Q: I have St. Augustine grass and I put out a complete fertilizer of 16-4-8 like you suggested but should I use a “winterizer” this month? I am so tempted because so many of my neighbors are using it.

A: The immediate answer is no fertilizer should be applied to turfgrass in October. In fact, the University of Florida suggests allowing turfgrass to go dormant from October through February. When we discussed fertilizer we talked about being sure it contained some slow release nitrogen. The product you purchased has about 6.5% slow release nitrogen, which is good.

The only way to know what percentage of the nitrogen in the bag is slow release is to examine the label. Generally you will see an asterisk by the nitrogen number, which is always listed first on the label. Exam the label for the asterisk and the label will use words like “water insoluble nitrogen” or “poly-coated nitrogen”. Since you applied the fertilizer to your lawn in September the slow release nitrogen will be available for the grass to absorb this month.

Apply a complete fertilizer again in March such as 16-4-8 or 15-0-15, but be sure it has slow release nitrogen in it too. All you need to do for the next 5 months is occasionally mow the grass and water it once every 10-14 days. Since you don’t need to mow as often you might take your mower blades to a shop to have them sharpened. This is the time of year you can focus on things other than your lawn such as the holidays or visiting family. You can breathe a sigh of relief now!

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