Spreader setting

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ChrisT03
Posts: 51
Joined: March 14th, 2020, 7:39 pm
Location: Long Island , New York
Grass Type: Northern Mix
Lawn Size: 1000-3000
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Spreader setting

Post by ChrisT03 » April 16th, 2021, 6:18 pm

Hi everyone,

I was attempting to put down 2lbs per K or Sulfate of Potash and was having a little trouble because of the large granules. I have a Scott’s edge guard mini and was using 3.0 setting. It seemed like the gate was getting stuck open and not much was coming out . I didn’t want to put down too much so I just did more passes with the lower setting. Any suggestion? Anyone with the same spreader that uses large granule fertilizer that can suggest a different spreader setting?

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MorpheusPA
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Location: Zone 6 (Eastern PA)
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Re: Spreader setting

Post by MorpheusPA » April 16th, 2021, 8:40 pm

Those are really going to vary. 3.0 to 3.5 is about average, and if you have to make a few passes to get 2 pounds per K down, that's better than going too far over the top, actually. :-)

There's enough randomness between spreaders that 0.5 between yours and mine is to be expected; my mother's and mine differ by more than that.

For amounts that small, hand spreaders (available at most big box stores) work very well, too. You hold those in your hand and turn a crank to put down smaller amounts of material.

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ken-n-nancy
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Level: Experienced

Re: Spreader setting

Post by ken-n-nancy » April 21st, 2021, 1:18 pm

I have had that exact problem, too! Putting down the small amount of sulfate of potash that is needed, particularly if using a type of SOP that has large granules, can be problematic. Setting the spreader wide enough to get reasonable flow can end up being too high of a rate.

What I do now to work around the problem is apply the sulfate of potash (0-0-50) with something else that is high volume. In specific, I use Bay State Fertilizer (Boston’s version of Milorganite.). I do that by dumping first one bag of the Bay State Fertilizer (or Milorganite) in the spreader, which will cover 2500sqft at my desired rate of application. I then use a little kitchen scale to weigh out the appropriate amount of SOP, dump that in to the spreader, and mix it all together with a trowel before spreading in the lawn. Works great!

I can’t claim to have come up with the idea on my own - somebody else here suggested it years ago when I posed a similar question, and I’ve used the “mix with Milorganite” approach ever since.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Grass Type: St Augustine
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Re: Spreader setting

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » April 23rd, 2021, 3:42 pm

When I first started with organic fertilizer I found I had to make multiple passes. Sometimes that's the way it works.

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