but I'm not sure what would be the best winterizer fertilizer

Synthetic. :-) After topgrowth stops, it's time to winterize. Unfortunately, around the time topgrowth stops, organics stop working as well. It's too cold.

It's the one non-organic feeding I put down a year and don't feel too guilty about it. Too guilty.

Whenever I hear something about "winterizer" I think of what happens naturally to winterize the Earth. Here are some things that happen differently in the fall and winter
1. deciduous leaves drop
2. birds fly south
3. summer annuals seed and die
4. perennial plants seed (sometimes) and go dormant

With the exception of the decomposition of some seeds and plant materials, nothing really special happens to provide a shot of nitrogen or protein. The leaf drop is probably the most important element in preparation for winter, but I could be wrong.

Morpheus, you don't apply a preemergent in the spring? How do you keep out the crabgrass? Pictures of your lawn look like the weeds are few and far between. Is that just from having a healthy stand of KBG?

No pre-emergent at all. I've universally been disappointed with them, so I discontinued. I don't like throwing around chemicals anyway, and CGM is difficult to get around here.

For the rare weed, I pull 'em. There aren't many (although I expect a lot more next year with the reseeding), and the KBG chokes out anything that tries to get started.

The new stuff won't do that until the spring of 2009. Right now, the front has a ton of crabgrass, the back has some. I'm studiously ignoring it.

I, too, have been universally disappointed with preemergent herbicides. When I used chemicals they didn't work and CGM has not done anything I could definitely say was weed control.

I control weeds by not letting the seeds sprout and, if they do sprout, not letting the seedlings get enough sunlight to take root.

Nearly all grass seeds and lawn weeds need the same care to thrive. Crabgrass is different from grasses in that it is a summer annual plant that sprouts in the spring. The way you can keep crabgrass seed from sprouting is to not water daily in the spring and summer. You can't control Mother Nature but can control your irrigation. I water once a week for 1-3 hours per zone. That gives the soil and seed time to dry out and prevents seed sprouting.

The second control for all weeds is to keep your lawn at its most dense. For most grasses that means to keep it as tall as is practical for you in your neighborhood. Weed seed needs sunlight and if you have a dense stand of tall grass, you will NOT have weeds.

Keeping crabgrass out is really as easy as that. No chemicals or treatments needed.

You guys are killing me as far as CGM is concerned. Some say it works, some say it doesn't some says it take 3 years.
I can get it locally but I don't know if it's worth it or not. Is there a reliable, definitive study that has been done?

"Is there a reliable, definitive study (on CGM) that has been done?"

Several studies, including the original research at Iowa State University, indicate that CGM works. However, many individuals have reported that CGM doesn't perform well based on their experience.

Personally, I believe that that the fertilizer effect of CGM is more responsible for reducing crabgrass (by crowding it out) than its pre-em qualities. This explains why CGM takes several years for maximum impact. This view is pure speculation on my part and is not supported by a reliable study.

-Deerslayer

Deerslayer...I would tend to agree with you. In my experiments (tubs of grass seed with and without corn gluten meal), the tubs with corn gluten meal had an insane amount of growth. When I emptied the tubs last week, the roots went all the way to the bottom and were so thick that they held all of the soil together.

Rutgers, thanks for the update. I think most folks agree that CGM is a potent organic fertilizer. Your experiments provide additional support for this.

-Deerslayer

I have read that it's a good idea to apply CGM in early spring as a pre-emergent. Rutgers1's findings are swaying me to believe that it is more of a fertilizer than a pre-emergent. Knowing that, is it still a good idea to use it in early spring? Most everything I read says to not fertilize until late spring.

Broadleaf weeds are few and far between in my yard. Thick grass keeps them out.

I have used pre-m the last 2 years to try to battle back some poa annua in my KBG yard. I've noticed only marginal improvement, and its possible alot of that came from changing my spring practices to bagging the clippings when it goes to seed. I am not using it this fall.

As for winter fertilizer, I do like Morph. I use totally organic fertilizers all year except the final one (usually around Thanksgiving here) when I put down a quick release nitrogen fertilizer. Last year I used urea and had plenty left over from a 50 lb bag to do my 8000 sq ft yard again, at least.