Fall Fertilizer

Ok, I need some advice. I want to fertilize my lawn, but I'm not sure if I should do it now in the fall, or wait for the spring. I'm in Canada and it gets cold here (around 15Deg F/ -10 c) during January and February. So I don't know if a fertilizer would work now or not. This may be fairly standard knowledge to most of you, but I'm not use to having a big lawn, and I don't want to make a big mistake.

I live in the Northern Rocky Mountains where we have cool-season grasses too. Based on what I have learned, fertilizing in the fall is a good thing, because the grass starts to grow faster again after the summer heat and the fertilizer helps the grass better survive the winter and green up faster in the spring.

I belong to a tropical country but my knowledge about fertilizers may help a bit. The presence of water while fertilizing (whether through tropical rain or melting snow) can cause a lot of losses. But having the fertilizer present in the soil earlier (say, in fall) would not only avoid losses due to water, but also help the fertilizer mix well with the soil. By the time spring comes, fertilizer gets readily absorbed by the grasses.

Thank you for your thoughts, Green Girl and Adan. I think I will hop over to the Garden store and get their opinion too. I'm always a little suspicious of stores telling me what to do, because I think they just want to sell me the stuff now. My lawn definitely needs to be fertilized as it is in ruff shape.

Pretty much good advice here, I am already enlightened. I think climate, the type of grass, the type of fertilizer as well as how you want it to look will determine the fertilizing frequency.

I use a fall "winterizer" fertilizer with a high k # 22-0-14 the roots are still growing even if the grass on top browns out. By the end of Febuary my grass starts to green up.

Right now we have stuff trying to bloom so I am thinking it would be good to fertilize now as well, what do you all think is it a good idea or a waste of my time?

Honey said:

Right now we have stuff trying to bloom so I am thinking it would be good to fertilize now as well, what do you all think is it a good idea or a waste of my time?

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I recommend you work off of soil samples to insure you are maintaining a proper balance. The results of fertilizing may not be immediate but will help alot.




I fertilize each season, end of Febuary with Scotts Halt crab grass killer fertilizer, mid May with a high nitrogen fertilizer, August with more notrogen, mid Nov with a winterizer. In between I put out Ironite which helps green everything up. On good years with a little extra cash I put out about 50 yards of mulch on 1.75 acres. I also add about 100 lbs of seed each August or by Labor Day.

I started with a rough patch of ground with a few ditches and mounds and too many scrub trees. Spent almost a week cutting trees chipping and removing stumps followed by tilling and landplaning the ground in preparation of a decent seedbed. Added sprinklers and then seeded heavily with fescue. This worked out well and after a little more than a year I had an established lawn.

This picture is 13 months after initial planting.