# Fast release nitrogen



## psider25 (May 4, 2020)

Anyone have suggestions of product offerings from big box stores (ie stores open Saturdays and Sundays this time of year) for basic fast release granular nitrogen to be used for spoon feeding new KBG seedlings? Hoping to find something i can pick up and put down tomorrow Sunday.

I might be reading labels wrong but most of the high nitrogen lawn fert in those stores is slow release and definitely advertised as such.


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## CoopyHarry (Sep 26, 2020)

I believe balanced I.e. 10-10-10, 12-12-12, 13-13-13 ferts are fast release. You would have to use quite a bit more than 46-0-0 to get the amount you wanted but that is all I have seen and even that was pretty limited selection

Also have to consider the other 2 elements of the fert if you can benefit from them or not

So it's doable with a balanced fert if your yard is on the smaller Side.

Some landscape places could be open on a Saturday till early afternoon would look for that


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## RVAGuy (Jul 27, 2020)

That is actually still considered a fast release fertilizer. I read it has a coating, but 70% of nitrogen is fast released. Another question I have no experience with is, is it practical to spread 0.85lbs/ksf? That's the rate of spreading you'd need for spoon feeding at .25lbs/ksf.

I'm using a 10-10-10 at a rate of 2.5lbs/ksf. Because of how coarse the cheap fert was, that's about the lowest rate I could apply. You can always add sand to dilute the fert, but I'd rather not...


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## mowww (Jan 16, 2018)

psider25 said:


> Anyone have suggestions of product offerings from big box stores (ie stores open Saturdays and Sundays this time of year) for basic fast release granular nitrogen to be used for spoon feeding new KBG seedlings?  Hoping to find something i can pick up and put down tomorrow Sunday.
> 
> I might be reading labels wrong but most of the high nitrogen lawn fert in those stores is slow release and definitely advertised as such.


The one pictured uses Duration 45 for the slow release and at 30% of the blend you've still got plenty of fast release to get the kbg seedlings moving along.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The way I read the label, 21% fast and 9% slow.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

And as mentioned, the proportion is 21/30=70% fast release. So almost three-quarters.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

psider25 said:


> Anyone have suggestions of product offerings from big box stores (ie stores open Saturdays and Sundays this time of year) for basic fast release granular nitrogen to be used for spoon feeding new KBG seedlings? Hoping to find something i can pick up and put down tomorrow Sunday.
> 
> I might be reading labels wrong but most of the high nitrogen lawn fert in those stores is slow release and definitely advertised as such.


That Menards fertilizer is, as mentioned by @mowww, mostly fast-release, with 70% of the nitrogen in the product being fast-release. (Of the weight of the product, 21% is fast release and 9% is slow release.) It will still work fine as a "spoon feeding" product on new KBG.

We don't have Menards in our area, so I'm not familiar with that specific product.

Personally, if there aren't too many square feet to cover, I like plain Scotts TurfBuilder (32-0-4) for on new seedlings, as the prill is very fine, allowing the fertilizer to be spread more evenly at a low rate. It has a similar N-P-K rating as that Menards fertilizer, and is also about 70% fast release. However, the Scotts products are expensive. If that Menards product has small, uniform granules, it could save you a fair bit of money and provide similar results.

For cost purposes, for fast-release nitrogen I usually use plain urea 46-0-0. However, what I have been purchasing for that has relatively large prill, so it is hard to spread a small amount evenly, leading to a "splotchy" effect in the lawn. Some of the folks here, particularly those with smaller lawns, spray their weekly fertilizer applications to get more uniform coverage. Of course, getting more uniform coverage in spraying requires the person doing the spraying to develop good spraying technique.

When comparing costs of nitrogen fertilizers, it is often easiest to compare the price per pound of nitrogen. So, a bag of Scotts TurfBuilder 32-0-4 containing 15 pounds of fertilizer and costing $17.48 would be $17.48 / (15 * 0.32) = $3.64 per pound of N.

