What fertiliser for grass plugs?

[snowbunny]

Hi all,

I'm after some of your sage advice. Or, grass advice to be more accurate.

I'm in Spain and I put in a small amount of grass plugs in the early summer - later than I would have liked, but hey ho. I got them from Lawns in Spain, whose website is just awful - awful! - but who provide what appears to be a decent product. I bought some of their "extreme", which is apparently a Zoysia-like grass; low maintenance, low water requirements, very strong spreading tendencies, goes dormant if temperatures drop below a certain threshold. To us, it seemed perfect.

My issue is that I ran out of the fertiliser that we first bought with it, and I'm finding it hard to find out what I should be feeding it with. There seems to be so much conflicting advice. I'm somewhat disappointed with how little it's spread over the last few months, and it still looks very much like a series of slightly larger plugs rather than them showing much sign of "filling in" as I had hoped by now. I'm watering it three times a day, and was feeding it every two weeks until the fertiliser ran out. I'm hoping that it will start to perk up and spread well now autumn is on its way, as we get a second growing season in these months where everything that was struggling over the summer springs back to life.

This is a rather long-winded way of asking for advice on the composition of the fertiliser. I want something that wil encourage spreading, so I assume both root and leaf growth, but I've read conflicting information on what the profile should look like.

I have a friend driving out from the UK with a van in a couple of weeks so this is my opportunity to get the right fertiliser rather than simply what's available here, which is rather limited choice.

I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks

[snowbunny]

FWIW, these are the four fertilisers available locally. Would it be worth getting one of these in the short term, until my friend drives over in two weeks? They're also awfully expensive compared to UK prices, so even though they're more convenient being available here, I'd rather get a bulk load of whatever is best brought over in the van. I'm planting the plugs on another small area in a few weeks to see if it establishes better in the autumn than in the late spring, so we can do a larger area next year at the best time possible.

[nickdub]

I'd have thought just watering when dry would be enough to keep it growing. Obviously you'll need to mow it, but apart from that, I'd just let it get on with things.

[Snadger]

From what I can gather Zoysia is a slow growing clump forming grass.


I realise weather conditions are completely different in Spain to what they are in the UK, but the only knowledge I have is of UK growing and cultivars.

The generally accepted practice is to fertilise with a high nitrogen fertiliser in the spring to promote leaf growth and a high Potassium fertiliser in the Autumn to harden the growth for the winter rigours.

Spring fertiliser would have some phosphate added for root growth.


For UK Perennial Rye grass I use a 28-3-15 controlled release fertiliser in the Spring and 20-0-32 in Autumn. The reason for the Zero phosphate in autumn is that phosphates build up in the soil and most UK soils only need a spring top up.

I imagine that In Spain the temperatures won't vary as much as UK so grass will grow more in the winter. I think I would still stick with the above NPK's as even in winter there would be Nitrogen available from the Autumn feed.

[snowbunny]

Thanks for the replies. We do get cold temperatures here in the winter - we're just a little south of Barcelona and it went below zero last winter for a while, but in general, it's warmer than the UK for sure.

The grass we have isn't Zoysia, but the company says it has a similar profile. It spreads by sending out runners. We have lots of these, but none of them seem to be rooting yet.
The company won't give out the Latin name for the grass - I have no idea why they feel they need to protect that information, but there you go. Similarly with their fertilisers. They won't tell you what is in them.

Somewhere on their website it says "the more you water, the more you need to feed" which makes sense to my pre-school level of knowledge, as anything that we are putting on the grass will be washed away. And we've been watering a lot because of the high temperatures over the summer. I'm hoping for a burst of activity in the next couple of months as it cools down! The company's literature essentially says "if your grass isn't amazing, it's because you've done something wrong". Which isn't remarkably helpful.

[Snadger]

Some grasses are stoloniferous (spreading with stolon's above ground) and some are rhizomatous (spreading with rhizomes below ground)
If the grass was stoloniferous a light topdressing may help to encourage rooting.

[ESBkevin]

If the soil is poor you might dress the area with some well rotted compost to mulch. This will slow feed the soil and allow the rooting to spread as well as help moisture retention on the open spaces.