects and provides conditions which encourage insect reproduction. It also weakens the lawn grasses, deprives them of natural nutrients, and inhibits water intake.
If your lawn is in need of renovating, cultivation is essential. Top dressing could be a separate subject, but I mention it here because cultivation and top dressing are usually a collaborative efforts. Cultivating twice per year will have a positive impact on your law, and more frequent cultivation in high stress areas can work wonders. Avoid cultivating your lawn late in the fall. It will plant weed seed that would have otherwise rotted on the surface.
Fertilizing as a lawn treatment.
Getting the right amount of nutrients to your lawn is important. For the best fertilizer, mow more frequently, which will leave smaller, more easily broken down clippings, and don’t bag your clippings They can return as much as 60 percent of the nutrients to the soil. Of course, you will want to add more fertilizer, so start with something like one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet of lawn space per application. Three applications per year should be sufficient.
Of course you will need to adjust this to the needs of your particular lawn. Most common lawn grasses can use as much as two pounds per thousand square feet, per application.
Some fertilizers use sulfur coated urea formaldehyde. The sulfur coating slows the release of nutrients, allowing for more time between applications. You can use these at higher levels, less frequently. If you use regular fertilizer, smaller doses at more frequent intervals are recommended. Organic and natural fertilizers can also work very well, and are usually slow release.
Irrigation as a lawn treatment
Keeping your grass healthy requires making the right amount of water available. Too little and it desiccates, to much and it will languish and invite fungus, pests, and disease. To have a healthy lawn, you don't have to know all the details of precipitation rates, or evapotranspiration rates (yes, they are real terms) but you should watch your lawn. If it is soggy two hours after watering, you should probably back off the water a little. If it is dry at a depth of one inch, you should increase the watering.
Pest Control.
This is what most people mean when they talk about lawn treatment, but, if you have done everything else on the list right, the chances of having pest problems is greatly diminished. Pest control products for standard lawn treatment fall into 2 categories, insecticides and herbicides.
Insecticides
Insects need food and cover to survive, if you have done your mowing well, set your irrigation properly, not over fertilized, and gotten rid of thatch through proper cultivation, you have removed the source of food and cover. If there are problems at all, they will be few. Lawn treatment with the least toxic insecticide when any outbreaks occur will solve the problem easily. There are also systemic lawn treatment products available that work well. Always try to start with the least toxic lawn treatment first.
Herbicides
Weeds compete with lawn grasses where cultural practices have broken down. Scalping causes bare spots, and with no competition, weeds invade the bare spots, mowing weedy outside areas, and then mowing your fine lawn without cleaning the mower between spreads weed seed, overly wet, or overly dry soil allows weeds of one type or another to prosper. Poor mowing frequency gives weeds time to go to seed. Conversely, good cultural practices prevent weeds, and are the best lawn treatment for getting rid of weeds. Herbicidal lawn treatments should be little needed if proper cultural practices are followed.
Treatment for existing weeds
To eliminate the weeds that exist, find the least toxic method, starting with manual removal if possible. Otherwise, find the proper herbicide for your particular weed, and follow the label directions exactly, and follow up by using good lawn cultural practices to prevent the weeds from returning.
The best lawn treatment a healthy lawn!
