On 8/13/2008 5:05 PM, Paul O. wrote:
Like the ones you buy at the garden centers at the big box stores. Will just
a regular grass fertilizer work? Thanks.


I have red fescue (Festuca rubra) for my back lawn. My soil tends to be
alkaline and heavy clay (adobe). I feed the lawn once a year (in the
early spring) with a cheap, house-brand lawn food; I choose the lawn
food that has the most nitrogen per dollar. In the fall, just as the
rainy season starts (we all hope it starts this fall), I broadcast
gypsum over the lawn; the rain or my lawn sprinklers will rinse this
into the soil to break up the clay.

To determine nitrogen per dollar, I bring a pocket calculator to the
store. The N-P-K numbers (e.g., 25-15-15) on the sack of fertilizer
indicate the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, the
first number being nitrogen. I take the weight of a sack of fertilizer
and multiply that by the percentage of nitrogen (25% or 0.25 in the
above example); that gives me the pounds of nitrogen. I divide that by
the price of the sack; that gives me the amount of nitrogen per dollar.
Since nitrogen is generally the most defficient of the three nutrients
in my soil, I want the most nitrogen per dollar.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/