Fertilizer-Pesticide Combinations
Are They Snake Oil?
© 1997, 1998 Streamline Publications

Products advertised as all-in-one treatments for turf may be acceptable for limited use by homeowners, but they can create difficulties for commercial landscape maintenance companies.
Touted as modern-day magic bullets, these products are much like the snake oils of the last century that were claimed to cure all that ailed man or beast. Truth is, no one product can simultaneously be effectively used as a fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide, and insecticide.
The best time to fertilize is not always the best time to apply pesticides. Proportions in these concoctions are set. For one of these combination products to work to maximum efficiency turf conditions would have to match the product's design. That's backward.
Multipurpose products permit little flexibility of choice in what is used on the lawn. Homeowner use can be successful in certain limited situations but the one-size-fits-all "weed and feed" promise is simplistic and results are often hit and miss.
Tough problems that face landscape maintenance contractors and turf managers need a more surgical approach. It makes little sense for them to apply a herbicide when it isn't needed simply because it happens to be in the fertilizer. Professionals rely on soil analysis and a carefully reasoned approach to each situation as the best way to solve the problem and avoid over spending.
Consideration needs to be given to all factors. The answer may not lie in fertilizer or in pesticides. The problem could be salt buildup, under or over watering, poor drainage, disease, or a number of other problems.
The answers should be based on a scientific soil analysis. Start with a call to S&S Seeds.

See Fertilizer: Playing the Numbers.

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