Where Are You With Fall Regimens?

[Oldschool]

Dropped winterize Urea on November 1st...

[This is me]

The pause. Still mowing but definitely very minimal growth. Probably will drop winterize on Black Friday.

[Masbustelo]

I had the first frost on the 20th of October, with a few more since. We've had temperatures in the 50's last few days and the grass has still been growing slowly. The currant soil temp is 47. The average temperature for the next 8 days will be 41,36,34,30,31,31,24,29, then it warms up with 40,42,44,49 and 47. Should I make my final application now? Or wait a few more weeks?

[andy10917]

Did you read the original posting and the couple of selected excerpts from the top of the thread? Here they are:

This is about the 50th time this has been asked, and I suspect you know the official answer - "Stop" is stop, and not "pretty damned slow".

I don't care what the temperature will be in your back yard next Tuesday. It affects absolutely nothing.

I think that's pretty clear about what the most important lines are in the entire 53 pages of material...

[andy10917]

Did you read the original posting and the couple of selected excerpts from the top of the thread? Here they are:

This is about the 50th time this has been asked, and I suspect you know the official answer - "Stop" is stop, and not "pretty damned slow".

I don't care what the temperature will be in your back yard next Tuesday. It affects absolutely nothing.

I think that's pretty clear about what the most important lines are in the entire 53 pages of material...

[Masbustelo]

I did read all of that. What I didn't say is that in the next few days we are also supposed to have snow. I assume, but I don't know for sure that top growth won't occur under snow, and the very cold temperatures. I suppose my real question is will the grass resume growing in ten days or so? After a cold snap of eight days. Or am I entering my two week window of root growth?

[andy10917]

Mow the lawn and find out. The snow will not stay this time of year. If the snow stops the growth, hit the Winterizer. If the cold stops the growth, hit the Winterizer. If it doesn't stop, continue to hold. The window is 2-3 weeks long, not 2-3 hours. Yes, we're all antsy - but stick to the original indicators!

[Masbustelo]

Thanks. I don't have any experience with all of this.

[andy10917]

No problem - everyone gets nervous and jerky. Except HLG - he's not nervous about being jerky.

[PSU4ME]

I’m in the pause as well, I put my last urea app down 10/14. I agree with Green that this is the greenest I’ve seen my grass in a while.

Mowing weekly (cause I need the break from the kids and finishing my basement) but the growth is minimal but still happening. Estimating that growth will stop in the next 2-3 weeks.

[lVlrBoJang1es]

Pause.

Still haven't had a solid frost in my area - we've had a few nights where it's dropped below freezing for an hour or two, but not long enough for any substantial frost to form. This is quite odd! Areas 20-30 miles east or west of where i'm at have had plenty of frosts already (I notice them on my early work commute).

I'm pausing regardless - lows have remained in the low 30's and i assume the soil temps are right on track since growth has slowed considerably.

[Fullheadofturf1234]

In the slow down. Grass looks great and dark...

I could have put at least one more urea app... keep thtat in mind next year.

[andy10917]

Don't make that "one more app" within the slowdown period (after first average frost) - the very idea is to give the grass return to its normal pattern of slowdown naturally. Urea can (and does) force growth, and you don't want that when slowdown is the path to a healthy Spring with little winter damage. "More is better" isn't a good approach here - hardened grass blades and crowns are.

[rydaddy]

In the Pause.

My first visible Frost was 10/14. Mowed/Mulched leaves on Saturday and the back yard had almost zero growth and front yard cut probably an inch of grass off still. I have snow coming already on Friday... will not help with my leaf mulching for the near future...

[Maizan24]

Pausing. Been about a week since my last mow. Had a couple bouts of rough weather so timing has been tough. Growth has slowed considerably but I would say I still have a couple weeks or so before I drop the last app.

[Ruxie88]

In pause. Grass still growing, so mowing and mulching leaves. Waiting until growth stops to drop winterizer.

[Oldschool]

Dropped the winterizer just in time...

[TimmyG]

Looks like you over-applied the urea. Definitely way more than 2 lb/K.

[Trike007]

Had our first frost today, about a week earlier than the 50% predicted date (11/16). I managed to drop 7 urea applications this fall. I was hoping to drop an 8th application this weekend, before first frost actually hit. I guess I'm officially in the pause now.

[ken-n-nancy]

Had our first frost today, about a week earlier than the 50% predicted date (11/16). I managed to drop 7 urea applications this fall. I was hoping to drop an 8th application this weekend, before first frost actually hit. I guess I'm officially in the pause now.

In general, if you're following the guidance in Andy's Fall Nitrogen Regimens, the "Pause" starts at average first frost, not the actual first frost. If your actual first frost comes earlier than average, don't worry about it; keep applying until the average first frost. If your actual first frost comes after the average, you still need to stop at the average first frost.

The actual first frost has nothing to do with "The Pause." It's pretty much irrelevant, actually, for cool season grasses. (It is important for growing things like tomatoes, but that's a different conversation...)

The real objective is to identify a date that is about 1 month (4 weeks) before the grass is likely to cease having top growth. Andy has found that the "average first frost" tends to lead the stoppage of grass top growth by about a month. For specific locations, it may even lead by more than a month.

If I were in your situation of having an "early" first frost, I'd keep applying the standard urea treatments until the "average first frost" regardless of when the actual first frost takes place.

This year, I had a "late" first frost (very late, actually) but I doubt the grass top growth stoppage will be any later than it usually is for me.