Feel like maybe It would be a good idea to fertilize but I'm unsure if its too late as of now?

I would avoid too much nitrogen now that we're past Labor Day.

34 minutes ago, SeanK said:

I would avoid too much nitrogen now that we're past Labor Day.

Genuine question but what is the correlation between nitrogen and the end of season? 

Not at all. I always fertilize in March, June and September. Go ahead, it’s still plenty warm enough. 

11 minutes ago, JohnT said:

Not at all. I always fertilize in March, June and September. Go ahead, it’s still plenty warm enough. 

I agree. I always do one last fall fertilize before the season ends.

I don’t know your climate but a rule of thumb is if you sit in the ground and you get a cold feeling in the buttocks then your soul temperature is down and the metabolic rate has slowed down in the plant. I don’t fertilise my container plants when it starts to get cold but I don’t think it’s not going to hurt feeding your plants now in the ground. I planted palms all winter but I don’t get frost. But I did throw some organic fertiliser around in mid winter just to give it time to break down for spring rains and be beneficial. 

So maybe an organic fertilizer would be better? I have palmgain but that might be too charged?

this is where the temperature is sitting now

Full send. No nuts no glory. I just gave everything a lite dose of Carl Pool maybe a week ago. 

If the average daily temps are still in the 70ish range, microbial activity hasn't really slowed down yet.  So in the summer the soil temp might be 30C = 86F, maybe a little more or less.  On the left chart below is the microbial activity vs temp.  30C is pretty close to 1 = 100%.  The 50% point is around 10C = 50F average temp.  Even then fertilizer still works well.  It has to be REALLY cold for microbial activity to drop far enough for fertilizer to be wasteful.  That soesn't happen at all in Central Florida, but probably does in SC.  Where is the point where it makes no sense?  Dunno.  

Can I follow up with a related question? 

 

How big should palms be before I fertilize? I've got some strap leaves and a couple one gallons in the yard, and I've got some slow release, some 4-4-4 and some Osmocote. I think the Birmy got some 4-4-4 in its hole when I planted it, I don't remember if I put any in the Trachy hole. I know the Washies haven't got anything but sun and water and cat bites. 

Osmocote would be fine for very small palms.  My understanding for fertilizing in the late Summer or early Fall would be against promoting lots of growth prior to a freeze.  Typically Nitrogen is for promoting foliar growth in most plants.  I don't have to contend with freezing temperatures here or if they do occur they are insignificant for most palms.  I can fertilize without worrying about freezing temperatures but if the soil and air temperatures are too cold then the plants may be unable to utilize fertilizer.

1 hour ago, Jubaea said:

Osmocote would be fine for very small palms.  My understanding for fertilizing in the late Summer or early Fall would be against promoting lots of growth prior to a freeze.  Typically Nitrogen is for promoting foliar growth in most plants.  I don't have to contend with freezing temperatures here or if they do occur they are insignificant for most palms.  I can fertilize without worrying about freezing temperatures but if the soil and air temperatures are too cold then the plants may be unable to utilize fertilizer.

I've still got another 2+ months before we normally see a freeze, but what is normal anymore? Chaos. It's still in the 90s here. 

On 9/4/2025 at 9:45 PM, NC_Palms said:

Genuine question but what is the correlation between nitrogen and the end of season? 

Nitrogen promotes new growth. New growth takes time to harden off. New growth is less resilient to low temperatures.