# Can't get my grass to thicken or grow.



## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

So I've been working on my yard this year and I can't seem to get it to thicken or grow much. See below pics. I've been giving it 2lbs/1k/month of 46-0-0. Even with that I still only have to cut it twice a week and only have minimal clippings each cut. I do have hard clay soil so I'm sure that's not helping. Aerated in May and leveled with sand in June. Also got a soil test and look to be low on P & K. Also in the pics you'll can still see the scarifier lines that are from a month ago. Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

How's the sun exposure?

How often or how much are you watering?

You need to get your P and K up. That's pretty low and affects the uptake of any of the other nutrients.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Great. Full sun all day long.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

Give it something more balanced…. Nitrogen alone won't get it there without being able to process the rest of it and have better roots.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Will do. Any specific ratio you recommend? Would a straight 13-13-13 work for the rest of the season since both P and K are low?


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## p1muserfan (Jul 7, 2019)

mbr961 said:


> Will do. Any specific ratio you recommend? Would a straight 13-13-13 work for the rest of the season since both P and K are low?


Yes. At the very least, I would throw down the triple 13 on your next fert app.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Looking at Siteone and I see three possible options. Any better than the other?

14-7-7 
14-14-14
24-2-12


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

mbr961 said:


> Looking at Siteone and I see three possible options. Any better than the other?
> 
> 14-7-7
> 14-14-14
> 24-2-12


With how low your numbers are you would want to go either a balanced (triple whatever number) or even a starter fertilizer.

Also have you done the dig check for bugs? If all you've done all year is apply Nitrogen and you're deficient in basically all the other things, I would still have expected a little better results then what you're seeing.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

I found army worms in my backyard in a couple of spots last week. Didn't find anything in my front(where these pics are) with water and soap test in a few places. But I did spray triazicide on the front just in case they were in some spots I didn't test.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

I would spray some bifen at a minimum. I would look for a balanced fert or even something lower on nitrogen and a bit higher in the P and K.

Doesn't appear to be fungal, I just don't think your grass is taking up much, and the cultural practices aren't recovering so quickly due to the slow uptake.

A starter fertilizer is a good suggestion, always higher in the good macros, to allow the micros to uptake. Hit it well with ample water and you complete the cycle.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Thanks for the info. So with either a starter fertilizer or balanced fert, am I still aiming to get 1 lb of N/k?


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

I would lean more towards something LIKE this

https://www.siteone.com/en/511018-lesco-nos-plus-bio-starter-fertilizer-12-24-8-50-lb-bag/p/652113

Balanced fert would work too, but you are so low, I would legit be throwing down Starter fert.

The benefit to a balanced (triple whatever) fertilizer is it's normally all fast release. That would be the one area I can see making an argument that direction.


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

mbr961 said:


> Thanks for the info. So with either a starter fertilizer or balanced fert, am I still aiming to get 1 lb of N/k?


You're so deficient it honestly doesn't matter. 0.5# every 2 weeks or so is probably where I would start.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Thanks. My SiteOne doesn't carry that one above. Would this work close enough?

Sorry. Just saw your LIKE being capitalized in your sentence. Looks like this one is pretty close.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lesco-LESCO-Starter-Fertilizer-18-24-12/5001213031


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

mbr961 said:


> Thanks. My SiteOne doesn't carry that one above. Would this work close enough?
> 
> https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lesco-LESCO-Starter-Fertilizer-18-24-12/5001213031


I don't have a siteone anywhere near me, that's legit the exact bag I use from Lowes. I only linked Siteone since you had mentioned it.

Edit: Note they are buy 5 get 20% off.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Amoo316 said:


> mbr961 said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks. My SiteOne doesn't carry that one above. Would this work close enough?
> ...


Thanks for your help! I'll head there in the morning. Lucky to have a SiteOne 5 minutes away and I always see people saying they have the "good" stuff so I just assumed Lowe's wouldn't have anything "good". That bag just pulled up when I googled Lesco starter.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

I would pick up the fast-release 13-13-13 from Lowes. That's what I use and it pops! It's in a blue bag here in Florida. Have you done a tuna can test on the areas that are struggling?


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Redtwin said:


> I would pick up the fast-release 13-13-13 from Lowes. That's what I use and it pops! It's in a blue bag here in Florida. Have you done a tuna can test on the areas that are struggling?


I just got in some of the "rain gauge" cups for sprinklers and plan on putting them out the next time the sprinklers are scheduled. Which may be tomorrow if I get this stuff down and it doesn't rain.


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## corneliani (Apr 2, 2019)

mbr961 said:


> Looking at Siteone and I see three possible options. Any better than the other?
> 
> 14-7-7
> 14-14-14
> 24-2-12


That triple-14 is their sulfur coated controlled-release tree & ornamental product, meant to be applied at 3-mo intervals or so. I think that 14-7-7 is a similar product as well. It's not what you want. That Lowe's product may be your best find but I'd argue that a fast-release triple 10 or 13 is a better product for this time of year. We only have another 6 weeks or so of growing season left and yiur only get 1 application from that starter before fertilization season ends. Get that for next year, every 4-6 weeks. This year wrap up the year with triple-10/13.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

corneliani said:


> mbr961 said:
> 
> 
> > Looking at Siteone and I see three possible options. Any better than the other?
> ...


Thanks. With only 6 weeks or so left how should I go about applying the triple? Every 2 weeks of 0.5 lb/N for 3 maybe 4 apps. Or two 1 lb/N apps maybe at 3 weeks apart before growing season is over?


