Still Time to Feed — Why Houston's Fall Feeding Runs Well Into November

Every November someone calls us with the same question, a little apologetically: "Did I miss it?"

If you're asking about your fall feeding in Houston, the answer is almost certainly no. The fall application season here runs well into November. And the person asking is usually the one who waited for the weather instead of the calendar, which is exactly what we tell people to do.

Here's how to know where you stand this week.

The signal is your overnight low

Our rule hasn't changed since the first hot week of September:

When your overnight lows drop into the 60s, apply your fall feeding one to two weeks after that first cool night.

Not the first cool afternoon. Not the date on the calendar. The overnight low, because that's the number that tells you the air mass has really changed, and the soil follows the air down more slowly than your porch thermometer does.

Three places you might be this week

The front came weeks ago and you've been meaning to get to it. You're fine. The one-to-two-week wait is a minimum, not a deadline. The soil has cooled, the St. Augustine has had time to recover from summer, and the biology in the soil is working in a comfortable range. This is a good week.

The front came recently. Count from that first night in the 60s, give it a week or two, and apply. Nothing about November changes the rule.

You're not sure whether it came. Go to weather.gov, type in your ZIP code, and look only at the night periods in the seven-day forecast. Each one shows a Low. If you've had several nights in the 60s or cooler already, it came. If you want the long version, our October article Waiting on the First Front walks through it step by step.

Why the season is longer than people think

The pressure people feel about fall feeding mostly comes from advice written for colder places. In a lot of the country, fall is short and winter comes early.

Texas A&M AgriLife ties the timing of the last fall feeding to your area's first expected frost, not to a date on the calendar. Their St. Augustine guidance is to make the final application 4 to 6 weeks before the historic first frost for your county. On the Gulf Coast that leaves a long runway, which is why we can say, honestly, that the season runs well into November.

A&M also says not to feed a stressed grass. After a long, hot summer, waiting for cooler nights is how you make sure the grass is ready to use what you give it.

Order now, apply when it's time

There's no gate on buying. You can order your fall feeding today, keep the bags somewhere dry, and put it down when your nights tell you to.

Our MicroLife Fall Lawn Bundle is the whole fall feeding in one application: a 40 lb bag of MicroLife Acidifier 6-2-4 and a 25 lb bag of MicroLife MicroGro Bio Inoculant, spread once. It's applied once a year, in fall. It's $87.98, which is 20% off the two products bought separately. MicroLife makes both here in Houston.

Houston-area delivery is free on orders of $35 or more within 20 miles of our warehouse, and a $35 flat fee out to 30 miles. Outside that, shipping is shown at checkout at the real UPS rate, and we don't mark it up.

If you'd like to talk through your yard's size, a patch that looks worse than the rest, or whether your nights count yet, call us at (281) 317-7919.

What the feeding is doing now

When you apply in November, you're not feeding for a flush of green next week. You're feeding the soil going into the cooler months: the bacteria and fungi that break organic fertilizer down keep working as long as the soil stays in their range, and a Houston winter is mild. The roots your grass builds now are the roots it greens up from in spring.

That's the part you won't see, and it's the part that matters.

If you'd rather feed a little every month

Some people would rather not think about fronts and bags at all. MicroLife Liquid Lawn Monthly delivers two MicroLife bottles each month, March through November, that attach directly to our custom hose-end sprayer. It's a different rhythm for the same soil.