How Did The Fall Nitrogen Regimen Work For You?

[andy10917]

This thread is for members that followed the Fall Nitrogen Regimens this Fall...

If you did, did you follow the Standard or Aggressive regimen and what were your results? I know that many of you didn't do the final "Winterizer" app yet - but there should be visible results at this point. Please let us know what you experienced.

Kindly do not ask questions about the regimen or write about other regimens here - feel free to open another thread if you want to discuss those items...

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Worked fine for me. I need a little more Nitrogen next year, I think. I'll probably use a 50 lb bag of urea instead of the 40 lb per week.

[smast16]

Followed a more aggressive route. .5# N / M every two weeks. After the 1st application i changed it up and started spraying the Urea. I liked spraying the Urea a lot more than trying to spread what feels like 25 prills over 1k, . I'll do one more bi weekly application before my slowdown occurs.

I love the blue tints to the TTTF i've got coming in this year. This is the first year i've really noticed them at this magnitude, and i sure do love it. The KBG (reno) in the corner completely changed once the N started going down. Went from lime green to a nice hunter / forest green.

All the neighbors crabgrass lawns are going brown, and i'm rocking the darkest green that little street has ever seen.

[RichS]

I think it will be hard to tell until the Spring. I've posted pictures of the yard over the last few weeks, and it looks great, but it almost always does during the fall. Weather/rain around here, plus I've always applied 2-3lbs N in the fall, means that the yard always looks good this time of year. I also watered a couple of times this fall when the neighbors didn't, so it really stood until until the rain picked up again.

But the theoretical "feed the roots after tops growth stops" has never worked out - I need fert in April, or it's yellow-ish until May. I've used slow-release in the past - my final lb of Urea will go down in the next 1-2 weeks, so we'll see if that change helps out the Spring. Mid-Nov. slow-release in the past may have been wasted.

[HoosierDaddy]

Used aggressive regimen on the area covered by last year's reno. Any final holes/gaps were filled in short order. Color is very nice. Growth is steady and even. Looking forward to seeing how greenup follows from this for next year.

[greenrebellion]

Filled my Reno in nicely. Still got hit pretty hard with rust though during the pause even though I was Serenading weekly. If I could do it over again, I would have extended the urea past avg first frost in an attempt to mitigate the rust.

[Green]

I did a bit of a modified version (as usual, I like to tweak things after a few years of seeing how it works), but still aggressively, especially on the new grass areas (overseeds). It worked well...but I'm baffled that I'm still getting rust disease popping up in new areas, even now...with all that Nitrogen that went down!

[Jackson]

So far, so good. Front yard is still recovering from clumping fescue kill off; but looks like everything is finally germinated and filling in nicely. Now that growth has slowed the yard looks really good. Usually 4 days after mowing it grows so fast and looks uneven and in need of a cut to tidy up. Since the pause its been a week and looks just as good as the day that I mowed it. Wish it always looked like that.

Just waiting for the final application which I expect will be within the next 2 weeks.

The one thing I don't understand is something that has been echo'd over and over about how little Urea is used and how overly cautious people are.

Sure, compared to Milorganite where I have my Scotts EdgeGuard cracked wide open, it is not much. But I am putting my 1lb/k of Lesco Urea /week down on setting 3.5 (which is fairly typical for consumer bagged synthetic ferts I have used) and have seen zero adverse effects (even on my new seedlings). I don't even weigh it out anymore just set it to 3.5 and top off as needed.

[RichS]

I know that when I mis-calibrated and ended up putting a full lb. of N via Urea, vs. the 1/2 lb. I was trying to, a few spots where I stopped and a bit extra came out, or where an aggressive turn tossed a bit out the side, burned and yellowed. So at 1lb N/k with active growth, it appears to be pushing safety limits.

[andy10917]

I know that when I mis-calibrated and ended up putting a full lb. of N via Urea, vs. the 1/2 lb. I was trying to, a few spots where I stopped and a bit extra came out, or where an aggressive turn tossed a bit out the side, burned and yellowed. So at 1lb N/k with active growth, it appears to be pushing safety limits.

Not really so, and with an easy explanation. When you put down many "normal" fertilizers like let's say 25-10-10, the bag rates will tell you to put down around 4 lbs/K fertilizer, which will deliver around 1 lb/K of N. And Urea is often the source of N (or another fast-release). So, putting down 1 lb/K of N from Urea isn't rare.

I went with 0.5 lbs/K of N from Urea when I wrote the Fall Nitrogen Regimens, every week because it is a little safer than 1 lb/K N every other week because a single mistake will burn at 1 lb/K N (overlap or stopping, etc) -- the mistake is probably really 2 lbs/K N in the overlap. If you're only applying 0.5 lbs/K N, then your mistake would have to be in the exact same spot two weeks in a row. That's pretty unlikely.

