When to Fertilize Your Lawn in Florida: A Seasonal Guide for Healthy Grass

Just like you have a schedule for eating, so does your lawn. 

But it doesn’t need breakfast, lunch, dinner and four snacks every day. (We’re not judging. Snack away.)

How often should you fertilize your lawn in Florida? Sarasota’s sandy soil means your lawn needs frequent fertilizing in smaller amounts, so monthly fertilizing is best. But the county’s summer fertilizer ban means a creative approach is needed, subbing in iron and micronutrients for the nitrogen found in regular fertilizer. 

Read more about when to fertilize grass in Florida, including:

Florida Lawns Are Always Hungry

Also, Fertilizing is Quirky Here 

What’s the Lawn Fertilizer Schedule for Florida?

Florida Lawn Fertilizer Schedule: Should You Do It Yourself?

Florida Lawns Are Always Hungry

Unlike in many other states, lawns in Florida grow almost year-round due to the abundant sunshine and warm weather. As a result, they need to be fertilized more often than lawns up north, with a more frequent lawn fertilizer schedule. Fertilizer provides your turf with the nourishment it needs to grow healthy, stay green, and stay strong against insect pests and lawn diseases. 

Also, Fertilizing is Quirky Here 

The soil here in Sarasota is sandy, which creates a challenge when it comes to fertilizing. Sandy soil drains really well, which means water — and the important nutrients in your fertilizer — drain right through. 

Sarasota lawn care means more frequent fertilizing, but with smaller amounts, so fertilizer has a better chance of feeding the roots than draining right through into the groundwater. 

Many lawn fertilizer services in Sarasota offer four fertilizer visits throughout the year. That might sound reasonable enough, but it’s not the right schedule for our sandy soil. 

Companies that visit just four times are putting so much fertilizer on your lawn at once that it can’t be properly absorbed by your sandy soil. Those important nutrients in fertilizer run right through it.

Tropical Gardens has a more frequent lawn fertilizer schedule for Sarasota, visiting once a month for 8-10 months of the season, visiting more often and applying smaller amounts of nutrients so they can really take hold. 

Other professional landscaping companies might deposit 7 lbs of fertilizer down 4 times.

We put down 2 lbs each time. Yes, it’s less fertilizer overall but it’s actually soaking in and feeding your lawn’s roots. 

Heavy fertilizer applications lead to runoff, as your lawn can’t absorb all that fertilizer at once. And as this excess fertilizer reaches coastlines and other waterways, the damage adds up. 

Monthly turf fertilization is better for your lawn and for the environment. 

Which leads us to…

What’s the Lawn Fertilizer Schedule for Florida?

Here in Sarasota, lawns need a 
regular fertilization routine in the spring, fall, and winter to stay healthy. But summer brings a bit of a twist, based on county fertilizing regulations. 

When to fertilize grass in Florida? Here’s how it works:

Your lawn needs a steady supply of nutrients through consistent fertilization, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. 

But between June 1 and Sept. 30, most counties in Florida ban the application of fertilizer that contains nitrogen or phosphorus. These bans are in place to reduce the amount of fertilizer that runs off of properties during summer rainstorms and finds its way into area waterways. Fertilizers can harm aquatic life and spark algae blooms.

Once fall rolls around, your lawn can get back to its regular Florida fertilizer schedule, which will help it withstand the colder weather and jump-start growth when the heat returns.

But here at Tropical Gardens, we don’t abandon your lawn in the summer. That would be sad. 

We still visit, applying iron and helpful micronutrients like magnesium, 
zinc, copper, sulphur and manganese to lawns — all allowed during the nitrogen ban months.

These micronutrients continue to power strong, healthy lawn growth. 

Those summer lawn care visits are important for other reasons, too, that go beyond your Florida lawn fertilizer schedule. 

Grubs move in during June and July. These lawn villains are the larvae of beetles like June bugs and Japanese beetles. The beetles lay their eggs in the ground, the eggs hatch into white, slimy, wriggly grubs, and the grubs feast on your lawn’s roots, easily destroying your lawn.  

Preventive grub treatment is a key part of Florida lawn maintenance, and is included in the top two tiers of Tropical Gardens’ comprehensive lawn care programs. 

These monthly visits keep skilled lawn care pros on the lookout for potential problems, too. 

It doesn’t take long for things to go wrong out there if nobody’s paying attention. Plants die, lawn diseases strike, branches get overgrown, bugs move in. Yikes, right? 

You need somebody looking out for these issues pretty regularly. We love this stuff. 

Florida Lawn Fertilizer Schedule: Should You Do It Yourself?

Now that you know when to fertilize your Florida lawn, maybe you’re pondering tackling this chore yourself. 

So, you have plenty of spare time every month? You know exactly what product to use and how much to put down? Is that old spreader in the back of your garage calibrated to apply the right amount of fertilizer? Wait — do you even have a spreader? 

Here at Tropical Gardens, we calibrate our spreaders monthly, spreading fertilizer out on tarps then weighing it to make sure our pros apply exactly the right amount to your lawn. 

If you don’t apply the right amount of fertilizer, your lawn won’t get the important nutrients it needs to thrive. Apply too much, and you can actually damage your lawn with fertilizer “burn.” Fertilizer contains salts that, in excess, can draw water away from the plant's roots, leading to dehydration and damage. 

Turn the tricky task over to expert lawn fertilization services in Sarasota that specialize in the painstaking fertilization your Florida lawn needs to thrive. 

When to Fertilize Grass in Florida? Talk to Us

This is Florida! Can’t you find something better to do than figuring out fertilizer every month? 

You absolutely can. Let us do the hard stuff. You do the fun stuff. 

Tropical Gardens provides tailored, full-service landscape services in Sarasota that ensure your Florida landscaping gets all the care it needs — all year long. 

Let’s get started. We’ll help you figure it all out. 

Give us a call or fill out our form today! Our team of Sarasota lawn pros  can’t wait to transform your Florida lawn into a green oasis. And you don’t have to worry about stubbing your toe on the fertilizer spreader every time you’re out in the garage.