For a standard mixed lawn, you're golden if you want to wait until Thanksgiving (although slipping it an October feed would also be great and would strengthen a lawn that isn't a hundred percent what you want yet).

I fertilize in August, September, October, and winterize when growth stops, but I also have a very demanding bluegrass lawn.

If you do want to feed now, you can use Milorganite again, any other organic, or a standard lawn food. If you have 32-0-10 on hand now, that's great, too.

I should point out that Scott's Winterizer, with the potassium, increases the chances of snow mold if you have a snowy winter. For winterization, I use urea (46-0-0). You shouldn't apply phosphorus at that time (the runoff risk is too great), and potassium can (as mentioned) increase the probability and severity of snow mold.

Any fertilizer with low P and K numbers would be OK for winterization, however, as long as nitrogen is much, much greater.

Thanks morph,

Do you know if Urea can be purchased in a big box store or a Tractor Supply Store?

Thanks

No clue. You'd have to call and ask--and start with Tractor Supply. I've never seen a big box store carry pure urea, but it might depend on your locale.

morph said, "I fertilize in August, September, October, and winterize when growth stops, but I also have a very demanding bluegrass lawn."

It might be worth bringing up that morph has done a lot of trials of different fertilizers and schedules. Perhaps this isn't the perfect place to launch off in that direction, but maybe it is.

"I fertilize in August, September, October, and winterize when growth stops ...

I assume you also do in April or May? And you're using organic on all these apps?

It's a bit off the beaten track, but OK. :-)

Things do vary. This year was odd in that, years ago, I tore the meniscus of my knee pretty badly. I managed to re-damage that in July, so I've been braced and hobbling. It'll heal again, but it's going to take months yet, and I don't want to re-irritate things.

My normal feeding schedule:

May 1, August 1, September 1, October 1: soybean meal (or Milorganite, but usually soy) at 15 pounds per thousand.

Growth Stoppage (November 25 +/- 14 days, usually): Winterize with urea.

This year? September and October have been urea instead so I only have to push and cart around 25 pounds instead of 150.

Morph-

Can you comment on this based on your statements above regarding:

You shouldn't apply phosphorus at that time (the runoff risk is too great), and potassium can (as mentioned) increase the probability and severity of snow mold.

http://www.jonathangreen.com/product/winter-survival-fall-lawn-food.html

Mostly that they're simply wrong, not using the latest research, and that this lets them sell you seed in spring. :-)

It's also what people demand, even though it's useless.

What do you think about this:

http://www.jonathangreen.com/product/organic-lawn-food

That would be fine, it's an 8 to 1 ratio of N to P, which isn't that much. It also won't work for the winterization step as it's an organic. :-)

Hi All,

Not sure what grass-type I have as I am taking care of my mother's lawn and the unexpected passing of my father.

I gave the lawn a dose of Scott's Weed + Feed in Spring but did not fertilize yet this Fall. Is it too late? Should I go straight to the Winterizer Lawn Fertilizer 32-0-10?

I should add that I live in SE Wisconsin and dandelions started popping up again in low numbers at the end of September.

Sorry to hear about your father, Jordan!

You can fertilize now if you want, but you're probably pretty close to growth stoppage on the lawn. If you do it now, skip winterization (effectively, you'll already have done it).

If you'd rather, simply wait to winterize it after what you're pretty sure is the last mow you'll do for the season.

This is not an exact science. I've winterized, had a sudden warm spell in December, and ended up mowing once or twice more. That's not a problem. I've also gone early and had it re-warm, and waited because it's early and I've expected it to warm and it hasn't.

They all work. Even here in PA, fertilizer applied now will partially go toward winterization, Growth, as of two days ago, has severely slowed.

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Would I be better using a weed and feed in place of the winterizer because of the dandelions that have been popping up? Will the winterizer effectively attack weeds as well? Also worth mentioning we have had out first frost are in the low 40's, but in WI anything can happen!

There's no need to use a Weed and Feed (which we tend not to like around here, it's OK at feeding but does a lousy job weeding). Post-frost, the dandelion won't be growing any more anyway, and it won't last long enough to kill next season's sprouts. As a winterizer, it's simply pollution without doing any good.

For next year's weeds, a pre-emergent applied in April or so will suppress out weed growth for the listed period. I use Prodiamine, many others use Dimension. Both work really well. Suppression periods range from about 3 months to 9 months depending on what you use and how much.

I will make adjustments next year and be certain to do my research. I already used the scott's fall weed and feed when it was damp out and there was a light range today. the temps got up to almost 60 yesterday. I applied two, 15,000 bags to 40,000 sq ft so I applied sparingly. I may sparingly apply urea in a couple weeks once growth stops completely. Should I skip out on the urea since I applied weed and feed so late?

If growth stoppage is at least two weeks from now, you can certainly apply urea at half the normal rate, or skip it if you prefer. You're close enough.

If it's a month, full rate. You can still skip it if you want, although it'd be better if you did apply it.

In my case, my last feeding was around October first, if growth stoppage were before November first (it won't be), I'd apply proportionately according to how much of the month has passed. But I'd certainly skip it if growth had stopped before October 10th or so. It all depends on how retentive you wish to be, and the answer is, every answer will work out pretty much just fine.

Morph-

How do you feel about this fertilizing schedule:

-mid April

-Memorial Day

-July 4

-September 1

-late October

All with milo @15 lbs. per 1000...

This is the regimen of "The Lawn Care Nut" on youtube.....

Personally, I'd cut April (don't force growth that early, it taps the roots of carbohydrates), July 4th (the grass doesn't really want to eat then, and pushing growth in summer is a bad idea), and at least add a high-N winterization at growth stoppage.

I dunno...his lawns look pretty great......

If I understand this correctly, he lives in Florida now, but when he first started making videos he lived up north and had a kbg lawn, which is where that regimen is from.....

I can't find the video but here's something close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMJf4m82VcI

Thoughts?

I think there are plenty of ways to do it. Even Milorganite says their product is perfectly acceptable late fall

https://www.milorganite.com/professionals/golf-athletic-fields/dormant-feeding

What is your fertilizer schedule Mishmosh? And what do you use? Milo?

Soybean meal Labor day and beginning of Oct. then urea or ammonium sulfate in November some time.

Nothing else any other time of the year?

yeah I do but the thread was on fall feeding so that's all I wrote. I usually do milorganite or soybean meal 2-3 times from May to July 4 and sometimes a synthetic app thrown in there if I think it needs it. no real firm dates as compared to fall.

Mishmosh and Morph,

How many pounds of urea per thousand square feet do you recommend?

Thanks

Same here; I do target 2.2 but usually hit anywhere from 2 to 2.5.

I've got 25 lbs. of Lesco 18-0-3 from last year.....it was a 50 lb. bag and the guy at Site One told me what spreader setting to use......so I guess I only used 25 lbs. last November to winterize a 7500 sq. ft. lawn.

Based on what you guys are saying, I didn't use enough last year and should use more this year?

That works out to 0.6 pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet.

That's actually OK, if a bit on the lower end of things. As a general rule, I try to target 1 pound N per K. It's not strictly necessary to do that.

If it was a case of using half the bag last year and half the bag this year, that's fine.

That works out to 0.6 pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet.

That's actually OK, if a bit on the lower end of things. As a general rule, I try to target 1 pound N per K. It's not strictly necessary to do that.

If it was a case of using half the bag last year and half the bag this year, that's fine.