Scotts Lawn Fertilizer Question??

[MICHELLE H.]

Hi,

I am hoping that someone can explain this to me. Is there something up with "Home Depot" and the "Scotts Company" with false bag weight contents or something??

Here is whats going on. Our house is on 0.11 acres of land, which is what about 4,700 square feet? This does not include the city owned treebelt in front of our house, which is about 50 feet long and 6 feet wide, or the grassy island with a telephone/utility pole, between our driveway and our neighbors driveway, which is about 6 feet long and 6 feet wide. So including all that, there is probably roughly 5.000 square feet or so.

Anyway, last year, when we put down the "Scotts Turf Builder Lawn Fertilizer with Plus 2 Weed Control", that we bought from "Home Depot", it took 2 bags ( 14.29 pounds each according to the bag ). with the spreader setting on 5 1/2 like the bag says, to do our entire lawn.

Well this year, we bought a 5,000 square foot bag of "Scotts LawnPro SUPER Turf Builder Lawn Fertilizer with Plus 2 Weed Control", and this bag was 17.24 pounds ( according to the bag ), and we had enough to do the entire lawn with the 1 bag!!

We bought the "Super Turf Builder" at our local hardware store, because #1 our local hardware store is only like 10 minutes away, compared to driving 25+ minutes to our closest "Home Depot", and #2 after the mail-in rebate, they were the same price.

"Home Depot" has the "Regular" Turf Builder for $14.99 a bag, and the "Super" Turf Builder at the hardware store was $17.99 a bag, with a $3 dollar mail-in rebate.

So my question is, why is it that with the drop spreader setting both set at 5 and 1/2 both this year and last year, and doing the exact same areas, why is it that last year we used 2 bags that were 14.29 pounds each, of the "Regular" Turf Builder to do our lawn, but this year, it only took 1 bag of the "Super" Turf Builder, which was 17.24 pounds.

At first I thought that maybe the "Super" Turf Builder has bigger granules, and so it comes out at a slower rate?? But they look the same size as last year??

Could it be because the the "Super" Turf Builder is 29-2-3, and the "Regular" Turf Builder is 28-1-4. Does that have to do with how big the granules are, and how much comes out??

Or is "Home Depot" and "Scotts" in cohoots together or something, and lying about the weight of the bags, so that customers have to spend more money and buy more!?

The "Scotts" bags from "Home Depot say the weight of the bag is 14.29 pounds, but maybe it's really only 8 pounds or something!?

Because why is it that last year it took 2 bags of the "Regular" Turf Builder 14 pound bags, which is over 28 pounds to do our entire lawn, but this year 1 bag of the 17.24 pound "Super" Turf Builder, from the hardware store was enough??

Thanks!

[Stubby]

Why not ask Scotts before posting here?

[trader4]

The formulation of 29-2-3, etc has nothing to do with the particle size. It's just the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the product. I'm assuming both products gave the spreader setting as 5 1/2? If so, any one of a number of things could be responsible:

The spreader has somehow suddenly drifted way off calibration, possibly because something is loose.

Whoever applied it spread it out in a wider pattern one time vs the other

One product could have had clumps because of poor storage

Whatever it is, it's almost certainly not that HD is cheating you on the weight. The missing piece of info is which was the correct amount of product for the area? I also think your estimate of 5000 sq ft is way high. You added a small area for the strip by the street and some small common area, but what about the footprint of the house? The driveway? Beds around the house, etc. It would be very unlikely that a house sitting on .11 acres could have a 5000 ft lawn. More likely it would be half that. Also, while that tree belt may in fact be owned by the city and not included in your .11 acres, very often it is included and owned by you, just that the city has an easement on it.

Whenever I apply product, I use the setting as a starting point. But then I keep an eye on how fast it's going out and adjust as necessary.

[Tony Sivori]

Highly unlikely. People would notice, quickly.

Possibly, you didn't use the setting that you thought you did with the fertilizer from Home Depot.

