Asking for a friend, y’all can guess
Every single time. Yard is broken into sections. Weigh out appropriate amount for each section and apply.
Morgan said:
Every single time. Yard is broken into sections. Weigh out appropriate amount for each section and apply.
This - Although I usually just do this for the first section. If that goes down evenly, I know my spreader settings are good, it’s calibrated right, and I just fill 'er up and throw her down on the rest of the yard at that point.
@Jesse
I feel so seen.
@Jesse
I do the same.
Fallon said:
Nah… throw it down!
Just like a nice blanket. Not too thick… Not too thin… Juustt enough.
Fallon said:
Nah… throw it down!
Just like a nice blanket. Not too thick… Not too thin… Juustt enough.
And then I have a little extra so I hit the balder patches again!
@Jay
Always save a quarter to a half of the bag for aftercare 
Vale said:
@Jay
Always save a quarter to a half of the bag for aftercare
Oh I meant in the spreader, I don’t like to dump it back in, but I guess I should put less in at first!
Fallon said:
Nah… throw it down!
Let it fly.
Fallon said:
Nah… throw it down!
THIS! 
Lennon said:
Fallon said:
Nah… throw it down!
THIS!
Damn upvote button broken again! When will Reddit just work?
Nice comment.
Only when mixing ferts. When it comes to the actual application, well, when you fertilize an average of 20-30 acres a week, you get pretty good at eyeballing fert to the oz.
Mai said:
Only when mixing ferts. When it comes to the actual application, well, when you fertilize an average of 20-30 acres a week, you get pretty good at eyeballing fert to the oz.
That and I’d wager that if you’re doing the same type, that helps. And if you’re off by even a small margin there, it probably isn’t that bad over 2-3 acres vs say 2000 sqft.
@Lennon
Same type of fertilizer? I swap a few times a day, but yea consecutive lawns with the same type of fertilizer helps to get my equipment dialed in (since just because I can visually weigh the fertilizer, doesn’t mean I can set my rate as precisely on the first try).
I follow your thought process about the small vs. big lawns, but it’s essentially all the same. And actually, if anything, the bigger ones can be a bit trickier to be precise about. For example, say I’m doing a big one that takes 250 lbs of fertilizer. That’s easy enough to measure the total fertilizer, 5 bags on the nose. But where it gets tricky is keeping track of (and spotting) the variations in my rate (clogs, dust, speed, humidity, etc.) as I’m going. That’s essentially entirely a matter of being able to recognize the difference between 5 lbs a minute and 6 lbs a minute coming out of the hopper, for example. But you definitely get an eye for that too.
P.s. I treat all sizes. From 800 sqft to 150,000 sqft. Most are 5-10k.
Edit: I should clarify, I’m not even remotely special in this regard. Even my least capable peers are able to get the hang of this after a month or 2.
I used to. Then realized it’s grass and the results have been the same whether I was being that crazy or not.
I go as far as setting the spreader to the recommended setting and hope for the best. I’ve never burnt my lawn and it’s green.
Yes. I started doing it this year. I have a 15k sqft yard, so it’s too big to guess what will be proper coverage.
If I break it up into smaller chunks, it’s easier to not over apply.
Shan said:
Yes. I started doing it this year. I have a 15k sqft yard, so it’s too big to guess what will be proper coverage.
If I break it up into smaller chunks, it’s easier to not over apply.
Yeah I did this too. Each section is about 2500 sqft, I measure and weigh everything.
I had some leftover and didn’t do it in sections and ran out about 3/4 of the way through. I can’t imagine if I had done that with my initial application.