Sunday, Nov. 15, is the last day Maryland homeowners may put fertilizer on their lawns before the state’s Lawn Fertilizer Law closes the window until March 1. The Maryland Department of Agriculture’s guidance says not to apply lawn fertilizer from Nov. 16 through March 1. Lawn advice from other states, including a one-pound-of-nitrogen figure for fescue in North Carolina, does not carry over to Maryland without a check against the state’s per-application limit.
What Maryland’s lawn fertilizer law allows before Nov. 15 and what it bars after
The Maryland Department of Agriculture’s lawn fertilizer page says to apply none between Nov. 16 and March 1. The University of Maryland Extension’s November gardening tips put the same blackout at Nov. 15 to March 1 and state that fertilizer cannot be applied to Maryland lawns by homeowners in that period. A separate UMD Extension page on fertilizing a home lawn says the last application of the season should be made no later than Nov. 15.
The MDA page sorts grasses by season. It says warm-season grasses such as Bermudagrass and Zoysiagrass should be fertilized in late spring or summer, while cool-season grasses such as fescues and bluegrass should be fertilized in fall, based on soil test results. That is why the November deadline falls on a fescue owner’s calendar and not a Bermudagrass owner’s.
The MDA page also sets limits on what goes on a lawn when the window is open. A single application may not exceed 0.9 pound of total nitrogen per 1,000 square feet, and no more than 0.7 pound of that may be soluble nitrogen. Enhanced-efficiency, controlled-release products may be applied at no more than 2.5 pounds per year, with a monthly release rate of no more than 0.7 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet…