My thought is you should listen to your grass, it's growing happily where your dogs applied nitrogen.

The first Spring (and a couple of other times we won't mention) are exceptions to the advice to avoid Spring feedings.

What kind of fertilizer would you recommend? I still have some of the winterizer left.

Light .25-.5lb N per k of urea for a few weeks then apply milorganite. Or just apply milorganite this month and then next. Or do bi weekly urea .25-.5lb with milorganite offset. This is only for the spring after a Reno.

With a new lawn in its first Spring, I advise a NPK spoon feeding. Either a triple 10 or 12 (easier to spread evenly than a triple 19) or a high first number starter fertilizer. As mentioned, apply at 1/4 of N rate. You can do additional apps weekly or every 2 weeks. I recommend 2 weeks as a compromise between feeding the new turf and the chance of increasing disease, then do the recommended Memorial Day feeding.

OK thank you. So it seems like you're against my winterizer fertilizer. At .25# N per thousand (i'll likely get the starter) i take .25 divided by the N on the bag? That should give me the pound of fertilizer per 1000sqft right? Assuming the number 25-10-12, then .25# of N per 1,000 sqft is 1 pound of the starter fertilizer?

Just want to do it right :)

Yes, a 25-10-12 applied at 1# of product per 1000 sq ft would result in the application of 1/4# of N. It's not that I'm against using the winterizer for the N, it's that I'm suggesting providing P & K too. Fall seeded turf still needs to develop its roots (root growth is at its most prolific when soil temps are 50-65F-Spring and Fall) and having readily available NPK will help. I suggested starter if you can't find a triple NPK. Something like a 18-24-9 or even a 24-25-12, although both of those would be a little light on the K. Anything that adds P&K would be more beneficial than a straight N fertilizer.

Whether or not you need the P is another question...the K as well, but K is a much less expensive and far less touchy resource and I don't care if you have an excess (except in terms of blocking other elements the grass needs).

Adding bag rate of starter (grand total) once certainly won't be a problem, but I wouldn't go beyond that without a soil test confirming that you need the phosphorus. Once they start to mature to the equivalent of teenagers (yours should be there now), they don't require anything past the nominally recommended 200 pounds of phosphorus per acre (not much, in other words).

More isn't a problem in most circumstances. Most.

Thanks guys, Here is my soil test from last fall on the section i'm talking about. It was seeded after this was taken and had borax laced milo applied since. Nothing else.

Morph, in my original soil test post you suggested milo at may 1 and then the traditional for the remainder of the year. Given my slow start are you more in favor of the milo or starter? I'm patient enough to only apply one and then pick it up again at Memorial Day.

So what's the final thought, milo or starter?

It's been my experience that as time passes, the term "early" becomes irrelevant.

I'm in same boat with backyard being a fall reno. For me on the New lawn less than one year I'm giving it both. The started P will help root growth in Spring, milo for the soil long term. Spoon feed it small doses of starter (.25 to half pound N) every two weeks.

I got behind on a few other tasks so did a full starter dose last weekend. Will do full or higher dose (.75 or more N) of Milo on May 1. Then synthetic regular rate end of May. Milo July 4. Then syn August 1, October 1 and urea for winterizer.

After its first full year, in spring 2017, I'll switch to just spring milo and drop the starter, keep rest of schedule the same.