Top 12 Reasons to Not Spread Quick-release Fertilizer
12. The MA Department of Agricultural Resources recommends one application of 100% slow-release fertilizer in the fall.
11. Better golf courses only fertilize when needed; and make sure that no fertilizer goes anywhere else.
10. Save $ while not polluting by stopping the use of fast-acting fertilizer and chemicals.
9. Over-fertilized lawns pollute waterways and cause harmful algal blooms.
8. No more fish kills. (In 2012, Falmouth banned the use of fast-acting lawn fertilizer following a fish kill; since then there has not been a fish kill and their lawns are just as green as neighboring towns applying fast-acting fertilizer multiple times a year.)
7. The healthier the lawn, the more difficult it becomes for weeds and pests to take hold.
6. Healthy lawns better protect soil from erosion and protects waterways from sediment outwash.
5. Without fast-acting fertilizer, lawns are healthier with more foliage to better protect homes during extreme weather events.
4. Grass roots grow deeper into the soil and becomes healthier when it isn’t treated with fast-acting fertilizer.
3. Healthier grass produces more foliage that allows it to capture more carbon.
2. Stopping the application of fertilizers and all chemicals increases fungal mycorrhizal growth capturing more carbon
1. In healthy soils, viruses, bacteria, protists, nematodes, micro-arthropods, rotifers, and tardigrades capture and sequester more carbon.
What is the difference between quick-release and slow-release fertilizer?
Fun Facts
Fun Fact: Regions with soil suitable for agriculture make up a small percentage, about 7.5%, of the Earth’s surface. Yet, thanks to the immense diversity of microbial life living there, soils sequester more carbon than found in all the plant matter above ground plus all the atmospheric carbon. And, there’s room for more carbon in soils.
Fun Fact: Simply stopping the use of glyphosate, the active herbicide ingredient in RoundUp, will increase the carbon captured by fungal mycorrhizae during the growing season by a third.
Fun Fact: For weed control, mix a gallon of white vinegar, a cup of salt, and a tablespoon of dish soap. Put in a squirt bottle and cover leaf surfaces of unwanted vegetation.
Fun Fact: 100% slow release fertilizer consists of packets of nutrients encased in cellulose that dissolves slowly when wet. The pellets are different sizes so nutrients are released at different times. Osmocote, pictured here, includes eleven soil nutrients. One-half pound per thousand square feet of lawn applied in the fall is sufficient for the year on established lawns.
