I'm not going to say anything different, but I will put it into different words. What daniel said is the consensus of opinion among the gurus on all the good lawn forums. Wait until the grass stops growing but has not gone dormant. Then fertilize with a fast release, high N (low to zero P and K) fertilizer to winterize the lawn. I did not believe this for a season or two until I read more and more people praising it. What happens is the fast release fertilizer pumps up the nutrients in the roots, but since the grass has stopped growing, the roots remain pumped through the winter. Then in the spring you should expect to see considerably earlier green up than others who did not follow that plan. You cannot get this same effect using organic fertilizer because of the way they work with the plants. Some of the gurus use organic fertilizer exclusively all year long...until they winterize. When you apply to your lawn depends on when your lawn stops growing.

Since 40% of the nitrogen in Milorganite is synthetic/fast release one could apply Milorganite at triple the rate and that would count as winterizer. Not that I recommend that, it would be about 20 times more expensive per pound of nitrogen than urea.

j4, what label are you looking at? Here's one I found and there's no fast release synthetic listed.

Sure it does, it's 0.75% water soluble nitrogen. But the regular consumer grade Milorganite is 2.5% water soluble, 3.5% slow release:

http://www.milorganite.com/professionals/product-information/specifications

That's 40% water soluble nitrogen.

This page seems to contradict itself by saying 85% is water insoluble and then saying the guaranteed analysis has 2.5/6.0 (42%) water soluble and 3.5/6.0 (58%) insoluble. Maybe I'm doing the math wrong...

http://www.milorganite.com/professionals/product-information/specifications

No it definitely contradicts itself. I think the text is left over from years ago when it was 85% slow, the soluble portion has been creeping up since.

Here's the analysis on the regular bag you find at Walmart/HD (5-2-0):

http://www.milorganite.com/using-milorganite/products

3% slow, 2% water soluble

Thanks for all of the great info. Is there a brand that you guys prefer for winter? I've heard a lot of good things about Lesco, but unless I can find a dealer near me, I think the 24-0-11 is going to be the closest I can get to what you recommended, but it's slow release. Would this work?

The 24-0-11 is 60% fast(urea) / 40% slow(coated urea). If that's all you can find it will work. Ideally you would put down 100% urea - found at landscape or agricultural supply centers.

Thanks! I will call around and see what I can find.

Urea= 46-0-0

For those of us who use Oceangro, I found the following on their website:

4.5% of the 5% nitrogen in OCEANGRO® is water insoluble which means that soil microbes break down most of OCEANGRO® to make it available for plant uptake. When used on turf, OCEANGRO® works best in the thatch layer or under the soil where microbial activity takes place. In thin turf areas, OCEANGRO®
will work best if lightly top-dressed or worked into the soil via
aeration, vertical mowing or slit seeding. Only a small percentage of
OCEANGRO® will break down by water and sunlight. For this reason, OCEANGRO® is environmentally friendly because there is less chance for the fertilizer to leach into groundwater sources.

Probably a phone call to Milorganite would answer any questions about the real fast/ slow release content and why it seems to be changing.