Milorganite Green Up and Arborvitae

Two Dear Reader questions flowed in today, which is a first.  Both concern Milorganite, which is not surprising as most of my questions lately seem to.

1)  How long does Milorganite take to green up?

I'm going to presume you mean on the lawn, here, as other answers may differ a bit (I use Milorganite extensively in the gardens as well as on the lawn).  Milorganite contains considerable amounts of water-soluble nitrogen, plus the iron which is also water-soluble.  You may notice some greening in three days or so after watering in or a rainfall of a quarter inch or more.

However, much of the nitrogen is organic, and will never flood the lawn with nitrogen.  Over a period of about two weeks, the lawn will slowly become greener and richer in color.  This assumes the soil is never completely dry, and that you have the bacteria in the soil to process it (if you don't, you will after a season or so of using Milorganite or any other organic).

2)  How much Milorganite can I use on arborvitae?

This rule also applies to any other organic material you want to use on your lawn.  I'm pretty liberal about using Milorganite, soybean meal, cracked corn, and anything else I can get my hands on.  The rule does not apply for kelp, which should be applied sparingly to both lawn and plants.

Apply at about the same level you would on the lawn to a bit more, but definitely not much more than double the lawn rate.  While I break that rule on my own and apply a good bit more than that, my soil is well-balanced and entirely capable of handling any organic material that I give it.

You can repeat this monthly in April, May, and June (and again in late October if you want), but I'd skip the hottest months and September to give the plants sufficient time to prepare for winter.  New, soft green growth does need about six weeks to prepare for winter and harden off, so feeding in September is a bad idea regardless of what you use.

By late October the growth for the season is done and the plant has hardened off.  Nitrogen applied at this time will eventually become carbohydrates in the plant (via a rather roundabout method).