When is the latest I can fertilize my lawn?? Can it be done without rain?

[BLACKJACK]

I fertilized my lawn last night right before it rained but I have two more bags of 19-19-19 that I bought in bulk this spring, I'd rather not store them all winter, will an early Oct fertilizer application help or hurt? Trying not to put down too much at once and burn things up....

Also, I always try to fertilize right before a rain so it doesn't burn the lawn, is that necessary? In a couple of weeks, can I just spread the fertilizer?

[hoggs222]

What does it say on the bags? Some say you cannot fertilize for 4-6 weeks afterward.

[WaitForIt]

Check the rules before using phosphorus on your lawn:

Phosphorus fertilizer banned in MN

You didn't state your lawn was new or you had a soil test indicating phos was needed - its otherwise banned since early 2005 for lawn use.

[LwnmwnMan2]

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I fertilized my lawn last night right before it rained but I have two more bags of 19-19-19 that I bought in bulk this spring, I'd rather not store them all winter, will an early Oct fertilizer application help or hurt? Trying not to put down too much at once and burn things up....

Also, I always try to fertilize right before a rain so it doesn't burn the lawn, is that necessary? In a couple of weeks, can I just spread the fertilizer?

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If you're running a 19-19-19, chances are that you're buying something that's directed more towards plants than grass. Also, there's a good chance there's no slow release in the fertilizer.

Anyways, if that's the case, then yes, there's a good chance that you'll burn the yard since most fertilizers are supposed to stay for 4-5+ weeks. If you have no slow release, then you're basically just shooting nitrogen into the soil, which is the last thing you really need going into winter.

Also, if you have no slow release, then yes, your window with regards to rain is small, you'll need to water in as best you can pretty quickly after you apply.

[BLACKJACK]

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Use something with a decent amount of Nitrogen (the first number) to get the grass growing again from the dry summer we had. With the cool(er) nights and not so hot days, you should be able to get whatever is going to grow, growing.

Then, in about a month, use something like a 10-0-20 for a WINTERIZER. This will help the root system throughout the winter, and with the lower amount of Nitrogen, will reduce the risk of snowmold / winterkill.

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Yes it is some fertilizer that I bought for my food plots and garden, you can buy it lots cheaper in 67 pound bags.

I'm a little confused about your nitrogen comments, yes its not slow release but I went back and did a search on 'Winterizer' to figure out what percent it called for and I found your above quote about using a nitrogen fertilizer. Is there any time spring or fall, when a person should use a high nitrogen fertilizer?

Thanks for answering my question on the watering.

[LwnmwnMan2]

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Use something with a decent amount of Nitrogen (the first number) to get the grass growing again from the dry summer we had. With the cool(er) nights and not so hot days, you should be able to get whatever is going to grow, growing.

Then, in about a month, use something like a 10-0-20 for a WINTERIZER. This will help the root system throughout the winter, and with the lower amount of Nitrogen, will reduce the risk of snowmold / winterkill.

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Yes it is some fertilizer that I bought for my food plots and garden, you can buy it lots cheaper in 67 pound bags.

I'm a little confused about your nitrogen comments, yes its not slow release but I went back and did a search on 'Winterizer' to figure out what percent it called for and I found your above quote about using a nitrogen fertilizer. Is there any time spring or fall, when a person should use a high nitrogen fertilizer?

Thanks for answering my question on the watering.

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It's not so much the amount of Nitrogen that's going to be the issue, it's the slow release of the fertilizer that's going to be the issue.

Truthfully, most lawns in MN don't really need ALOT of Nitrogen, we're blessed (usually) with a decent amount of natural rainfall.

While Nitrogen does help the plant stay healthy, high amounts of it, with no slow release will also promote diseases, ie fungus, rot, etc., also causing excessive amounts of top growth, which means that either you mow every 2-3 days, or you're going to have excessive thatch buildup. Unless your lawn isn't overly thick to begin with, but that goes to other issues.

The earlier poster was right, that you're not supposed to use P on your lawn, but the Department of Agriculture probably isn't going to fine Joe Homeowner for doing so either.

If you use a fertilizer with slow release in it, made for lawns, then that fertilizer will stay in your soil for a period of up to 4-6 weeks, dependant on rainfall / irrigation.

If you use no slow release, then that fertilizer will break down very quickly, most likely being done with in 3 weeks or less and what will happen is that you're going to have roller-coster lawn where right after you fertilize, you're going to have to mow 2-3 times / week, for 3-4 weeks, then about once / week, until you fertilize again, then mow like mad, then slow down????

[BLACKJACK]

Thanks for the info on time release vrs regular nitrogen.

Right now, with the last two years of drought, my lawn is a mess. Living in the country, I really don't care about a great looking lawn, I just want something green and growing. By putting the fertilizer on I'm hoping to identify which portions of the lawn need to be dug up and/or dirt added to next spring.

Duly noted on the phosphorus, I didn't realize that it was a statewide ban but lets keep it in perspective, by my calculations, that 67 pound bag had 12 pounds of P in it, when I did the soil sample on my corn food plot, they recommended 75 pounds of P per acre x 5 acres for 120 bushel yield. Now extrapulate that out to Joe Farmer that farms 1000 acres....

[LwnmwnMan2]

Coorect, and that's the reason there's so many green lakes in farm country, and the repeat repeat repeat of trying to stop farm field runoff. The P feeds the algae.

Also, P is needed to produce the ear of corn, not the actual corn plant. Grass does not have a "fruit" or "seed" that you're trying to harvest, therefore you can't really compare the two.

Not trying to harp on you or anything, just giving the reasons that you can't compare a soil sample for a corn field to the same soil sample for your grass.

Much like if you were to switch to soybeans or wheat or different crop, you'd most likely get a different need dependant on what you were trying to grow.