The Best Lawn Fertilizer For Spring – Detailed Buying Guide

Spring is the golden time to foster blade growth and leave a vibrant surface for your grass. As a gardener, you have to have the best lawn fertilizer for spring.

We have tested multiple products and picked out the Scotts 26003 Turf Builder – the best lawn fertilizer in 2021. With an innovative Triple Action Formula, this product can help you kill dandelions, remove clovers, and prevent crabgrass.

While other products focus on killing a specific grass type, the Scotts Turf Builder can remove all, including barnyard grass, fall panicum, foxtail, annual bluegrass, broadleaf weeds, and more!

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Scotts 26003 Turf Builder – Best For Versatility

The 3-in-1 Triple Action formula allows it to kill and prevent multiple grass varieties, such as purslane, broadleaf weeds, prostrate spurge, corn speedwell, knotweed, chickweed, etc.

You can trust this all-purpose fertilizer to cover a big healthy lawn. It provides extensive coverage of up to 4000 square feet.

Besides killing the dandelions and clovers, this crabgrass preventer also feeds your lawn.

It is suitable to use on many types of turfgrass, including Tall Fescue, Bermudagrass, Houston grass, Perennial Ryegrass, Fine Fescue, Kentucky Bluegrass, and Centipedegrass.

It is essential to know when to apply a spring fertilizer to your lawn. This Scotts Turf Building Lawn Fertilizer can only be effective when used before mowing for the 4th time.

What We Like?

• Kill dandelions and clovers
• Support healthy root systems
• Prevent crabgrass seeds
• Stop bacterial growth
• Broad coverage

What Can Be Improved?

• No application of lawn fertilizer after the 4th mowing
• Harmful to humans and animals

High Nitrogen 28-0-0 NPK- Lawn Food – Best For Developing Leaf

The High Nitrogen 28-0-0 is the best spring lawn treatment for leaves. With the help of this liquid nitrogen-rich fertilizer, your garden will become green.

As the name describes, this green-up lawn food product contains high levels of nitrogen. The 28-0-0 NPK value shows 28 percent N, no P or K in the formula.

We have mentioned above that Nitrogen is ideal for leaf development. You are free to apply this lawn growth fertilizer to all types of green grasses, including Bermuda, Zoysia, Centipede, Buffalo, St. Augustine, Bahia, Florida Palmetto, and so on.

This nitrogen-rich fertilizer comes in a spray bottle. You can quickly spread the liquid to all the leaves in your lawn.

For stronger roots, you need to add Potassium and Phosphorus. However, this product does not contain any of these 2 ingredients in the formula.

What We Like?

• High Nitrogen for leaf development
• Replace dead grass with fresh green grass
• Spray bottle for convenience in spraying the fertilizer
• Make all types of grasses green
• Cover 3200 square feet

What Can Be Improved?

• Require frequent applying
• No Potassium or Phosphorus

Pennington 100536576 UltraGreen Lawn Fertilizer – Best For Lawn Strengthening

This Pennington 100536576 can work to strengthen your lawn. It contains 5 percent iron, which can give a deep green to the leaf in your garden.

The formula of this product contains 30 percent Nitrogen for leaf development and 4 percent Potassium for root strength.

Potassium does a great job in building thicker cell walls for the grass to withstand the impact of heat and drought. Also, this macronutrient doubles as a supporter to help your lawn make the best use of Nitrogen.

If you have a large garden, the Pennington 100536576 definitely will please you at best. With 14 pounds of fertilizers, 1 package is enough to cover a maximum of 5000 square feet.

In case you require Phosphorus for your soil, this slow-release fertilizer is not our recommendation. The NPK value of it is 30-0-4, which means there is no Phosphorus in the formula.

What We Like?

• 10.5 percent slow-release nitrogen for extended feeding (up to 3 months)
• Fast and deep greening
• Crabgrass control
• Large coverage of 5000 square feet
• Protect the green lawn against heat and drought

What Can Be Improved?

• No Phosphorus in the formula
• Not killing spurge well

Safer Brand 9334 Lawn Restore Fertilizer – Best For Large Coverage

Among the 5 products on this list, the Safer Brand 9334 provides the broadest coverage. Believe it or not, 1 package of this soil improver has enough fertilizers for covering up to 6250 square feet.

There should be no fear of heat, wind, or drought. This lawn food can provide effective care to your plants to keep them healthy year-round.

As a natural lawn fertilizer, this product can not stop the growth of weeds. You require the fertilizer to have more than just organic material in its formula to kill the harmful weeds.

What We Like?

• Large coverage of 6250 square feet
• Protect lawns from heat, wind, and drought
• Organic matter for healthy grass growth
• Support a strong root development

What Can Be Improved?

• Slow absorption of nutrients
• Not stop the growth of weeds

Espoma EOLB30 Organic Lawn Booster Fertilizer – Best For Safety In Use

The Espoma EOLB30 delivers an all-natural profile, including pasteurized poultry manure, gypsum, and feather meal.

