It's good to add compost in the fall. It will start to break down and release nutrients over the winter. You won't be wasting it.

Go ahead with the compost. You can add more in the Spring. The soil will appreciate it and so will your plants.

Nice thanks.

I use compost as mulch and routinely apply it in fall as that is when I do most of my planting, transplanting and dividing. I am in the midst of renovating one area and had planned on mulching after but the smoke laden air here has put that on hold for now. It could be another week before I can get back to it.

It is important to remember that compost should be considered a soil enhancer rather than a fertilizer.....it feeds the soil and that is an ongoing process regardless of time of year. It also provides a number of other benefits that have nothing to do with the timing of the application. Compost is only wasted if you do not use it!! If you've got it, use it!!

Ok good. Do you guys till up the soil with the compost or do you just top dress it and plant right into it?

Use it just like any mulch. Spread and forget other than keeping an eye out for weeds.

I bought some bags of compost but it says feeds up to 3 months..

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my zone is not your zone ... i would be very leary of fert'g in fall ... if temps fall fast enough then most likely ... it just sits there til spring.. and thats ok ... but if we get some late extended heat wave ... i would fear damage from late lush growth instead of slowing down for fall ... but again.. thats my ground freeze zone ...

that said.. you dont mention what it is or how it feeds ...

stuff like osmacote.. is also temp triggered ... and again.. if soil cools below trigger temps.. then it will just sit there .. so what ...

but if its ... say some nitro based juice ... it could be detrimental ...

after killing about 20 or so hybrid T roses after a late fall application .. decades ago.. i learned to be safe.. and just save the fert for spring ... after possibility of frost or freeze is gone ...

and i am not talking about something like hollytone for shrubs which is something like 1-2-1 .. anything like that is so benign it probably doesnt matter.. no matter where you are ... [actually its 4-3-4 ....whatever ...]

so the answer is location specific.. and type of fert specific ...

ken

I’m using cow manure actually, I’m not fertilizing anything.

Ken, compost is not a fertilizer. It is a soil enhancer or conditioner and feeds the soil, not the plants. Why that statement was included on the bag's label is highly misleading but bagged compost is non-regulated and has no Federal labeling requirements like a fertilizer does. There is nothing of concern about applying it now regardless of location. To provide any sort of nutrient benefit to plants, it must go though a complex and often lengthy conversion by soil organisms. And its nutrient load is barely noticeable anyway.

Applying compost as mulch at any time from now through to spring - regardless of location - will not result in "late lush growth". It just doesn't work that way.

I got these stuff from Home Depot

That's not compost. That's fertilizer.

Actually, it is a fully composted dairy cow manure product and despite the NPK rating posted, is not a fertilizer. Even the company website stresses the value of the product as a soil enhancer, not a fertilizer.

And with a NPK of 0.5-0.5-0.5, there is not enough nutrients being offered to make any sort of significant impact. Typical yard waste compost generally has a much higher NPK rating than this!!

The 3 month thing on the OP's bag is mostly marketing. I would guess though that more nutrients would come out of compost in the first 3 months than any time after that. It does have some soluble nutrients, which is what the testing actually tests. There are more that are bound up in complex organic matter and are slower to release.

In any case the other posts are quite correct that it's a soil conditioner more than a fertilizer. You'll find you don't need much fertilizer though when your soil is rich with organic matter and teeming with microbes. :-]

Well I hope I didn't waste my money and time on 17 bags. The soil by the way is not looking good. It's right against the foundation and because red mulch was there the soil's all red. It looks sandy too. I did end up planting my salvia glabrescens and leucosceptrum japonicum cuttings though. Hopefully they survive their first winter.