The fundamental principle for effective lawn pest control is to “Cultivate a dense, healthy turf”. One way to promote turf density is to properly feed the plant at a time when it is most capable of utilizing these nutrients for purposes other than leaf growth. For cool-season grasses shoot density naturally increases during the autumn months due to tillering. Supplemental fertilization during this period will further increase density. As most turf managers know fall fertilization is an important practice for many reasons. If you have not fertilized your turf this fall it is still not too late…. or if you have already fertilized it is still not too late to help make it even healthier….
Your strategy with regard to product selection, however, needs to be modified from what you may have done earlier this autumn. This application which would be termed “late-fall” fertilization should be solely a water soluble nitrogen source like urea or ammonium sulfate, I would tend to stay away from the coated products as they may continue to release nitrogen through the winter and the synthetic or natural organic fertilizers will yield little response due to the cool soil temperatures. In terms of application rate, a target rate of 1 pound of actual nitrogen per 1000 square feet is appropriate. If you require assistance determining actual product needs urea has a 46-0-0 analysis and ammonium sulfate generally has a 21-0-0 analysis. Use our fertilizer calculator to tailor the application to your situation (application area, etc.) http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/fertcalc/Fertilization%20calc.html