DumbDumb and Fall Fertilizering: Socratic Methodology of obtaining the Truth (jk, and Who is Socrates Anyway?)

Question

Hi everyone. This is a quick follow up on placing fertilizer down in the Autumn months.

I was glad to see everyone in agreement on this issue, and I believe your experinece trumps my lack of knowledge.

However, with your kind patience, may I pose my question like this:

Two equal Columbines ('Colorado Gold', as I recall, and I can't wait to see this one in bloosom) are planted in the ground.

The soils differ in this manner only:

One ground was given nutrients via fertilizer.

The other soil contained all the nutrients the fertilizer would give, but it was naturally pre-existing.

Wouldn't both Columbines, having the same nutirents, equally chance to form Autumnal leaves (or even buds) which would die off in the first freeze?

Wouldn't both Columbine roots, having the same nutirents, both suffer the same opportunity for better root formation?

When I follow this logic (my own), am I still a dumbdumb?

Answer 1

Nobody.

Answer 2

There's more to flower and leaf initiation than just soil nutrients, otherwise soils that never receive man made nutrients would be growing full time.

Plants have numerous controlling factors that tell the plant's cells when to do their jobs. Light and temperature are the two most controlling factor, but also internal carbohydrate accumulation thus the required chemical messengers.

The main worry is if your plant is in a vegetative growing stage (and they aren't always even tho they are green) adding excess nitrogen tends to keep the plant growing longer than it should.
There is a forgiving factor, nitrogen is easily lost from the soil if it's in the nitrate form, so heavy irrigation will wash away excess nitrogen. This is the one main trick to keep dog pee from killing the grass.....water immediately and dilute the nitrogen.

Relax. Plant scientists are still trying to figure out plants. We tried to make plants simple, but actually they are far more complicated than we thought.