No Need to Fertilize Your Ornamental Grasses
Fertilizing Native Grasses.
I've been gardening for more than four decades without having ever directly fertilizing my natives.
Native ornamentals generally do not benefit from supplemental feedings. Your typical garden soils offer adequate or sometimes more than enough to feed your ornamentals.
Adding concentrated chemicals to typical soils can actually hurt performance.
Excess fertility results in over lush growth and is likely to cause your plants to lose their shape and flop unmanageably.
This is especially true for highly nutrient - effecient natives like Andropogon, Panicum, Schizachyrium and Sorghastrum.
The last thing you want to have to do is stake up your large clumps to hold them upright. This is a particularly tedious task and is usually unnecessary if fertilizing is kept to a minimum and watering is at reasonable levels.
Natives are especially adapted to infertile soils such as Andrpogon virginicus, may lose their natural competitive edge and be over run by other plants if nutrient levels are raised significantly.
Running grasses that are easily managed in average soils can become aggressive in your gardens.
To the point they are invasive in overly rich soils.
One last thing, the super-green growth associated with fertilizing can diminish the vibrancy of foliage variegation and can ruin the fall colors you expect.
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