How to and When to Apply a Winterizing Fertilizer

hi i'm jeff seaton i'm the owner of jeff seton lawn care i'm going to talk to you today about winter fertilizers probably the most asked question that i get is when do you apply a winter fertilizer some people think that it's you know put down in the in the early fall or something or that their fall fertilizer is the same as a winter fertilization and that's that's it's actually not true your winter fertilizer is the last fertilization that you're going to do for the year and you're actually not you think about it differently you're actually not fertilizing for this year you're fertilizing it for next year so really it's not the last fertilizer of the year it's the first fertilizer for next season so when do you put that down generally speaking it's mid to late fall depending where you're situated when your grass has stopped growing but it's still green a winter fertilizer is not really any different than other fertilizers it's nitrogen phosphorus and and potassium so why is it labeled winter versus you know spring starter fall well it's marketing they can sell they can sell a fertilizer to you in the the end of a year listed as winter fertilizer and ask for ask for a higher rate that's for a higher price on that fertilizer the fertilizers i have behind me are four types of fertilizers that you can get any time of the year as a matter of fact my scots here that i picked up last week my scots is normally about a 23 or 25 a bag fertilizer i picked that up for seven dollars uh just as the just as the season is winding down and winter fertilizers are already ready available i'd be paying 25 for a winter fertilizer there's not really much of a difference so this is a this is a 30 a zero three thirty zero three a ten a twenty a five and a thirty zero zero so as i'm saying there really isn't much of a difference so buy the cheapest one available take a walk to the back uh clearance section of your local hardware store big box store you'll find fertilizers back there that that are on sale on clearance the important thing is the amount of nitrogen and what percentage of that nitrogen is is quick release you don't need to put too much thought into into the fast or quick release fertilizers a lot of fertilizers have a higher percentage of quick release if you just turn over your bag of fertilizer you'll normally find the analysis section and i'll show you what percentage of that fertilizer is slow really it is is a slow release you want a lower amount of slow release fertilizer that fertilizer the fast release fertilizer is going to make its way into the ground into the root of of the plant and it's going to allow it to pop up early next spring it'll also protect the plant over the winter so putting down that fertilizer as i said before is probably the most important fertilization that you can do as a matter of fact many experts say that it is the most uh most important fertilization that you can do and that fertilization will dictate how your lawn is going to react next season so as i said don't think of it as a end of the year fertilizer think it as a start of a year fertilizer the fertilization for next season there's no debate on whether or not a winter fertilization is beneficial to your lawn it is there is debate over how much to apply and and how to apply it the long-held belief is that you drop a final fertilization as we talked about earlier after your final cut of the season in that situation you would be applying up to one and a half pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet not more than one and a half pounds up to one and a half pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet the belief again is the root is going to take that in store it and be able to store all that nitrogen and allow it to pop up in the spring more recent research has shown that putting down a fall fertilizer and then adding small amounts of of nitrogen incrementally over the fall leading up to the final fertilization of the season will help the plant store that energy and then you would reduce the amount of of nitrogen applied during that final fertilization maybe as low as half a pound per per thousand square feet the idea is it allows the roots to start to be used to having that much nitrogen slowly store it and it will it'll build up in the root over that period over that extended period of time and it will then benefit in the springtime i personally fall kind of right in the middle i apply up to one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet when preparing to put down your final fertilizer a few things that you should consider number one that grass should be dry make sure that there's no frost make sure that the the dew from the morning has has burned off that way when you apply your fertilizer the fertilizer will not stick to the blades and potentially burn those those burn spots onto the the blades of grass the next thing to consider is the leaves on your on your property you could rake them you can mulch them you can mow and and bag them whatever you choose to do you want them up off the lawn or mulched back into the lawn this way when you apply the fertilizer it'll be able to easily get down into the soil and have the benefits that we're looking for for next season another thing to consider is the height of the grass for your final mow of the season i personally cut my grass down to two inches i have perennial rye grass i've been over seeding with perennial rye grass for the last few seasons the highest percentage of my grass is is perennial rye grass i like to cut that shorter as my for my final cut but what that allows for is just a slight bit of growth that may occur after after my final cut and after i drop my my fertilizer and i may bring it up to maybe two and a half inches somewhere around there it needs to be short enough so that i don't go back and have to cut it again some folks think that it should be slightly higher two and a half three inches you know or cut the same height that you would cut it year round but as i said i i i lower and raise my grass heights throughout an entire season depending on heat and and moisture availability i'll credit slightly longer in the heat of the summer slightly shorter in the in the cool parts of the spring and and the in the fall for folks that are planning to cut their grass as short as i am in the two inch two inch range you don't go out and cut it two inches right from you know a four inch height you can never cut more than one third of that of that of that blade of grass of course you can but you should never cut more than one third so what i do is i train my grass height down over the course of the fall i would be keeping it at three inches during the during the summer maybe drop it to two and a half for a few cuts then drop it to two inches for two or three cuts and that would be my final my final height for that season so now that you've dealt with your leaves you've cut your grass it's time to put down your fertilizer as i said earlier i put down one pound per per thousand square feet i have 2 000 square feet that means that i need to put down i need i need to put down two pounds of nitrogen not fertilizer two pounds of nitrogen so based on the percentage that's thirty percent thirty percent uh nitrogen in my scots for example to equal one pound of nitrogen i would need three pounds of that fertilizer i hope that makes sense to you after i've put down my fertilizer actually i'll when i'm applying my fertilizer i'll go one direction the other direction making sure that it's spread evenly across all of my all of my line when i'm done my my application will be time to water this product into my lawn and when watering it's important that you just make sure that your ground is wet to allow the the fertilizer to start to break down and get into the soil it's important that you don't over water your lawn for a couple of reasons for a few reasons number one you don't want to create pooling number two if you if the fertilizer does pool it's going to push it off and cause it to clump together in certain areas which you which you don't want you sometimes see a fertilizer burn from a nitrogen burn when that too much nitrogen is applied in one area and then it well it causes it to burn the line the last reason and the most important is that you don't want this fertilizer to run off your lawn completely get down into the ground water and contaminate your groundwater there are areas in the united states in canada that you're actually not allowed to apply certain types of fertilizers certain types of certain times of the year because of seasonal runoff and that's a wrap i appreciate you taking time to watch this video if you have any questions please leave them in the comment section below or you can message me directly i'd appreciate if you can take some time to subscribe to my channel that way you'd have access to all my previous videos and my upcoming videos as well it'd also be helping me i'm jeff seaton owner of jeff seton lawn care thank you for watching you

Channel: Jeff Seeton Lawn Care

Views: 11,247

Keywords: Winter fertilizer, fall lawncare, winterizing a lawn, Last fertilizer of the year, Scotts, Jeff Seeton

Id: VjC_CkfKK_c

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 05 2021