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bcool
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25

bcool to Pacrat

Premium Member

to Pacrat

Re: worried about over fertilized yard

said by Pacrat:

You're really not going to be able to tell if you did any damage 'til the grass enters its growing season. Normally, (N) nitrogen should be applied at a rate of 1#/1,000sq.ft. A 30# bag of 8-24-24 contains about 2.4 pounds of available nitrogen... not nearly enough to burn 10,000 sq.ft. of yard.

Remember what the the items are for:
Nitrogen (N) for growth
Phosphorus (P) for root development
Postassium (K) for disease resistence

Generally, your lawn requires much less K or P than do crop fields... what you used was an agricultural fertilizer, not a grass/sod fertilizer. You applied way too much phosphorus and potassium, but not nearly enough nitrogen. Nitrogen is the villain in burning grass plants... You should never really apply as much P or K as you do N. A balanced fertilizer such as 12-12-12 or 16-16-16 is as radical as you should ever get. Most lawn fertilizers are considerably higher in N than either of the other two elements, because that's what the grass needs to grow.

Bottom line... you didn't burn your lawn out, but you shouldn't use that formulation again for a healthy, green lawn. 30-5-5 is more than adequate for your needs.

Thank you and everyone for your help. I'd like to show my math in terms of determining my actual lawn size:

Double Lot: 100' x 127' = 12,700 sq.ft
Living quarters: 1365 sq.ft.
Garage: 528 sq.ft
Driveway: 700 sq.ft
Deck: 80 sq.ft
Misc.: 27 sq.ft.
_________________________________________
Lawn = 10,000 Sq.ft

The fertilizer came in 50# bag. I estimate that I poured out, let's say just to be safe, 40# of the bag into Scotts spreader....one of those small $34 spreaders. Did not fill the hopper to the brim, but it was filled up pretty good. Set the spreader on 2.5 and tried to keep moving. The front yard is on good slope so I got a workout.

So that would be about 3.2 Lbs of Nitrogen on 10,000 Sq.ft given that my spreading technique was even handed.

Pacrat: I'll remember your advice when I fertilize again....perhaps in a month?

Pacrat
Old and Cranky
MVM
join:2001-03-10
Cortland, OH

Pacrat

MVM

If you're going to fertilize again that soon, you might want to go with just urea (something like 45-0-0). Granule size is generally quite a bit larger than most granule fertilizers so you may have to adjust your flow rate. I would err on the safe side and start with very conservative spreader setting. It's pretty easy to put more on with the speader... pretty much impossible to remove it once it's spread. Again... you're looking for a delivery rate of 1#/1,000 sq.ft. for nitrogen. Assuming 50# bag... and a 45-0-0 formulation: 45% of 50# would be 22.5# of N/10,000 sq.ft. if you use the whole bag... That would be more than twice as much as you want (2.25#/1,000sq.ft.). You should adjust your delivery rate to use a little less than 1/2 bag to do the whole lawn. It wont look like you're puting much down, but it's pretty potent and you really don't need much. Pure urea is "tricky" to use, but if you insist on using Ag-type bulk fertilizers, it should be available wherever you bought that other stuff you used. You definitely don't need/want any more phosphorus or potassium until early fall... at least, not at that formulation. The exact formula you use really doesn't matter a whole lot... just shoot for 1#(N)/1,000sq.ft. I think Scott's Turf-Builder is like... 28-3-3 or something very close to that.

You can suit yourself, but I wouldn't fertilize again that soon. About every 8 weeks would be good... about mid-May.

There's an adage about lawn-feeding products: Use half as much as directed, twice as often.