Is it too late to feed/fertilise?

I found my box of miraclegro today and decided to give shrubs and trees a bit of a feed up before winter. Then I remembered having read something about fertilisers in my fuchsia book, which I cant find, but I remember that the NPK content needs to be different for autumn. I remember I used to use growmore in the autumn on my shrubs, but I couldnt find any last time I went in wilkinsons.

Have I done the wrong thing by giving miraclegro at this time of year?

hey there, I think the issue with fertilising at this time of year is that it encourages plants to make green, tender growth, which is very suspectible to our cold weather .... I'm sure I've watched a programme where it said that you want plants to 'hibernate' over winter and conserve energy for spring.

anyone else ?

Yes, thats what I remember, the tender growth being killed off by the frost etc. But Ive done it now, so hopefully I'll learn from experience. I would add that my garden is newly planted as we have just moved here and it was empty, so I presume it hasnt been fertilised before, so that probably has an impact. But I did used to give all my shrubs and trees a sprinkling of Growmore in autumn without any problems. I know Growmore is a very basic, balanced fertiliser and not very strong though.

Ive since learnt the following and will record it here for reference:

NPK in fertilisers, N is nitrogen which promotes growth, noo much of this gives soft growth. Decrease this in shade, increase it in sun.

P is Phosphorous which is for root and general plant health.

K is for Potash which ripens wood and sets fruit and flowers. You dont want too much of this in the sun as it makes for brittle or stunted growth.

In shady conditions decrease N increase K

In bright conditions decrease K increase N