# Favorite Lawn Fertilizer



## Amorae (May 14, 2019)

What are your favorite affordable lawn fertilizers? I've tried milorganite several times and a synthetic high nitrogen granular fertilizer (didn't love that option).

There is so much hype out there about certain products. Would love to hear from someone without a vested interest in a particular product.

I have 20k so I'm looking for an affordable option - either granular or liquid. Cool season mix in SE Wisconsin.

Thanks in advance!


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## john5246 (Jul 21, 2019)

Yeah, get whatever is on sale for slow release from your big box stores like Home Depot/Lowes/Menards

Get Urea for fast release nitrogen. The rest of the stuff is just over hyped nonsense. If you must go organic consider something like the Espoma brand over Milorganite, although both are fine. The youtuber products are just overpriced ways to get the same job done. Your lawn need N-P-K. 
Don't fall for the hyped products.


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## BobLovesGrass (Jun 13, 2020)

Being in WI Milo should be available cheap and is great if you need the P.

I wait for Stein's to have the 5-$30 sale.

I would not touch Milo for the $12-15 others pay.

In SE WI you should have na Ag co-op nearby and synthetic fert is cheap from them.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Dissolvable UREA, foliar application - weekly spoon feed 
Granular SOP and TSP on a monthly basis


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## e92M3 (Jul 13, 2020)

FEature 6-0-0 (or its equivalents): https://www.lovelandproducts.com/product/feature-soluble-6-0-0
- complete foliar fertilizer including micronutrients. Quite a number of LCO's over at lawnsite.com that provide spraying services, this is the only foliar fertilizer they apply. Simplifies things and cheap when bought in bulk.
- I personally apply every two weeks all season. Here's a recent discussion of my full lawn recipe: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=298024#p298024

OceanGro (Milorganite equivalent here in NJ)
- but stopped using it after I went full foliar app.


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## uts (Jul 8, 2019)

I think a balanced nutrien regimen would involve both granular and foliar applications. I think saying that just doing foliar N along with some urea/SOP/TSP is an over simplification (absolutely is done by a lot of people including me sometimes) but there are a lot of products that are made to be applied granular and are great for their specific purpose. There is a reason why hundreds of manufacturers make different combos for various application for golf/sports turf etc.

All that rant aside, for a homeowner with a budget things get a little more complicated and simplified at the same time. The simple approach will get you most of the way to a very good lawn. For phosphorus and potassium I agree that SOP and TSP are great options. For N getting something that is local and cheap (bonus if you can find something slow release) would be great.

In all this rant, favourite becomes a relative word to be honest. There are some great organic options that will coat you 60+ for a 50lb bag applied to a 4-6k area only. They are used for extreme traffic areas on very low cuts and are AWESOME.

For a typical homeowner, I honestly feel the carbon earth products from a local vendor (this is key) at 25-28 for a 50lb bag offer an excellent value for product. They far exceed most big box products. They have a decent variety and are constantly innovating and improving from what I have seen and used (2 gen of carbon x and some xgrn).

This is just my impression from a little bit of stuff I have read..


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

Urea for N and only P&k when a soil test says otherwise. Buy them all from a Nutrien dealer, they use to be called crop production services. I spray the N weekly at around .2lb/n/m.


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## Chris1 (Apr 22, 2020)

AMS and SOP . i do not need Phos. If you do micro apps separately , all in one or miracle ($$) fert is not needed. I also put down gypsum (calcium) and sulfur. Milo price has risen and has too much phos. Online products are too costly given the weight /shipping


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## halby (Jun 8, 2020)

john5246 said:


> Yeah, get whatever is on sale for slow release from your big box stores like Home Depot/Lowes/Menards
> 
> Get Urea for fast release nitrogen. The rest of the stuff is just over hyped nonsense. If you must go organic consider something like the Espoma brand over Milorganite, although both are fine. The youtuber products are just overpriced ways to get the same job done. Your lawn need N-P-K.
> Don't fall for the hyped products.


If I could hug you I would. I could not agree more. These youtubers are all promoting eachother's channels and getting referrals from their affiliate links back to yardmastery or the LCN site. I feel bad for newbie's dropping hundreds on this stuff. Personally I have seen ZERO difference in my lawn from using the youtuberz stuff vs what my local elevator has at much less cost.


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## Amorae (May 14, 2019)

Thank you everyone for the suggestions!


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## berisiw (3 mo ago)

uts said:


> I think a balanced nutrien regimen would involve both granular and foliar applications. I think saying that just doing foliar N along with some urea/SOP/TSP is an over simplification (absolutely is done by a lot of people including me sometimes) but there are a lot of products that are made to be applied granular and are great for their specific purpose. There is a reason why hundreds of manufacturers make different combos for various application for golf/sports turf etc.
> 
> All that rant aside, for a homeowner with a budget things get a little more complicated and simplified at the same time. The simple approach will get you most of the way to a very good lawn. For phosphorus and potassium I agree that SOP and TSP are great options. For N getting something that is local and cheap (bonus if you can find something slow release) would be great.
> 
> ...


I have around 150 or so bags of lawn fertilizer. 24-0-9 slow release in 5000sqft bags. All good, not clumped up or anything. Asking $4/bag. That figures out to $0.80 per 1000sqft. Email me if you are interested. I can load with a fork lift, it is on pallets. Located 15 minutes west of Madison, WI.


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## moedank (Sep 10, 2019)

The Forever Green line of fertilizers at Menards.These bags cover 10ksqft and are usually priced between $15-20. Sometimes you'll find them on sale for $10-15.


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## JustAnotherLawnGuy (3 mo ago)

I completely agree with john5246. Getting whatever is on discount in big box stores worked well for me.
Last season I started with urea and will experiment with ammonium sulphate next season.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

Screamin green really stood out for me compared to the rest I have used


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

I tend toward mid-#-analysis granular high-efficiency fertilizers that contain Nitrogen and Potassium and incorporate some natural ingredients and maybe have some purported inclusions/benefits beyond the N-P-K. E.g 16-X-X with 25-70% slowly available N.

My current favorite, for the past 5+ years, is Nutrients Plus 16-2-3 Screamin' Green. It's not the best for every situation (no fertilizer is), but I like using it in early Fall because of the fast/slow N ratio (around 50/50).

For Spring or Summer, I usually prefer to use a much slower release material than this (usually more natural sources with about 80% slowly available N). And for later in Fall, faster release N without much or any K (typically unstabilized 46-0-0 urea, but sometimes blended with the true immediately available 21-0-0 AMS in very cool weather). Scotts Green Max 27-0-2 also sees some use in the Fall, and sometimes the Spring as well. Methylene ureas are a very useful tool to extend the Nitrogen release duration.

Long duration controlled release coated fertilizers, like the 180-day products have my interest as well.


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