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## corneliani (Apr 2, 2019)

Not sure you'd go wrong with either option, but 1# of fast-release N at once is beyond my comfort zone personally - unless you water it in well afterwards. But whatever you feel comfortable with. You are trying to get it to grow so might as well push it these last few weeks. Come October a 5-0-20 should put it to sleep for the winter.


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## cavince79 (Jun 18, 2019)

Not the cheapest option, but sometimes $10 when already at the HD is convenient.
24-8-16
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Miracle-Gro-Water-Soluble-5-lb-All-Purpose-Plant-Food-1001232/100035250

I mix a 1.25lb pouch in my 4gal sprayer and go to town on the areas of bermuda I'mm trying to spread. Sometimes I spike it with more straight 46-0-0, but this has always been my go to for spread.


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## Jason229 (Apr 4, 2020)

I'm literally in the exact same situation as you. From May - June I was spraying .25lbs weekly of 46-0-0 & 
I was expecting a boom. Didn't happen, I was barely able to cut twice a week. I add a bagger on the second mow to see if anything was being cut & the bag barely had anything in it. So for the month of July I did 1 pound of #N per 1000 of 46-0-0 granular & applied a 10-10-10. I've some more growth from that combo, but I don't know if it's the 10-10-10 or the 46-0-0. I'm the coming days I'm going to try a starter fert to see what that does. I'm in south coastal GA & it's been a raining summer, so there's no need for me to water manually. We get heavy rainfall almost every afternoon.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

@Jason229 if you haven't done a soil test, I would just stick to the 10-10-10. .25N/1000sf per week will really push it.


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## Jason229 (Apr 4, 2020)

I got a soil test in April, it said I need 100 pounds of lime which I applied 40 pounds each in May-July.


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## Bombers (Jul 14, 2020)

The stuff from box stores is fine and you can achieve a great yard with it along with good cultural practice.
With deficient turf you can go up to 2 lbs N/1k a month. I would reduce that a bit and put down some triple NPK at .75 lb/1k literally today and 2 weeks from now to finish the season.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Thanks for the help everyone. I just put down 4lbs/k of 13-13-13 this morning and will do it again in 2 weeks and probably once more 2 weeks after that depending on weather. I will finish it up with 5-0-20 for my last app of the year.


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## Jason229 (Apr 4, 2020)

Ha that's literally what I just did!!


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

Keep in mind, just feeding nitrogen isn't going to give the huge boom of growth if the grass and soil aren't in decent shape to allow the plant and roots to have any uptake and conversion.

It's like taking 2000% of your daily vitamins. You can only use so much before the rest is missed and wasted.


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## Jason229 (Apr 4, 2020)

True, what's a good all balanced fert with good macros. I've just been using the basic 10-10-10 from Lowe's. The bag is very generic doesn't really tell you wants all in it besides the NPK.


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## Phids (Sep 24, 2020)

mbr961 said:


> Thanks for the help everyone. I just put down 4lbs/k of 13-13-13 this morning and will do it again in 2 weeks and probably once more 2 weeks after that depending on weather. I will finish it up with 5-0-20 for my last app of the year.


How long ago was the sod laid down (if you know)? For sod that's less than a year old, it can take time to really shoot roots down into the lower layer of clay. My Bermuda didn't experience as much growth as I was expecting in the first year, even though I was hitting it primarily with nitrogen based on the instructions given to me by the local extension office. The second year was when growth really started to pick up.


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## mbr961 (Apr 14, 2020)

Phids said:


> mbr961 said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for the help everyone. I just put down 4lbs/k of 13-13-13 this morning and will do it again in 2 weeks and probably once more 2 weeks after that depending on weather. I will finish it up with 5-0-20 for my last app of the year.
> ...


It's old sod. House is 10 years old. This is my first summer here and the previous owner didn't take care of it other than having it cut. Figure it will take a couple of seasons to get it closer to where I want it.


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## theycallme_d (Jul 20, 2019)

@mbr961 Last season I felt like I wasn't getting much growth but had not done a soil test. I got a soil test done in Feb and showed I was low on PK. I had received recommendations here to use a starter fert until July then switch to a balanced fert. My lawn looks a lot healthier this season than last and getting great growth.

Like the guys said, N alone won't do it. Go with a balanced fert and check it for micros. Supplement those too if you can.


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## DurtEsanch (Jan 23, 2021)

FATC1TY said:


> Keep in mind, just feeding nitrogen isn't going to give the huge boom of growth if the grass and soil aren't in decent shape to allow the plant and roots to have any uptake and conversion.
> 
> It's like taking 2000% of your daily vitamins. You can only use so much before the rest is missed and wasted.


True, I feel like aerating is necessary to really maximize your fertilizer use.


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## DurtEsanch (Jan 23, 2021)

Jason229 said:


> True, what's a good all balanced fert with good macros. I've just been using the basic 10-10-10 from Lowe's. The bag is very generic doesn't really tell you wants all in it besides the NPK.


Have you every tried a foliar spray? I use them often with good and quick results.


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## Jason229 (Apr 4, 2020)

DurtEsanch said:


> Jason229 said:
> 
> 
> > True, what's a good all balanced fert with good macros. I've just been using the basic 10-10-10 from Lowe's. The bag is very generic doesn't really tell you wants all in it besides the NPK.
> ...


Yes, wasn't seeing much growth.


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