Spreader Setting

I purchased a Scott's Basic Broadcast spreader and will be starting my first application of Ringer Lawn Restore.  The spreader setting ranger from 1 to 15.

My question is what is the ideal setting for applying the Ringer Lawn Restore?  My front yard is about 5000sqft and the backyard is around 4500sqft.

The speader holds about 2500sqft of fertilizer.  Obviously I am going to have to refill, but would a setting of 10 be ideal?

Thank You

Maybe somebody will answer your question more to your liking.  Myself, I fill a big jar with the stuff and go out and pitch it around wherever it seems like it might be of help.  If I see a spot that looks like it is a really dark green or even blue-ish - I don't put any there - that spot would die with any extra fertilizer.  If I see a spot that is looking a bit lighter in green than the other spots, I'll put some extra there.   

10 is outright too much! I use Scott's organic, which has a similar analysis and consistency to Ringer. I use a Scott's spreader, so the settings are the same as yours. Scott's recommends using 7 1/2 with their lawn food in their spreaders. I use the 4 1/2 setting with great results without wasting a lot of fertilizer. I'm thinking of going even lower this fall to maybe 2 or 3. I prefer to do 3-4 light feedings instead of the recommended 1 big one each season. This way less food is lost to runoff. With these settings, I doubt you'll have to refill until the next feeding. I have about 7000sq ft. Occasionally I have to refill toward the end, if I didn't load the hopper full enough.

Paul's idea works great too. I'm just in too much denial for wasting my money on the spreader to not use it.

jeremiah bailey wrote:
I'm just in too much denial for wasting my money on the spreader to not use it.

Good will come of it.

I bet the spreader would work great on the right size of pelletized seed, if you're interested in influencing nearby vacant lots with minimal effort/attention.  Just pick the right size of mesh to screed your pellet paste through.

i just bought a spreader ... haven't used it yet ... should i take it back?  i thought it would be helpful in spreading applications evenly ...  otherwise feel like it's a little here, a lot there, and maybe none back there

I would take the spreader back. 

If you want to have a military precision lawn, where you are putting on just the right amount of fertilizer so that it growing crazy fast and just short of too much fertilizer so that the whole lawn dies.  Well, then, yeah - that's your ticket.  But that sounds like the lawn of stress to me.

For nearly every lawn I see, all of the other lawns in the neighborhood really suck.  So if you mow high and sprinkle a little fertilizer, you usually have the best lawn in the neighborhood by far.  So why bother with the military precision stuff.

Last fall I used my Scott spreader with the Ringer and set the spreader as advised by Ringer. My lawn is small enough to be covered by a single bag of Ringer but that recommended setting was wrong, wrong, wrong. The whole bag was gone is a few minutes and not enough to cover my small lawn. This year I simply set the spreader at the lowest setting and kept going over the lawn until the spreader was empty.

If someone hadn't given me the spreader I would just thrown it out by hand.

So some of your lawn was over fertilized and it did not die?

paul wheaton wrote:
So some of your lawn was over fertilized and it did not die?

Now that you mention it, there was  one place where the Ringer was pouring out and that area didn't come back this spring but overall it doesn't seem to have hurt the lawn at all.