here are a couple of things u need to buy:
1. ordinary kitchen scale
- after you measure out the different areas of your lawn, you can weigh out the exact amount u need for that specific area of the lawn. if u have a very large lawn, then i would suggest getting one of those really large scales sensitive to a lb or an ounce.
2. kitchen measuring set with cups and teaspoons/tablespooins
- u'll need these to measure out those things of small quantities such as herbicides, soil amendments. trust me they will come in handy.
3. piston syringes
- u'll need these to draw up liquid herbicides/fertilizers in mls or fluid ounces
4. broadcast spreader
- real good for spreading large particle size like grains when u start using them. full open on the hopper and spread away. it's also better for people with large lawns, less passes because of the larger broadcast spread. personally, i like the drop spreader, for a small lawn owner like me, it can be very precise.
use unit conversion tools easily found on the net, so you can convert the amounts u need to something you can measure out with provided tools above.
measure out your lawn per area or as a whole. u can be lazy like me and use google maps distance measurement. or u can be pro and get one of those rolling tools and get the exact measurements. they even have laser measurement tools, but u'll only use it once, and that would be quite a waste.
here are some spreading tips for u. don't let the math scare u, i've a nurse by profession, but an engineer at heart. both professions do a lot of math, whether calculating medication dosages or physics equations:\
i'll use my lawn as an example. i want to spread 2 bags of milorganite over 1567 sq.ft. of lawn. for milorganite, i can completely ignore the bag recommendations because it's inherently burn-safe. i would probably use a lower rate over the summer, because of the formularity, but that's another issue in itself, which has been discussed in another thread here somewhere.
so a bag of milorganite is 36 lbs. two makes 72 lbs. so that's 72 lbs over 1567 sq. ft.
to convert this into lbs per 1000:
72/1567 = x / 1000
x = 45.95 lbs / 1000 sq.ft.
so now i want to know how much i need to apply per area. my main lawn is about 1200 sq.ft.
45.95 lbs / 1000 sq. ft. = x / 1200 sq, ft.
x = 55.14 lbs
I would weigh out 55.14 lbs only to use for my 1200 sq.ft. area. Now this is too much to measure with my kitchen scale, and the makers of milorganite are kind enough to provide a conversion factor on the bag, which is 1 lb = 3 cups.
55.14 lbs * 3 cups = 165.42 cups
I'll just use my measuring cups and count out 166 cups and put it into my spreader. Counting 165 cups is a PITA, so i go do my smaller areas first, since they need less amounts of MO, and w/e is left i would just dump into the main lawn. sum of all the parts equals the whole.
I used a Scotts drop spreader mostly last year. For MO, i would start at the lowest setting at 2, and make millions of passes until i ran out. that gave me a supremely accurate spread, but it also resulted in me spending an hour to spread 72 lbs of stuff. to start learning the right calibration for my drop spreader, i would start at the lowest setting, make one complete pass, then i would set it to 4, then make another complete pass, and set it again higher until i get the right approximate setting. i would make note of this setting and use it again next time i drop MO. Process will start over if you are going to drop a different amendment (particle size is larger or smaller so u won't be able to use the same setting).
Now let's use a Scott's fert example. Here is their starter fertilizer Scott's Starter Fertilizer. Bag says 18 lbs for upto 5000 sq.ft. Most homeowners would do is dump the whole bag into their spreader, put the "correct" setting that's on the bag and start going up and down. Next thing you know, the hopper is empty and u have used up a 5000 sq.ft. bag on a 1567 sq.ft. lawn. I know i did last year, cause i didn't know any better. End result = burnt lawn.
So if u want to use synthetic fertilizer, then u will have to follow bag rate. its dangerous to screw around bag rates, until u learn how to calculate the resulting N per lb of what you are doing. that u can learn later as it makes things more complicated, or until u want to drop urea in the fall.
So for my lawn as an example again, 18 lbs for 5000 sq. ft. you will have to convert this into lbs per 1000 sq.ft.
18 / 5000 = x / 1000
x = 3.6 lbs / 1000 sq. ft.
so for my main lawn, which is 1567 sq. ft., i need to get the amount i need for that specific area.
3.6 lbs / 1000 sq.ft. = x / 1567 sq.ft.
x = 5.64 lbs
I need to weigh out 5.64 lbs of starter only for use on my main front lawn. My kitchen scale doesn't do pounds, so i need to convert it into ounces. u can use google to convert or if u remember the conversion 1lb = 16 ounzes.
5.64 lbs * 16 oz = 90.2592 ounces
So i will measure 90.2592 ounzes of starter, dump it into my spreader and spread it on my main lawn.
I do these calculations for all the stuff that i use: herbicides, MO, fertilizers, amendments. U say, that's a ton of calculations. That's why i keep a spreadsheet and i have it set up so i don't have to keep on recalculating. I also printed out a list of how much each app rate is and i just reference that.
Anyway i rambled long enough, but i was bored, and there really is no one thread here teaching calculations, so i might as well. I hope this has been somewhat helpful, and if u already knew how to do all that stuff, i'm sure someone else who doesn't can use the information.
