The Grass Doctor

Should I fertilize my lawn in the winter?

I live outside Chicago, wondering if adding some fertilizer like the scotts organic to the lawn would help build up the level of nutrients for when spring hits? or would it just get basically washed away before the spring and be a waste?

Public Comments

1. Go to a local gardening center and ask them. They will recommend the best to do for your area and climate!
2. if you dont water it, it will burn your grass leaving you with none in the summer
3. Yes, it helps strengthen the roots for a long winter, so they will grow back much stronger.
4. Yes, but remember to use a balanced fertilizer. You know how on the bag(or box) there are 3 numbers like 26-2-6 ... The first number is nitrogen which stimulates green leaf growth. The last number stimulates root growth. During winter you want to develop good roots so the plants will be healthy when they sprout in spring so get one with a 3rd number that is fairly close to the first... Triple 16 ( 16-16-16 ) might be good. Then in spring hit it with normal every day lawn fertilizer.
5. Yes, this will be beneficial, the plants will store the nutrients and use them when growth resumes. There is no risk of "burning" the lawn. A lawn gets "burned" when it is under heat stress and too much salty products,eg fertilizer and weed controls, get applied. This dries up the grass plant and potentially can kill it. Even though the term "burned" is widely used it is incorrect.
6. In the Chicagoland area, you can fertilize up toThanksgiving, but other than that, you need to wait until Spring time.
7. The best time to fertilize is in the fall, so you're a bit late. See the link that gives you the dates that's best. http://www.purdue.edu/dp/envirosoft/lawn/src/fertiliz.htm
8. Terry, You basically have hit the nail on the head yourself. Fertilizing in the dead of winter, especially in Chi-town, would be a waste of money, time, and nutrients even if it is an organic fertilizer made from animal bi-products. Fertilizer companies such as Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Vigoro etc, manufacture a special formulation which most call a "winterizer" fertilizer. Even though it has "winter" in the title, for best results it needs to be down and watered into the turf sometime between the end of September and the second week of November, depending on the climate and your growing zone. The turf will be starting to shutdown in the fall after the weather begins to cool and the amount of sunlight becomes less and less. When this chemical reaction takes place within the plants brain, it will begin to absorb all the nutrients (stored as carbohydrates) available in the soil and store them to help it withstand winter weather. Any that is still available in spring, will be utilized for a quick food fix and growth spurt. In order for this "storing" process to happen, the nutrients must be available when the turf is still actively growing (right now it is dormant). So, you "can" put down the organic at this time, and it would probably last longer than a chemical fertilizer would, but you would more than likely be wasting money. Both types of fertilizer will "leach" out of the soil with rains and melting snow and become unavailable to your turf. Why not just wait until spring when the weather is more favorable for growth and the turf can benefit totally from the application? Hope this answers your question and sorry for being so looong winded, but a thorough explanation I felt, was needed for better understanding.. Good luck... ...$Billy Ray$