Attachments For Fertilizing A Lawn???

[thcri]

Tom,

I buy my fertilizer in bags. Makes it much easier since you can only load so much in your spreader anyway. If you put fertilizer in your pickup it will be a mess to clean up. Fertilizer is not good for the bed of your pickup either. Unless you have a good liner.

Murph

 

[thcri]

Tom,

Also just a point that I found to be very true. The guy that did my sod told me not to put any of the name brand fertilizers that contain weed killers. I didn't believe him. He told me just try it for one year. I was worried about weeds. He said that if I fertilize properly the grass will kill the weeds out. You know, he was right. I have one of the best lawns in the area. I buy and only buy plain fertilizer from a AG place. He told me that the fertilizers that come with chemicals for weed killers actualy harms the grass. I did do some spot spraying to get rid of some big broadleafs but that was it last year. He told me fertilize every six weeks. Plain fertilizer is fairly cheap. I buy 6 bags each time and spend around $35.00

murph

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color="blue"> I have one of the best lawns in the area. </font>

Murph,

I see you have a TC29 tractor which must weigh a bit.

I don't remember if you use that one for grass cutting or not. If so, I suppose you have turf tires...is that right?

Curious because the loaded R4s on my B2910 leave marks on the short weeds I have unless it is real dry. My R4s seem to be OK on this one area of "real grass" that we have...just wonder what you are running over a real yard with... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[thcri]

Henro,

I have R4's Industrial. My dealer told me that is the only way to go. I had them on my TC21D and had no trouble what so ever on my lawn. My 29 is a bit bigger and I have to kind of watch it. I just have to make sure it is dry when I mow. Yes I mow my lawn on a real yard with the 29D. My dealer is so sold on the industrial's that when he ordered my 29 for me he could only get it with turf tires at the time but he insisted ordering a set of industrials and he would send the turf's back.

It is interesting, he took on a wet lawn a 21 with turf and a 21 with industrials and made a sharp turn with each tractor. The industrial did less damage over the turf. I did some research and sure wished I could find the web page that talks about the two tires. But what they basically told me was turf was better for your lawn, but industrial was better if you had a lot of turning to do.

My neighbor has a JD955 which is about 30 hp also. He has turf, and his will make dents also if it isn't dry. He can't go through the ditches full of snow like I can. But all in all, I probably wished I had turf.

Hope I didn't ramble too much here.

murph

 

[TresCrows]

Tom, I buy the fertilizer in 50lb bags from the local Co-op. It is the granulated (or pellitized may be more accurate) type and it works very well with the Herd spreader. I have used 13/0/0 and 8/8/8 and 13/13/13 from the co-op. The Scotts type which has a lot of dust and tiny sand size grains does not spread well in many spreaders including the Herd M96. The pellitized type does great. I imagine the co-ops could sell it in bulk but I have only seen bags. People who fertilize huge areas often go with a sprayer type which supposedly is cheaper in the long run. For your purposes the Herd M96 should be a better choice cuz it can also spread seeds, fertilizer and pellitized insecticides, pellitized gypsum and pellitized lime etc. J

 

[OkieG]

<font color="blue">I was thinking of a 3-point spreader and a tank sprayer.</font>

That is exactly the route I went. Spreader for "pelletized" fertilizer and the sprayer for the other lawn treatments. It works great and it will save you money.

It seems all the commercial lawn services here buy their supplies from an outfit near downtown OKC. That outlet also sells to homeowners. I'd never seen 2 1/2 gal. jugs of Round-Up concentrate before. Finding out where the commercial lawn guys go may give you a price comparison to the Ag store.

I recommend fertilizer in bags. If you buy enough for a couple applications, it will save you a trip. The fertilizer will reliably stay in good shape for a few weeks in the bags if the bags are well sealed. Much longer than that and moisture has a way of finding a way in. Maybe not in every bag, but in a few. Take my word for it, moist fertilizer does not spread well at all.

Whenever I'm through spraying, there is usually a little chemical left in the bottom of the tank. I drain it into a 2 gal. pressurized hand sprayer and use it to touch up areas around the lawn.

By the way, got the 55 gal. sprayer from TSC and the spreader from my local JD dealer. Of course, TSC has spreaders, too.

OkieG

 

[Buck]

At $200 per shot for 2 acres, your current costs are not unreasonable. I deweed and fertilize my 3+acres of lawn for $120 using cheap on-sale material that I think is just as good as Scotts.

You will definitely have a pay-off by doing it yourself. You probably have a MMM so towing a fertilizer spewer would not take a bite out of your time. And further, if you do have a MMM, why buy anything fancier than a tow behind? You gotta cut it anyway and the three point will only buy you a wider swath which is more than you need if you are cutting the grass at the same time.

My opinion is that a 3pt spewer is definitely overkill for 2+ acres. Buy a really high quality, high volume tow behind for a third of the 3pt price.

However, the biggest question I would ask is why you need someone to come out that often. Seems like real overkill and that you are introducing a chemical dependency that is unnecessary. An exception to this would be if you lived on the Jersey beach, and you were trying to grow grass in sand.

Buck

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Last year was the first year we started the service because our lawn was being taken over by weeds. We did not weed and feed for several years. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif We had other things to spend our $$ on. Wife went back to work so we have extra $$ to spend on a lawn so I can cut it every 5 days /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. I guess I can cut back to perhaps 4-5 times a year. Funny we have snow on the ground and 24"; to come in the next 24 hours and I am thinking of cutting grass... well perhaps just dreaming. Guess the snow blower and tractor will get a work out. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[thcri]

Tom,

Don't feel bad. I have given up on snow. Everybody else is getting it but me. I can still see the grass in our back yard. So I have given up on snow and thinking mowing. I might go to 8 times of fetilizer so I can make up for no snow.

murph

 

[TresCrows]

I have never seen a tow behind that was not a toy with the exception of some all metal 60 inch drop spreaders I saw and they cost more than the Herd M96. The Herd M96 is much smaller than the huge Tractor Suppy units you have seen. It works great for smaller acerages and even fairly large ones. J