It’s time to start fertilizing your lawn, you might be curious about how the weather might impact fertilizing. Should I fertilize before or after rain? You must be careful to get it properly. If it rains too much, your fertilizer may be washed away and your grass may not grow well.
Some gardeners prefer to fertilize before the rain, but the majority of gardeners enjoy doing it after strong rainstorms. We will concentrate on the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches in this article.
Should I Fertilize Before or After The Rain
Your fertilizer will work best and help the soil absorb it if there is light rain. Water and moisture are required to transfer the fertilizer granules into the soil and reach the roots of the grass. After application, the majority of firms advise routine watering.
Applying fertilizer to a dry lawn won’t do much benefit and might even cause your grass to burn. However, things can be different if it rains heavily! It would be awful for the weather if your fertilizer granules were to wash away after a particularly severe downpour.
Avoid applying just before a significant downpour. There are several different fertilizers that you may use to fertilize your grass. Some are liquid concentrates, some are granular. Your hose frequently has a connection for a liquid, which you feed as you disseminate the water.
Your grass will therefore be damp as a result. For the weed killer to adhere to the weeds’ leaves and be consumed, weed and feed fertilizers need damp grass.
Fertilize Before Rain
If you anticipate that light or moderate rain will replace the need for instant watering. You can use fertilizer before or after rain.
Pros
Before a downpour, fertilizing allows for the involvement of natural factors, which facilitates a smooth fertilization cycle. Your lawn requires nitrogen, an element found in nature in abundance (up to 78%), for healthy growth.
Rainfall is a great way to give nitrogen to your lawn, which will significantly enhance the fertilizer. Nitrogen is a natural complement to the cycle, whether you are utilizing organic or synthetic fertilizer.
Cons
Despite the strategy being advantageous, it may harm the environment. Some of the fertilizer may be washed into stormwater systems when there is excessive rain. It causes water contamination in the ecosystem and can have a disastrous long-term impact.
This approach of fertilizing your lawn has the potential to kill aquatic life and temporarily dry up water bodies. The majority of people rely on fishing for their livelihood and you can be making life tough for them by destroying their means.
Fertilize After Rain
Applying fertilizer after rain is preferable from an environmental standpoint. Because it won’t wash away and the soil is perfect for nutrient and nitrogen absorption.
Pros
The effectiveness of the fertilizer on the grass is increased by fertilizing after heavy rain. Most frequently, a lot of rain might wash the fertilizer off the lawn. This led to some water pollution in the neighborhood. Fertilizing after the rain has little impact on the environment in terms of water body contamination.
By using this technique, the fertilizer will stay put where it has been put. The majority of synthetic fertilizers are quality and are easily rendered inactive by an abundance of water infiltration.
Cons
Rainfall fertilizer has the drawback of preventing the gardener from taking advantage of or using natural methods of fertilizing lawns. Other essential organic nutrients are present; the fertilizer may become significantly more active on the grass. I refer to “natural ways” as the incorporation of nitrogen into the lawn by way of rainwater.
One of the essential nutrients your lawn needs to survive and thrive is nitrogen. It can be introduced to the lawn by a significant downpour. The inherent benefit is nearly impossible to completely fertilize your lawn and cover the full land area. If you are just misting after the rain, you will undoubtedly miss some locations.
Advice for Fertilizer Application After Rainfall
- It is recommended to postpone fertilizer application for a day or two of rainfall. Any spots of water will be gone by this point, but the ground will still be damp.
- Applying fertilizer to wet grass blades is not recommended.
- Make sure there will be some sunshine by checking the forecast. The process of photosynthesis, which improves fertilizer and promotes healthy development, requires sunlight.
Alternate Approach
If you believe you will lose out on the rain’s assistance in adequately watering your fertilizer. You can still do it without automatically degrading the quality of the nearby water bodies. A catch-can test will work for you; it will determine the real amount of water that your grass is having.
You can precisely water fertilizer into your grass with the catch-can test. While performing that test, be aware of the duration of the irrigation (a substitute for rainfall for adequate dispersion).
FAQ’S
Is it acceptable to apply fertilizer before it rains?
If the weather is warm or light, it is okay to spread fertilizer before it rains. Water is necessary for plant growth and also for fertilizer’s nutrients to break down and be absorbed by the roots.
What if I fertilize right after it starts to rain?
Your fertilizer is “activated” by water. It aids in distributing the granules deep within the thatch. Where they begin to decompose and absorb into the root system. So it is good that it rained after fertilizer.
Is fertilizer necessary after mowing?
It is ideal to fertilize the lawn after mowing so that it has a few days to absorb the fertilizer.
Final Verdicts
Two days before any anticipated rain, apply your fertilizer. Apply it on your lawn and water it with sprinklers if it looks like it might rain before it does. By doing this, the fertilizer application will have time to absorb into the soil before it rains.