Yes. But for anything other than trees and shrubs, I'd be inclined to rip the packs open and scatter the granules around the plant rather than bury them in a single location.

I'd do what gardengal suggests. I got a kick out of reading that fertilizer is a Simplot product. JR Simplot, the potato king billionaire, got his start in my small hometown a few miles away. He's responsible for the frozen french fry, by the way. His labs developed them during WWll, I believe. Diane

in m y ground freeze MI .. a 12 month release would just about insure death of a great percentage of my plants..

plants need to slow down.. to go dormant in fall..

if they are all juiced up of late fall fert.. they will not harden off properly. and will turn to mush when the pot or ground freezes ...

that probably wont happen in your zone 7 ... but its still possible..

next time.. get down to a 6 month release.. thats all you need .. if at all ...

btw.. time release was created for pots.. and is not really supposed to be used in mother earth ...

and frankly.. unless a soil test indicates something is lacking from your soil... and i will yell... TREES AND SHRUBS NEVER NEED TO BE FED .. nor educated.. nor clothed.. they are not children.. and do not really ever need anything thing from you.. except perhaps in EXTREME drought.. and than all they might need is a drink ...

and if anything is lacking form your soil .... per said test.. amend you soil accordingly... but we shouldnt just be throwing fert around.. for the heck of it.. because big fert marketing tells you to ...

ken

Ken, nothing will grow in higher latitudes in Fall whatever you do. Osmocote Plus worked great in Alaska and is a 6 month duration. Very convenient. Foolproof. I did just use it in pots.

The question, which I don't know the answer to, is how much oomph does the fertilizer really still have in October-November.

Getting modern roses to slow down in the fall in the northeast can be a problem. They aren't smart enough to pick up on the signs that winter is coming, like shorter days. So they keep growing and blooming until they get hit on the head with serious cold. Depending on when that comes, and just how cold it is, it can be disastrous. There are currently two reasonably active threads in the Rose Forum on the subject. You really don't want to do anything that is going to push roses harder in the fall than they will naturally push themselves.

Thanks for the insight, although the company said it was safe, I'm staying on the safer side and I'm going to stick to Heirloom Roses Boost and Bloom or Bloomkote 4 month time release which I've used successfully for years. I had a lot of Simplot Paks leftover so I thought I could use them up but I'll going to repurchase one of those other products. Thanks again.