Hello All -
This is my first time posting to this group. I live in Princeton area NJ and was wonder if I've missed the boat for applying Scotts 4th Step. I know it says Aug - Nov, but the temps are between 35 and 55 degrees now. Will it be okay if I applied this weekend?
Thanks for the help!
"This is my first time posting to this group. I live in Princeton area NJ and was wonder if I've missed the boat for applying Scotts 4th Step.
I know it says Aug - Nov, but the temps are between 35 and 55 degrees now. Will it be okay if I applied this weekend? "
Yes, it will be fine. The grass will still be growing into December in your area. Just for the record, I'm not a big fan of the 4 step concept. The second step applies herbicide to the entire lawn, the third insecticide. If you take care of your lawn properly, you shouldn't have a weed problem so extensive that it requires blasting the whole lawn with chemicals. It's more effective, better for the lawn and better for the environment to use a tank sprayer to spot treat any weeds. For insect control, unless you know what insect you'reafter and do it at the right time, it's likely you're just putting down more chemicals that may not do any good.
Besides a sprayer, do you recommend any package program in granuals that is better for the environment?
Also, have you ever had to deal with Crane Flys? The Scotts Step that takes care of insects doesn't combat these and this is my second year of them. This year wasn't as bad as last but there larvai ate up several spots of my back yard. They are a nusance.
"Besides a sprayer, do you recommend any package program in granuals that is better for the environment? "
No, because using any granular, you have to distribute the herbicide all over the lawn, which is the basic problem. That can be OK if the lawn is a real mess, with weeds everywhere. But a well maintained lawn should only have some spot weed problems. Those can be treated by applying the herbicide with a tank sprayer directly to the weeds, therby using an order of magnitude less herbicide and delivering it right on target.
I'm also not a fan of putting feritlizer down in the summer, which the "step" programs advocate. The best times to fertilize are fall and spring. Come summer, I leave it alone, as excess nitrogen combined with hot weather can be a path to disease and fungus.
As for the crane fly problem, I can;t help with that. No crane fly problem here at the shore and I don;t have any experience with them. Suggest you contact the Rutgers county extension service for your area. They are a good source of local info on what works best.
What the "step" programs really advocate is buying lots of stuff from them.
And when that disease and fungus comes, they have another product to sell you. Heaven forbid you some day figure out that they essentially got you to pay them to sabotage your lawn so they could sell you even more stuff.
Which brings us back to..
Which means you buy even more stuff.
I'd be tempted to change that to the best times to fertilize are fall OR spring.
As for weed, moss and fungal control, combining any of those with fertilizer is nothing more than a way to sell more chemicals. If the entire "lawn" is weeds, or moss, or fungus, then fertilizer isn't the right thing. And if the whole lawn doesn't have those problems, why spread the control chemicals all over the whole lawn. The chemicals don't belong together. It would be like mixing Preparation H and body lotion, and marketing it to people who have hemorrhoid problems. Would you spread Preparation H on your face because you have hemorrhoids? (Well, maybe if you were Bobby Brown, but that's something for another newsgroup to discuss.)
The food will work just fine, the weed control powder may not work at all. (if you're using the weed -n- feed)
The sky is falling, run away.
"The food will work just fine, the weed control powder may not work at all. (if you're using the weed -n- feed) "
Scotts 4th step is just a fall fertilizer, isn't it?
yes, just a fall fertilizer
Damn dude... You go man! I've been trying to wean people off that crap for years. SOD or is it SON now. How people mis interpret that also, and what DO those little numbers REALLY mean on the front of the bag??? I think its some sort of government messaging system to track people's spending habits, or does it have something to do with Roswell area 51?? Quick, they're telling us something else to magically get our lawn green.....SHHHH!!!
Lay off the hooch.
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