There should be no worry about the fertilizer badly affecting the health. All the ingredients are friendly to the environment, pets, and humans.

You surely can’t give any complaint about the coverage this product makes. With 30 pounds in 1 package, this fertilizer can feed up to 5000 square feet of your lawn.

In the beginning, this product creates some annoying bad smell. But don’t worry too much because the odor will vanish after hours.

What We Like?

• Organic ingredients for safe and strong grass growth
• Safe for humans, pets, and the environment
• Cover 5000 square feet of lawns
• High calcium in the formula

What Can Be Improved?

• Slow effective results
• Bad smell in the beginning

Detailed Buying Guide for Best Lawn Fertilizer for Spring

Types Of Lawn Fertilizer

Organic Fertilizer

As the name describes, an organic lawn fertilizer contains only natural ingredients in its formula. It is healthy for the environment, animals, and humans.

Most gardeners who aim to build a system in the lawn choose this type of grass fertilizer. It creates a perfect natural balance for both your lawn and the soil.

Natural lawn fertilizer can work to provide essential natural nutrients to the plants in your garden so that they can thrive.

During the decomposition of fresh organic elements, all the soil particles in your lawn will bind together and form a good structure.

Not only that, but the organic products also support the production of healthy microbes, which are beneficial for your plants.

Due to the only natural ingredients in the formula, organic fertilizers are more expensive than other types of grass food. However, if you use an organic product, you don’t need to buy extra nutrients or different pesticides for your garden.

Compared to non-organic fertilizer, an all-natural product gives the result slower. But due to the healthy substances in the formula, this type of spring fertilizer is ideal for use in the long term.

Liquid Fertilizer

Liquid fertilizers contain many powerful chemical ingredients. That’s why they can give a good result after a short period.

After applied, the fertilizer can immediately reach the grassroots to form protection. No grass or harmful substance can attack the soils in your garden.

This type of fertilizer usually comes in a spray bottle or an automatic sprinkler (with a sprinkler attachment). You can spread the fertilizing liquid over all surfaces of your lawn with convenience.

If you are low on budget, a liquid lawn fertilizer will be the best option. The great thing is, you can either buy a premixed fertilizer or prepare the mixture from different ingredients by yourself.

Concentration and chemical control are the 2 most important factors to notice when mixing the liquid lawn fertilizer. If you overdo the mixture, the heavy dose of fertilizer may become harmful to your lawn.

Liquid fertilizers contain a lot of chemicals. You need to avoid contacting them directly and keep them far away from your children and pets.

Another drawback is, this chemical fertilizer can be absorbed quickly right after they are applied. Therefore, you have to reapply this product to your lawn frequently.

Granular Fertilizer

Granular fertilizers can remain up to 12 weeks and have a slow decomposition. The gradual decomposition allows the soils in your lawn to receive consistent supplies of nutrients.

This type of fertilizer also contains chemicals in its formula like liquid products do. However, due to its long-lasting, it does not require frequent application.

The granular fertilizer usually appears as coarse powder or pellet. You can spread it across your lawn either using a lawn spreader or by hand.

You can apply the granular fertilizer using 1 of the 2 following techniques:

1. Add the fertilizer in a hole before putting the soil in.

2. Use the fertilizer as a top dressing after filling the soil in the hole.

Although granular fertilizers contain chemicals as ingredients, they stay in a dry form. Hence, there is no issue if you touch them directly.

However, it is still essential to keep them away from your children and pets.

Coverage

A package of fertilizer should be able to cover the entire of your lawn. Before buying a product, make sure that you measure your garden.

Usually, a good fertilizer can deal with 2000 – 4000 square feet. Some high-quality models can even provide extensive coverage of up to 5000 – 6500 square feet.

You should buy a package that is as big as possible for multiple uses.

Ingredients

No matter which type the fertilizer is, it has to contain the 3 following essential nutrients:

• N: Nitrogen
• P: Phosphorus
• K: Potassium

When buying a spring lawn fertilizer, you should check the NPK value (NPK ratio) shown above or under the fertilizer label. It tells the percentage proportion of those 3 main ingredients in the product.

For example, a package of spring fertilizer shows a 22-0-4 ratio. This means that the product has 22 percent Nitrogen, 0 percent Phosphorus, and 4 percent Potassium.

The best spring fertilizer should have a high NPK value, especially Nitrogen. Each nutrient in the 3 above have different features:

• N: Support leaf development and make lawn green
• P: Support rapid growth of root
• K: Prevent disease for a stronger and deeper root growth

The best time to fertilize or spray in spring:

Conclusion

Now you know what fertilizer to use in spring. The Scotts 26003 Turf Builder is the best option.

The 3-in-1 “Turf-Builder“ Fertilizer Formulation allows this product to remove the bad grass, protect your soil, and feed your lawn. With this multi-purpose fertilizer, all soils and plants in your lawn will have a tremendous active growth period.

For further questions, please contact us. We will answer you as soon as we can.

Last update on 2024-06-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API