New lawn question

Hello, I'm new here and have a question regarding a new lawn I am going to lay shortly. I'm currently in the process of preparing the ground(sieving out all the larger stones, weeds, etc). I'm a huge fan of blood, fish and bonemeal, and have used it to great success when planting all my trees, shrubs and perennials. It really helps to get the roots established. My question is: would it be suitable to give the prepared and watered soil a light sprinkling of blood, fish and bone powder, just prior to laying the new turf? Or would it actually do harm? Thank you all in anticipation.

 

Typical pre-Turf fertiliser with have an NPK of 6:10:8 with some added Magnesium; some of the Nitrogen will be slow release (25% say)

B,F&B has an NPK of 6:6:6 ...

Its the ratio between the three figures, rather than the magnitude of the numbers, that matters, so Pre Turf Fertiliser has 60% more P than N and 1/3rd more K than N whereas B,F&B has the same for all three. The P & K will help establish roots, whereas N will promote green growth, and new turf should be helped to establish, rather than grow soft & lush, initially. For established lawns we generally chuck a lot of "Mostly Nitrogen"at them in the Spring to kick start them and make them nice and green ... but new turf should focus on establishing roots.

I doubt it matters ... lots of people will lay turf with no fertiliser at all but if you want to be certain to give it the best possible start I'd go for a proprietary pre-Turf fertiliser

 

Thanks Kristen. I got the ratio thing. Thanks for the NPK figures. What you say makes perfect sense. I've never seen "pre-turf" fertiliser, but then I've not looked for it. I'll look into it. Thanks so much.

 

Rowland are probably the biggest name in turf:
http://www.rolawn.co.uk/groright-lawn-establishment-fertiliser.html

These guys have a lot of useful information on their website, plus they flog some products too:
http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/shop/fer...seeding-turfing-fertiliser/starter-lawn-feed/

but you may well find something suitable in your local B&Q or equivalent

 

Brilliant, thanks Kristen.