"BTW - history completely contradicts your belief in soil testing. Almost nobody gets soil tests now and they weren't even available to homeowners until recently. Like a lot of modern technology, it can be a useful tool. However, people got along just fine without them in the not to distant past." What does that even mean? History contradicts your belief in soil testing? How does history contradict a belief in soil testing? That sentence is an example of making up something that sounds intelligent but has no basis in fact. Soil testing is an extremely important part of all the crops growing in this country. If we had a better understanding of soil science earlier in the 20th century then the dust bowl probably wouldn't have happened, or at least it wouldn't have been so bad. Turfgrass, like any crop, has its ideal soil conditions. The closer you can get to the ideal, the healthier the grass. How would you know if you need lime? Let's say you need lime, which one would you use? What about a phosphorus deficiency. Most fertilizers have little P, so are you supposed to guess if you have deficiencies? Andy's plan is the right way to do it. Sure you can do a renovation by omitting steps, but if you want the best results you will do it the right way. Rushing it will usually result in doing it again next fall.

That's a two edged question. You don't want to do anything to stimulate new, soft, sappy growth until the chance for your last frost is probably past. Why waste the effort and money only to have the plants frost damaged due to growth much more susceptible to damage than harder wood? Then, organic fertilizers require 'digestion' by soil bacteria and fungi to release their nutrients to the plants. Most of these are dormant in cold soil so the prime benefits of your expensive food is often wasted. You would be far better off (as will your roses) to wait until the air temperatures begin to warm closer to the seventy degree mark, so the soil can begin to warm and stimulate the bacteria to begin "eating" the organics. Remember that colder night temps cool the soil back down, slowing the bacterial action and reducing the benefits of the fertilizers. If your plants are potted, they'll begin to be able to use the fertilizers earlier because sun shining directly on the pots heat them up faster, earlier, so there is more digestion going on while they're heated up, but they also cool off faster as that absorbed heat radiates back out into the colder night air. The actual date is going to vary greatly by your micro climate, but you can figure that out based on your air temps and when you think it's safe to trigger the soft new growth without subjecting it to certain freezes.

FWIW, when gardening organically, spraying insecticides is a last resort, not a preventive. The prevention is good, healthy soil, mulch & right plant/right place/right season. That said, I spray to foliar feed my plants which help protect them from insects/diseases by contributing to their health. I use Maxicrop seaweed extract. If you haven't yet, you might want to check out the Organic Gardening forum here on G'web. HTH

The first thing I do is hit them with some Epsom salts and then some K,once the soil temps are well over 50(F) at 4". As the soil temps approach 60(F),I try to coordinate their first feeding with a nice rainfall and some sunny warm weather. This rather then going by the time of year-I don't think Palms roots can really absorb the fertilizer until soil temps are above 50(F) anyway.