Milorganite is a well-known fertilizer brand across the US and Canada. If you’ve been into lawn dressing for a while, you’ve probably heard about it as one of the best nitrogen fertilizers money can buy. This is why some people call it soil treatment and not your typical straight fertilizer – its primary component is nitrogen.
As common with all fertilizers, soil treatment, and insecticides, you need to use proper spreader settings (based on your spreaders) to have a positive result after application. If you can’t get settings for your spreader, you want to use something very close; else, you won’t get a satisfactory result.
Milorganite Spreader Settings Guide
In this article, we’ve outlined some standard spreader settings for some of the popularly used lawn spreaders in the US and Canada. Also, if you don’t see your type of spreader on the chart, you can use the quick spreader calibration guide below to sort things out.
Milorganite Settings for Rotary Spreaders
| Spreader | Settings for Established Lawn | Settings for New Lawn |
| Ace Green Turf Delux | 19 | 19 (two passes) |
| Agway | 19 | 19 (two passes) |
| Earthway EV-N-Spread (most models) | 19 | 19 (two passes) |
| Fertilome | 19 | 19 (two passes) |
| Green Thumb | 19 | 19 (two passes) |
| Lawn Crafter (Quacker) | 5 | 5 (two passes) |
| Precision | 9 | 9 (two passes) |
| Red Devil | 17 | 17 (two passes) |
| Republic EZ | 14 | 14 (two passes) |
| Scotts Edgeguard (Pro, Mini), Lawn Pro & Standard | 11.5 | 11.5 (two passes) |
| Scotts basic, Delux Edge Control & Speedy Green Series | 11.5 | 11.5 (two passes) |
| Scotts Easy Green | 29 | 29 (two passes) |
| Southern States | 19 | 19 (two passes) |
Milorganite Settings for Drop Spreaders
| Spreader | Settings for Established Lawn | Settings for New Lawn |
| Ames/Earthway | 21 | 21 |
| Lawn Crafter (Quaker) | 8 | 13 |
| Red Devil | 11 | 12 |
| Republic WZ Grow | 8 | 11 |
| Scotts Accu Green Series | 10 | 16 |
While you’re typically required to spread with two passes on new lawns so that you can get as much nitrogen in as possible, spreading both types of lawns will also follow different guidelines as per quantity.
Milorganite Spreader Settings Guidelines
| General Settings | Application |
| Established Lawn | 2,500 sq. ft. per 32 lbs. bag |
| New Lawn | 1,250 sq. ft. per 32 lbs. bag |
| Weight Conversion | 3 cups of Milorganite = 1lbs. |
At any rate, you should only use the spreader settings in this article as a guideline; you’ll need to mark out a testing ground on your lawn to see your possible result before applying it to the entire lawn.
Quick Spreader Calculation Guide
If you’re using a spreader that’s not on the chart, this quick five-step guide will help you develop an accurate setting for spreading milorganite. The guide also works for any type of lawn spreader with any soil banding and treatment material in case you encounter the same issue while trying to spread something else.
- Open your spreader to ¾ of the entire settings gauge
- Weigh out 6.5 pounds of milorganite into the spreader
- Start application while walking at a steady pace (3.5MPH is ideal) until the spreader bucket is empty.
- Measure the lawn area you were able to work on; it should be about 500 sq. ft. If your area is close to 500 sq. ft., you can go ahead to skip step 5.
- In cases where your measurement shows you’ve widely deviated from 500 sq. ft., you can adjust the size of the openings and repeat steps 2 to 4 till you get closer to 500 sq. ft.
Lawn Spread Application Tips
- Never attempt to spread products by hand. If you must touch the product with bare hands, make sure you maintain minimum contact. It’s even better if you use a glove throughout the application exercise.
- Ensure that the hopper is closed before adding the product – you don’t want to have fertilizer or soil treatment grains scattered all over the place.
- Ensure you clear walkways and the surface where you carried out your weighing. If the spilled quantity is too much, you can pack them up and return them to your bag, and if it’s ignorable, you can sweep it to t the lawn.
- If a large quantity of milorganite is dumped on the lawn, gather whatever you can, and use a stiff broom to spread the remains.
- Make sure you’re always ways walking at a steady pace when applying the fertilizer. Also, remember that the slower you walk, the more products will be deposited – you don’t want your application rate to be overkill and end up wasting fertilizer.
- If you’re using drop spreaders, you want to make sure you’re overlapping the wheel marks to get even coverage.
- Always start the application from the longest edge of your lawn. Although this can change if you first need to use a testing ground for spreader calibration.
- During application, you want to always complete a turn first before reopening the spreader. You do this to minimize the amount of milorganite deposited on the hard surfaces around your lawn.
- Apply products while walking in opposite directions after each turn. A simple back-and-forth translational movement will do. For the cases where you need two applications, reduce the settings by half and use a crisscross movement for an efficient finish.
- Always clean the spreader after use – you don’t want materials to reside in the hopper; it might alter your calibrations next time you want to use it.
- Refer to the manufacturer’s guidelines for steps to cleaning, lubricating, and storing the spreader
