When to Fertilize Your Lawn in Texas

If you’re looking to improve the health of your lawn, you may be planning to fertilize. Perhaps you’re wondering when to fertilize your lawn in Texas?  After all, Texas is way warmer than Missouri, where you would need to fertilize at a later time of year.  

Why Fertilize Anyway?

Fertilizing your lawn is an excellent way to ensure that the grass thrives. There are many things to consider before applying fertilizer to your yard. You’ll want to fertilize your lawn during the warmer months, and it’s also a good idea to aerate your yard before you fertilize. Here’s when to aerate a yard in Texas (broken down by region)

Fertilizer will provide your lawn with all the nutrients it needs to grow healthy. If you live in Texas and have a patchy looking lawn that you wish to improve, read on. This article will tell you when to fertilize your lawn in Texas.

Fertilizing Your Yard in Texas:  Best Practices + Time

Most homeowners have lawns with warm-season grasses such as Bermuda grass, Zoysia grass, or St. Augustine in Texas. These grasses grow best in Texas’s hot climate. Some yards in western Texas may have cool-season grasses as the temperature plummets during the night, especially in fall and winter. When you apply fertilizer to your lawn will depend on the type of grass as well as the kind of fertilizer you’re using.

Fertilizing your lawn is a straight-forward job, but there are some things that you’ll need to consider to work out which time of year is best. Let’s look and when to apply fertilizer and when not to fertilize:

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1. Wait until the grass is green

The best time to fertilize your grass in Texas is in the early spring when new growth is starting to develop, and your grass has turned green. Picking the best time of year to plant grass in Texas is important too.  

It’s best not to apply fertilizers, especially those that are high nitrogen, until your grass has greened. Applying fertilizer in the spring will provide nutrient to your lawn that promotes healthy growth and development.

2. Weed control

Many gardeners recommend fertilizing in early spring. While spring is a good time of year to apply fertilizer to your lawn, you’ll also need to think about weed control. Plants, grasses, and weeds begin to grow new shoots in the early spring. If you fertilize your lawns too early without pulling out the weeds or using a pre-emergent herbicide to stop weeds from germinating, you’ll be giving nutrients to invasive weeds that can take over your lawn.

3. Don’t fertilize in fall or winter

Fertilizing your Texas lawn in late autumn or early winter isn’t a good idea if you have warm-season grass. In autumn, your yard will stop growing and become dormant for the winter, so fertilizing your lawn doesn’t make much sense. If you fertilize your lawn at this time of year, you’ll be providing nutrients to cool-season weeds that will invade your lawn.

The best times to fertilize warm-season grasses in Texas

The best time of year to fertilize warm-season grasses is in the early spring to late summer. Your grass will enter the most active growing phase in the spring, so you’ll get the best results if you remove weeds, aerate your lawn and apply fertilizer in the early spring.

Fertilizing in spring will help to boost the growth of your lawn and will make your grass stronger. Fertilizing at the beginning of the growth cycle will mean your yard will have an easier time during the hotter summer months.

Some gardeners also fertilize their lawns in the summer months as this can help contribute to its growth and enable you to maintain a strong, healthy lawn. If you’ve missed fertilizing your yard in spring, starting the process in the summer will still benefit your grass.

You may also like to fertilize your lawn in the early fall, as this can help the grass recover from stress caused by summer heat. Fertilizing in fall can also ensure your grass is healthy for the season of dormancy.

The best times to fertilize cool-season grasses in Texas

Some yards in Texas have lawns with cool-season grasses; this is most common in western Texas. If you have cool-season grasses, it’s best to apply fertilizer in early fall, as this will help your grass to recover from the hot summer temperatures.

Conclusion

A healthy fertilizer that provides your lawn with nutrients will allow your grass to grow thick and healthy. If you choose the right lawn fertilizer for the type of grass and apply it at the correct time, your lawn will thrive.

Most homeowners find that fertilizing their grass once a year is enough. Giving your grass excess fertilizer regularly isn’t a good idea. Too much fertilizer will boost the growth of your lawn, and you may find that you end up having to cut it more often.