We try to make our regimens pretty safe even for novices, because we get one or two of them around here...

[JohnP]

We try to make our regimens pretty safe even for novices, because we get one or two of them around here...

Novice? Who's a novice?

First year doing it and really paying attention to the yard. Neighbors said the yard hasn't looked better in years. Got a little off on my mowing the other day, but still doesn't look terrible. No striping kit on the Ego. I'm happy with the regimen you've fine tuned on here and am looking forward to spring!

[PW405]

So far so good with the aggressive regimen on TTTF and annual rye. I eased into the aggressive regimen due to dropping seed on 9-19. Used Milo at bag rate on 10-9 (used to apply micronutrients per my soil test results). First Urea app was 10-14. Had great rainfall after the first two apps.

Really happy with the color and thickness/vigor of the fescue. Seems to be starting to tiller now and develop a proper canopy. Last year it seemed that my seedlings never really tillered properly and it didn't survive the summer as well as I would like. I'll have to get a more recent picture, as the color is a little better than what is pictured here.

Here's a good comparison of the progress over the last few weeks:
(Note - annual rye is on right, where bermuda usually grows).

[DevilDawg81]

I've been following a soil remediation plan, but with my front yard I've utilized the standard plan (non-aggressive approach). When I round the corner into our neighborhood there's definitely a fine line between our yard and our neighbors. The turf is a dark green. I know it's fall and we've gotten great moisture but I can see positives after each app. Thin spots are filling back in, the turf is soft to sit on. It's fantastic. Now I'm just patiently waiting to apply the last application. We're currently in the pause, top growth has slowed down quite a bit but it certainly hasn't stopped yet.

[wayneschmagel]

It was a hot dry September and October for me but I did manage to get a couple apps each of Milorganite and AS. Kind of a semi aggressive regime. I'm still trying to figure out how all this works with TTTF in the worst part of the transition zone AKA Kansas. It looks good. We've had some frost but nothing serious. Color is starting to fade some, top growth has slowed but not stopped entirely so I'm still waiting to do my winterizer app.
Wayne

[ztrips]

My first year with aggressive late nitrogen. Went too early... Lawn is as thick and green as ever, but still had some top growth after application. It's been a weird year for weather. Next year I'm going to put together a soil temp logging system (I'm an IoT geek..) and try to be more data driven with the timing.

[andy10917]

IoT guy, huh? Better get out and buy more sensors, and get the good ones too -- read this and maybe in 20-30 years you can tell us your findings.

Factors for Growth Stoppage

[ken-n-nancy]

My first year with aggressive late nitrogen. Went too early... Lawn is as thick and green as ever, but still had some top growth after application. It's been a weird year for weather. Next year I'm going to put together a soil temp logging system (I'm an IoT geek..) and try to be more data driven with the timing.

That's very honest of you to 'fess up publicly! It takes courage to do that!

I think Andy's article (the first post in Fall Nitrogen Regimens) bears re-reading at least a couple times each year when following the Fall Nitrogen Regimens. I re-read it again last night, and nearly all the items that folks post about asking for clarification are actually covered there in that original posting. There's a lot of information there in a relatively short article (I'd use at least three times as many words to say the same thing!)

I suggest reading it again -- especially since one of the "extra notes" at the bottom explicitly addresses soil temperature logging. Having more data can be interesting and you'll likely enjoy the experimentation (which I think is good), but ultimately,

The day will come when you mow the lawn and nothing gets cut. When that happens, stoppage has occurred.

and

If the soil temperature says the time is right, but the grass is still actively growing, you are still in "The Pause."

[andy10917]

At the end of each year, I go over the questions that have been added during the year and try to incorporate questions and answers that get asked often back into the original posting. The initial post probably answers 80%+ of all you need to know. The rest is discussion, specific situations, and sidebar topics. I even reread it a couple of times a year (I'm old and stupid - just ask my wife).

[ztrips]

That's very honest of you to 'fess up publicly! It takes courage to do that!

I posted and then started my timer to see how long it took for Andy to chime in or someone else to tell me I should have read the post again...

You can only believe half of what you post on the Internet, and even less of what others post. Or some silly saying like that. For folks that have never attempted a late/aggressive Urea drop, it takes some personal experience to trust the process. Hence my post about not waiting long enough, and now understanding how patient I need to be to get past the pause. Of course the real truth is in the density and health of the lawn next year. Constant adjustments, tweaks, and perfection of the plan. The "fun" of this hobby is you need to wait 12 months to see if you are getting anywhere.

I'll need to create a calendar entry reminding myself to read Andy's post every day between October 15 and November 15th.

[andy10917]

I'll need to create a calendar entry reminding myself to read Andy's post every day between October 15 and November 15th.

That might be a little over the top...