Best Way To Care For Your Sod
Maintaining and caring for your freshly installed sod is of the utmost importance. If you give it the right care you can have a lawn that will look great and lush. If you do not care for your lawn properly, you could have a dead, brown and ugly lawn. Caring for the freshly installed sod is fairly simple and you just need to do a few things to ensure you have your turf looking its best.
The most common methods in maintaining your freshly installed sod is watering, mowing, fertilization, weed control and disease and pest control.
Watering
Watering your sod is one of the most important steps to ensuring that you have healthy and beautiful looking lawn. When you first install your new sod the roots will be very shallow and this will make it unable to access the water on the lower layer. That is why it is very important to water the sod at least 3 times a day at very short intervals. As the roots of the lawn begin to grow, then they will be able to access the water. Around the second week you can switch to watering the sod to around 2 times a day. In the third week the roots should be deep enough where you only need to water the lawn 1 time a day. Once the roots have established themselves, then the option is now yours to water your sod every other day; or when needed.
It should be important to note that you do not over water your freshly installed lawn. If you give it too much water, then the roots can be deprived of oxygen and this could slow its growth or even destroy it. When the time is hot, using too much water on the sod can lead to the possibility of disease. Care needs to be taken when it comes applying water to your new lawn.
Fertilization
Fertilization is an important process when it comes to the maintenance of your sod. There are many different types of fertilizers that all serve a specific purpose. All fertilizers contain a certain percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. At different levels they control certain growing aspects of the lawn. For more information on sod fertilizer read here.
Weed Contol
Another important aspect of sod maintenance is the control you have over weeds.This process of ensuring your newly laid sod does not have any weeds begins on the first day. By watering the sod properly and using the right fertilizer, this is usually the right way to ensure that your sod is weed free.
Weeds will eventually appear, especially if your sod is in the shade, as the lawn won’t have the density that is required to stop weed growth. If this occurs you usually can pull the weeds out yourself or use an herbicide. Pulling out weeds manually can be fun, but also time consuming if you have a large lawn. If you plan on using a herbicide, you need to ensure that it is the right one for the types of weeds that are infesting your grass.
Controlling weeds is an ongoing process, but to ensure your lawn continues to look beautiful, there needs to be some level of stopping the weeds.
Disease and Pest Control
There are two main factors that can lead to a damaged soil and these are pest infestation or disease. Ensuring that your grass is not infested is a major aspect of sod maintenance.
As stated above, excess water can lead to the growth of fungus that can affect your lawn. Sometimes your lawn will suffer from a fungal disease and this is all dependent on the amount of moisture that is in the soil. If there is too much, this can lead to the growth and development of the fungus. By not over watering your lawn, as well as doing it in the day; this should be able to reduce the chance of fungal growth.
Insects or pests are another factor that can destroy your new lawn. If you believe your lawn is infested, there are many different types of insecticides that are available. When using it, ensure that you follow the label correctly so as not to do any further damage to the lawn or possibly contaminate the environment.