Autumn lawn fertilizer makes the lawn fit for the winter. The special fertilizer helps the lawn in autumn to better cope with frost and diseases. This is due to the special composition of the autumn lawn fertilizer.
Many amateur gardeners leave out the autumn lawn fertilizer, but it provides the lawn with important nutrients for the winter. If you want to have a lush green lawn in the spring, you should therefore use autumn lawn fertilizer, especially after a dry summer. In this way, the already stressed lawn will cope better with frost, wetness and diseases.
Contents
Autumn lawn fertilizer: What makes it so special?
Classic autumn lawn fertilizer is a complete or compound fertilizer. The essential ingredients are:
- Nitrogen (N)
- possibly some phosphorus (P)
- potassium (K)
Phosphorus is not always included, as potassium and some nitrogen are the main ingredients of fall lawn fertilizer. Because of the chemical names of the ingredients, it is also referred to as an N-P-K value, which shows the percentages at a glance. A good organic NPK fertilizer with 5-1-9 (5 percent nitrogen, 1 percent phosphorus, 9 percent potassium) is well suited as a fall lawn fertilizer. The particularly high potassium content is characteristic.
Note: Some manufacturers also mix in some iron to help the lawn resist weeds. However, iron fertilizer is toxic and will harm wildlife in your yard.
Fertilize lawn in autumn with a lot of potassium
The high content of potassium in the autumn lawn fertilizer is said to make the lawn particularly winter-hardy.
Potassium ensures that the cell walls of the grass blades are particularly stable. They are then less susceptible to frost, as they do not freeze as quickly. They also cope better with a closed snow cover.
So the goal of the fall fertilizer and potassium is not to make the lawn grow tall again or regrow bare patches, but to make the lawn more robust for the winter.
Nitrogen is still important only if you fertilize very early. If you apply the autumn fertilizer very late, the grasses can no longer absorb the nitrogen, and it ends up as nitrate in the groundwater. So you should avoid this for the sake of the environment.
Fertilize the lawn: Spread the granules on the freshly mowed lawn according to the package instructions by hand or with a spreader. Afterwards, you should water the lawn if no rain is forecast for the day.
Timing for the autumn lawn fertilizer
Most manufacturers recommend spreading the autumn lawn fertilizer between September and the end of October. However, on some packages you will also find a note that the autumn fertilizer can still be used in December. However, this only applies to very mild December.
As with classic lawn fertilizer, there is a distinction between mineral and organic fertilizer for special autumn lawn fertilizer. The latter is basically more recommendable, as it is made from organic raw materials, is based on recycling and saves resources and energy compared to mineral fertilizer. It also significantly improves soil quality. However, you should spread it quite early, as the effect is somewhat delayed.
Tip: You can also find many organic autumn lawn fertilizers in organic quality