"Warren" wrote in message
news:nReJc.90564$Oq2.52819@attbi_s52...
Roger Boughner wrote:
30-0-10 is very high nitrogen (30)
nitrogen will burn plants if used excessevly.
you may want to check with your local sod growers for more info
i would water it excessivly to wash some of the nitrogen down deeper.
it may
be all u can do.
the grass will come back if not burnt too bad. if the roots survive
you will
have grass again.
The OP says he waters every day, and he apparently loves chemical
fertilizers, so his lawn probably has a very shallow, immature root
system. With a lawn that's so stressed already, the kind of watering
needed to wash out the nitrogen is going to make it ripe for an
infestation that'll eat what's left. And he'll spend a fortune on the
water bill doing it.
My advice would be to write-off this summer. The only way to save this
summer would be to put down some good soil, and then re-sod on top of
it. Of course a newly sodded lawn in summer is going to take a lot of
water, too, so that's not a good option.
What I would say is plan on some work in September. Spread some compost
over what's left of the lawn, cover that with a nice soil, and reseed.
If you do this just before the cooler weather and the fall rains start,
you'll need to use far less water. And for goodness sake, don't use any
fertilizer! Overseed in spring to fill in the thin spots.
Then next summer, stop the madness of watering every day. Water an inch
deep once a week. Period. (If the current soil is so hard that it won't
soak-up that kind of water in one delivery, aerate it before putting
down the compost and new soil. Rake-up the plugs of the old soil, and
throw them into your compost pile for the next year.) This time you want
the roots to grow deep, and the lawn to get strong. That doesn't happen
if you water daily.
Also, remember to leave the lawn high. There's nothing in the OP's post
to indicate how high he mows, but so often the people who are so
obsessed with their lawn that they even consider using a chemical
fertilizer in summer also think their goal is something that looks like
a putting green. That's just not a realistic style for a lawn, unless
you plan to hire a full-time greens keeping crew, and budget for
replacing the sod each year.
A good, healthy lawn, growing in good soil, watered properly requires
far less fertilizer than the OP uses. I fertilize once in fall with a
"winterizer" fertilizer that's balanced for root development (rather
than the blade growth a high nitrogen fertilizer aims for), and I use
1/2 the manufacturer's recommendation applied with a drop spreader for
control.
Fertilizing more than once a year, watering more than once a week,
cutting too short. Those strategies may help you get a putting-green
lawn in the short term, but they do not result in a sustainable lawn,
and they require lots of maintenance and money during the time that they
do look like a putting green. I think most people have better ways to
spend their time and money.
--
Warren H.
==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Get Black and Decker Landscaping Tools He
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blac...ker/index.html
He's right. Daily watering, that amazes me.
A brown lawn in hot, dry conditions is a dormant, not dead, lawn. Keeping
it lush and green in these conditions is doing you no favours.
Consider some xeriscaping if the long term trend is like this?