Liquid Vs. Granular Fertilizer — What’s The Best Summer Lawn Fertilizer?

Oh, the joy of green lawn, green grass! Your lawn needs a good fertilizer regimen to ensure it’s happy, healthy and green, green, green.

You just can’t beat the feeling of cool, lush grass beneath your summer bare feet.

But the choices are perplexing. Liquid fertilizer vs. granular fertilizer, which is best?

Each type has its pros and cons.

Let’s take a look at the differences, and how to decide what’s the best summer lawn fertilizer for your turf.

A Look At Liquid Fertilizers

Liquid lawn fertilizer is just like it’s described — in liquid form. It’s sprayed onto your lawn and soaks in.

The Advantages of Liquid Fertilizer

The fertilizer nutrients are right there in the solution, immediately available to your grass. That means you’ll see a quick green-up — within days of application — and a quick spurt of growth.

Most liquid fertilizers can easily be hooked up to the end of your garden hose. There’s no cleanup of loose granules. Spray and go.

The Disadvantages of Liquid Fertilizer

The liquid nutrients soak into your lawn fast, but that also means they don’t last as long. Those quick results you see will soon fade.

That’s why you’ll notice that lawn care companies who use liquid fertilizer will recommend more frequent applications to keep those green results going.

Pesticides may be mixed in with your liquid fertilizer for one-stop ease of application. That means they’ll be applied over your entire lawn, even on areas that may not need it.

Some of the fertilizer may run off and not make it into your soil.

Liquid lawn fertilizer is usually applied with a long spray hose. If it’s windy, the liquid can spray off, missing your lawn.

A Look At Granular Fertilizers

Granular fertilizer is made up of hard pellets that lay on the soil and, once watered in, break down slowly over time.

The Advantages of Granular Fertilizers

Granular fertilizers break down slowly over time, giving your lawn a longer, steadier feeding for several weeks. This means initial green-up takes a little longer, but the results last much longer.

Granular products come in a huge assortment of blends, so instead of a one size fits all approach, products can be customized to fit your lawn’s precise needs.

You’ll need fewer applications. A properly selected granular or dry fertilizer can accomplish in four applications what it takes five or six for a liquid application to accomplish.

Fertilizer and pesticides are not mixed together in one tank, so the pesticide goes only where your lawn needs it.

Because the granules are released slowly over time, there’s no runoff.

The Disadvantages of Granular Fertilizers

You’ll have to wait a bit longer to see your lawn green up.

A lawn care service may be at your home longer if you get both fertilizer and pesticide because they’ll need to make two sweeps over your lawn.

They’ll also need a bit more time to sweep any granules that strayed onto paved surfaces back onto your grass.

Granular lawn fertilizer has to be watered in within 14 days of application, either by rainfall or irrigation.

The Neave Experts’ Choice

At Neave Lawn Care, we use granular fertilizer on our clients’ lawns — for all the advantages listed above.

Granular fertilizers release slowly, feeding your lawn steadily over several weeks.

It stays put and doesn’t wash away. Granular fertilizers give us the flexibility to give your lawn the precise treatment it needs for green, healthy growth.

Fertilizing With Care

At Neave Lawn Care, we train our staff beyond the industry standard when it comes to fertilizing. We strive to not only nourish your lawn, but to minimize environmental impact whenever possible.

Your lawn care management program will include a fertilizing schedule. Fertilizing isn’t just something you perform in the early spring as the growing season kicks off. It’s a process that lasts the entire year.

If you’re in the Hudson Valley, call us at (845) 463-0592. If you’re in Westchester County, call (914) 271-7996; from Connecticut, dial (203) 212-4800. Or fill out our simple web form, and we’ll contact you about setting up your free consultation.

Our staff performs regular soil analysis for clients so we know the appropriate nutrient levels are being met.

To get started, just schedule your free lawn analysis.

Image: Grass close-up