That bag of Menards fertilizer (30-0-3) containing 17 pounds of fertilizer and costing $11.53 would be $11.53 / (17 * 0.30) = $2.26 per pound of N. A big savings compared to the Scotts.

Or, at a garden center or feed store, a 50-pound bag of urea (46-0-0) costing $21.99 would be $21.99 / (50 * 0.46) = $0.95 per pound of N.

In the long run, you're going to want to find a garden center or feed store that carries fast-release urea for things like the fall nitrogen blitz if you have a large lawn. For 1000sqft or so, it doesn't make a big difference, but when one starts to get up to significant fractions of an acre, costs add up fast.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

I would definitely use it enough fast release nitrogen to accomplish the task probably at a really fair price.


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## kay7711226 (Jun 24, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> psider25 said:
> 
> 
> > Anyone have suggestions of product offerings from big box stores (ie stores open Saturdays and Sundays this time of year) for basic fast release granular nitrogen to be used for spoon feeding new KBG seedlings? Hoping to find something i can pick up and put down tomorrow Sunday.
> ...


@ken-n-nancy what's a good mixture(weight/lbs) of urea 46-0-0 in a 4 gallon sprayer. Considering 1gallon/M spray rate?


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

@kay7711226 I use 0.5lb Urea (0.23lb N) per 1,000. In your case, use 2lbs Urea total with 4 gallons of water.


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## kay7711226 (Jun 24, 2020)

Harts said:


> @kay7711226 I use 0.5lb Urea (0.23lb N) per 1,000. In your case, use 2lbs Urea total with 4 gallons of water.


@Harts sounds about right....found this while digging around on here
"to figure out how much urea to add to get your N rate ÷ your target N rate by .46 for urea and .21 for AS. Then multiply by how many 1000 square feet you are applying to." Think it was @Pete1313 that gave the calculation. Thanks!


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

kay7711226 said:


> Harts said:
> 
> 
> > @kay7711226 I use 0.5lb Urea (0.23lb N) per 1,000. In your case, use 2lbs Urea total with 4 gallons of water.
> ...


Make your life easier by pretending Urea is 50% N. Makes math and weighing product so much simpler. No need to be exact.


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## kay7711226 (Jun 24, 2020)

Harts said:


> kay7711226 said:
> 
> 
> > Harts said:
> ...


However different rates with foliar apps vs applying and watering in after correct? My main intent was to use as a foliar sorry if did not make it clear at first.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

For foliar I do 0.23lb N. I usually leave this on the blade over night and water the next morning. Maybe I'm wrong, but the whole point of foliar is to let the app sit on the leaf blade as long as possible so it can be absorbed directly by the plant. I haven't attempted go higher than 0.23lb N for fear of leaf burn.

For granular, I have done as much as 1lb N per 1,000 and watered it in the next day. I did this 3 straight weeks in Sept.

Either way, I always pretend Urea is 50%, not 46%.


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## kay7711226 (Jun 24, 2020)

Harts said:


> For foliar I do 0.23lb N. I usually leave this on the blade over night and water the next morning. Maybe I'm wrong, but the whole point of foliar is to let the app sit on the leaf blade as long as possible so it can be absorbed directly by the plant. I haven't attempted go higher than 0.23lb N for fear of leaf burn.
> 
> For granular, I have done as much as 1lb N per 1,000 and watered it in the next day. I did this 3 straight weeks in Sept.
> 
> Either way, I always pretend Urea is 50%, not 46%.


Roger that!


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## psider25 (May 4, 2020)

Harts said:


> For foliar I do 0.23lb N. I usually leave this on the blade over night and water the next morning. Maybe I'm wrong, but the whole point of foliar is to let the app sit on the leaf blade as long as possible so it can be absorbed directly by the plant. I haven't attempted go higher than 0.23lb N for fear of leaf burn.
> 
> For granular, I have done as much as 1lb N per 1,000 and watered it in the next day. I did this 3 straight weeks in Sept.
> 
> Either way, I always pretend Urea is 50%, not 46%.


