Fall isn’t just pumpkin spice season; it’s also prime time for giving your lawn the TLC it deserves. Whether you’re starting from scratch, repairing patches, or maintaining the best lawn on the block, feeding your lawn in fall sets the stage for lush growth and strong roots that make for a dense, weed-resistant stand of turf come spring. Cool-season grasses thrive in fall’s warm soil and cool air. Feeding them now means they’ll grow deeper roots and healthy blades, making them more resilient to winter and ready to explode with growth in spring.
Why Fertilize in the Fall?
After a summer of enduring pests, disease, weeds, uncomfortably hot weather, and maybe even a few missed waterings, your lawn is tired and starving. Lower fall temperatures open the road to recovery, but it’s not going to get far without food and fuel. Fertilizing in fall gives the lawn what it needs to:
- Rebuild root systems stressed by summer.
- Boost top growth for quick visual recovery
- Store nutrients for winter survival.
- Green-up earlier in spring to look amazing and have more time to build strength for next summer.
What Fertilizer Should be Used in Fall?
Over time essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N-P-K) are used up in the soil, creating an environment for weeds to thrive. For turfgrass to outcompete weeds, it needs to be fed regularly with fertilizer to replenish these essential nutrients. In fall this starts with Golf Course Starter (smaller lawns) or Renovator (larger lawns) and finishes with Snowman Winter Root Builder.
Golf Course Starter and Renovator are designed to feed the new seed and both provide a mix of slow and quick release nitrogen fertilizer as well as important micro-nutrients like iron and sulfur. Snowman Winter Root Builder is designed to build roots over the winter with it’s formula of higher phosphorus and potassium.
Feed While You Seed
It’s not only your existing grass that needs to be fed. Fertilizing when seeding is like a power-up boost for new grass to sprout and get growing as soon as possible. The more growing days new grass has in fertile soil, the stronger it will be by the time summer arrives. Make sure to apply Renovator or Golf Course Starter on the same day that you seed.
If you’re seeding in the fall, it’s best to add a second dose of Renovator.
When seeding in the fall, it’s a good idea to feed the lawn an extra shot of the Golf Course Starter or Renovator. The more growth you can get out of the new grass in the fall, the more established it’ll be before the heat of summer arrives.
Snowman Winter Root Builder
Possibly the most important step in the whole process is throwing down Snowman Winter Root Builder around Thanksgiving. As step 5 in the Idiot Proof Program, Snowman’s higher phosphorus and potassium formulation provides the lawn with what it needs to spend the winter growing strong roots and building resistance to disease, drought, and weed pressure. The lawn will green-up quicker in spring (if it doesn’t stay green all winter!) and be ready to handle what next summer throws its way. Never sleep on the Snowman!
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