What is Fertilizer?

Posted on: Oct 02, 2019Raunie

What is Fertilizer you may ask? Well, A fertilizer is essentially food for the grass. There are three primary components on the label; Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in this order.  For example, 25-0-5 fertilizers contain 25% nitrogen, 0% phosphorus and 5% potassium.  The label should also list the source of fertilizer nutrients as well.  This is important because the source of nutrients will impact its overall performance.

Traditional Fertilizers

Typical fertilizers that you can buy in your local garden centre have a variety of formulations available. It is important to understand each component and what they do for the grass in order to choose the right one.

Nitrogen (N)

Nitrogen is an essential part of all living matter.  It has the most dramatic effect on turf growth.  Nitrogen containing compounds make up about half the living and reproductive substances of plant cells and is the primary causes of productive vegetative growth and density of turf, as well as its dark green colour. Nitrogen deficiency is often the reason that turf turns light green or yellow.  When deficiency occurs, the blades start dying at the tips.  This progresses along the center of the blade until the entire leaf is dead.

This number should always be the biggest on the label since it is the primary food group that nourishes the plant.

Phosphorous (P)

Because phosphorous is water soluble, when it rains this component tends to wash away. Ultimately We want to keep the nutrients in the soil rather than in our water tables. Due to these environmental concerns with phosphorous all Dr. Green fertilizers are now phosphorous free.

Potassium (K)

Potassium exists in all plants in relatively large quantities. It is a catalyst that regulates many plant processes such as how the plant absorbs and uses the nutrients. Potassium favours the development of thick cell walls and therefore is usually associated with promoting strong, drought and disease resistance in turf.

Dr. Green Lawncare’s Fertilizers

Fertilizer is an important part of a lawn service program and should be applied at the proper rate and time to provide the right response on turf.  The objective of Dr. Green is to provide nutrients to the grass, as required by the plant, to produce a healthy and attractive lawn. Our fertilizers and programs have been formulated to provide the right balance of nutrients to help grass grow when it needs to.