Did you ever have any issues putting down 1lb fast relesse N in one application and not watering in?

I put down about 0.25lb N (urea from menards fert) and didn't really water in much because ground was already pretty wet. Next day I saw some areas with yellow spots and some seedling die off. I'm guessing it was just coincidence though?







That was 2 days ago. In case it was fungus I went ahead and put down about .2lbs N again tonight, didn't water in at all because ground is still pretty wet. Hope I didn't make it worse. Haven't put down any N prior for 4 weeks after which we got a couple good downpours and some regular rain so prob not much of any of that older N left.


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## stevehollx (Apr 8, 2020)

I found urea at my big box store Lowes. It was oddly 34-0-0 (but not ammonium sulfate), and was urea derived from limestone.

The hours of SiteOne and farm supply stores closing at 4:30 and not open weekends does make it hard.


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## kay7711226 (Jun 24, 2020)

psider25 said:


> Harts said:
> 
> 
> > For foliar I do 0.23lb N. I usually leave this on the blade over night and water the next morning. Maybe I'm wrong, but the whole point of foliar is to let the app sit on the leaf blade as long as possible so it can be absorbed directly by the plant. I haven't attempted go higher than 0.23lb N for fear of leaf burn.
> ...


@psider25 looks like fungus to me. I had similar scenario as you mentioned during my reno, same urea rate, yellowing and bit of dead grass. Treated with Azoxy(dieseaseex) curative rate.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

kay7711226 said:


> @ken-n-nancy what's a good mixture(weight/lbs) of urea 46-0-0 in a 4 gallon sprayer. Considering 1gallon/M spray rate?


@kay7711226, sorry for the slow reply; yesterday was a crazy day with no time for lawn stuff.

I don't have any experience with spraying urea, so I'm afraid I can't be of well-informed assistance in that area. To date, all my fertilizer applications have been granular fertilizers, with the exception long ago of some hose-end sprayer MiracleGro, which doesn't really count.

However, I see that you've received some feedback on the matter from @Harts -- listen to him, he's one of the urea-spraying gurus. (I'm considering the possibility of spraying urea next year based upon his success with it.)


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Harts said:


> For granular, I have done as much as 1lb N per 1,000 and watered it in the next day. I did this 3 straight weeks in Sept.


@Harts, just wanted to confirm the above isn't a typo. You applied 1 lb N / ksqft each week for three consecutive weeks? In other words, say on Sept 1, you applied 2 pound / ksqft of 46-0-0 urea, and then on Sept 8 did it again, and then on Sept 15, did it again? For a total of 6 pounds of 46-0-0 urea per 1ksqft in three applications spanning two weeks from first application to last application (with one in between)?

I'm presuming you saw no leaf burn or anything from that? How was grass growth after that? What mowing did you need to do after that? (How frequently taking off how much to what level?)

Thanks!


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Harts said:
> 
> 
> > For granular, I have done as much as 1lb N per 1,000 and watered it in the next day. I did this 3 straight weeks in Sept.
> ...


Correct. Not a typo. 2lbs Urea to net 1lb N for every 1,000 sq. ft. and did this 3 consecutive Saturdays - a total of 3lbs of N over 3 weeks.

My grass was under regulation at the time so I didn't see any significant growth. No leaf burn as each app was watered in the following morning. No visible signs of stress to the grass.

Sinclair did the same last Fall for 4 weeks. It's certainly excessive and I likely won't do it again. This was just a trial for me to see what kind of results or issues (if any) I would see. There are also a lot of members who are new to Urea and seem to be scared of killing their grass. This serves as an illustration that at the end of the day, it's just fertilizer and urea is present in many everyday items, including many hand creams and even in our urine. Caution does need to be taken but it isn't something to be intimidated by.

I can't say for certain that there was any benefit but I can say there weren't any visible negative effects.


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