Part of the answer depends upon where you live. The first way to compare
the two is to read the two labels, with special note of the percentage of
soluble nitrogen compared to the amount of slow release nitrogen. Slow
release is better, and soluble nitrogen is much more likely to get into the
ground water and water supply. This may be a much more important
consideration in places like Florida or Louisiana than in Iowa or Colorado.

IMHO Scott's probably does a better job of having fertilizers that are
suited to climatic regions than Ace Hardware, but Scott's is still too much
of a national/regional seller to make a good fertilizer specifically for
Florida. In Florida, LESCO is the preferred brand, made specifically for
Florida's unique situation. In other regions there are probably also local
manufacturers with properly tailored fertilizers.

As someone else has already said, the fertilizer makeup is more important
than the brand name, and you should look at the type of nitrogen and the
presence of minor elements when making a decision. Your local extension
service can give you a recommended formulation. The traditional 6-6-6 or
10-10-10 is probably not right for most lawns. For my area, the preferred
fertilizer is something close to 2X - 0 - X, such as 16-0-8. Regards --

"Robert11" wrote in message
. ..
Hi,

Have always used the Scotts brand of basic lawn fertilizers.

Was wondering, though:

ACE Hardware has their own labeled brands of.
Quite a bit cheaper.

Any thoughts on Ace fertilizer ?

"Good" as Scotts, etc. ?

Any burning type of problems with, if inadvertently used ?

Thanks,
Bob