Or the fertilizer from the unnamed hardware store had the same size granules, but a higher moisture content, either due to manufacturing, or more likely, exposure after leaving the factory. Wetter granules of a given size would flow considerably slower through your spreader.

[MICHELLE H.]

Yes, the spreader setting was set at 5 1/2 both times, because that it what the each bag calls for, even though one is "Regular" Turf Builder, and one is "Super" turf builder.

Both bags say to set my "Scotts Accu-Green 1000 Drop Spreader" to 5 and

1/2, and thats what it was on this year, and well as last year, 5 and 1/2 both times.

Does the 3 pound weight difference have anything to do with it? Because if so, how is it that last year we used 28 pounds, and this year we only used 17 pounds on the same exact areas!?

[MICHELLE H.]

Another poster in a different group told me that the numbers on the front of the bag, did have something to do with it? Here is what he told me:

The other poster wrote:

"The numbers refer to the percentage of the three primary nutrients contained in the fertilizer. It is always listed as a percentage of weight in the following order: Nitrogen (N); Phosphors (P); Potassium (K). For established lawns, nitrogen is the major nutrient that greens the grass and stimulates blade growth. In short, nitrogen makes the grass grow and makes you mow. Phosphorus stimulates the production of roots, runners, and stolons, to multiply grass plants and make a denser turf. Potassium also works on root development as well as winter hardiness. Nitrogen tends not to persist in the soil; it will move downward or run off, and cheaper forms of nitrogen will oxidize to a degree into the atmosphere if it is not watered in soon after application. Over-application of nitrogen can also result in burning the turf. Phosphorus and potassium are much more stable elements that move slowly through the soil, so they usually don't need to be applied at anywhere near the same rate as nitrogen.

Nitrogen is the element used by the industry to calculate coverage for any particular fertilizer product. For the typical lawn, the average rate of application is 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000 square feet, though the rate can vary between 1/2 pound and 1 pound depending on the manufacturer's specifications. But the rule of thumb for the homeowner is: 1 lb/1000 square feet.

So - to determine the minimum recommended coverage of any bag of lawn fertilizer, you just need to figure out how many pounds of nitrogen are in the bag. It's easy. Multiply the percentage of nitrogen by the weight of the bag. The "Super" Turf Builder analysis 29-2-3, and the weight is

17.24 pounds. 17.24 times 29 percent is 4.9996, so there's basically 5 pounds of nitrogen in that bag; thus, the minimum (and in this case, recommended) coverage is 5000 square feet.

The 'Regular' Turf Builder was a 14.29 pound bag with an analysis of

28-1-4. 14.29 times 28 percent is 4, meaning there's four pounds of nitrogen in that bag, so the minimum coverage is 4000 square feet. But in this case, the manufacturer decided to declare the bag covered 5000 square feet, just by deciding to apply less nitrogen than the standard guidelines. They can do that, and a comparison of the two products means an application of regular Turf Builder supplies 25% percent less nitrogen than the Super Turf Builder. If you wanted to go by the standard 1 lb N/1000 square feet guideline, you could just apply the Regular Turf Builder at a somewhat heavier rate than the manufacturer's suggestion. Just be careful not to apply too heavily, or you risk burning the lawn. And never forget to water it in well within 24-36 hours after application. That not only reduces the risk of burning, but it ensures that the maximum amount of nitrogen goes into the soil, instead of oxidizing into the atmosphere. You paid for all of it, so water it all in".

[trader4]

It has nothing to do with the fact that if both products that you applied indicate that they should contain enough product to cover 5000 sq ft with the spreader set to 5 1/2, then that is approx how much coverage you should get, That is IF the spreader is functioning correctly, the coverage overlap is the same, the walking rate is the same, one product isn't clumped up compared to the other etc. Just allowing more overlap can easily make a big difference in how far the product goes.

What he is saying would account for you noticing that the lawn was GREENER using the higher nitrogen content application, but not that you used a lot more of one than the other applying them per the directions.