[fusebox7]

80-90% of my yard is on some sort of slope. I've had issues with runoff when watering in Urea, for example. Is there a better approach to fertilizing the lawn (eg. foliar feeding)?

I am pretty sure that I'm getting less than optimal fertilization (or none?) when trying to water in granular fertilizer prills on my slopes. Curious if there's a best practice for this situation. Thanks in advance.

 

[ken-n-nancy]

Watering on slopes is challenging. The trick is very slow watering. Do you have irrigation? If so, you should be able to adjust the nozzle sizes in your irrigation heads to provide very slow watering on the slopes. How long does it take to deliver 1" of irrigation to the area on the slope? I would think that a rate of about a quarter-inch per hour (4 hours to deliver 1 inch of water) would work pretty well.

For watering in urea, a quarter-inch of water is generally just about optimal - enough to fully dissolve the prill, but not too much to wash it below the root zone.

If you do not have irrigation, then it will not be common to get the very gentle, steady rain needed to water in granular fertilizer on a slope.

 

[fusebox7]

Irrigation: yes. In retrospect, I wish I had spray heads instead of rotors as the pressure is so high that the water tends to move the fertilizer, seed (whatever) around. I think as you're saying, the key would be to make the size of the water droplets smaller, but I don't think (with my current setup) I'd get the necessary head-to-head coverage if I were to adjust the spray pattern. Less GPM - yes I could do that, but I'd also lose radius - so I would need to add irrigation heads to make those types of adjustments.

 

[g-man]

I would do like the rachio. Split your durations with idle time in between. For example: 10min per zone, wait 10-20min and repeat another 10min per zone.

 

[osuturfman]

Two options I would suggest for applications and product choice:

1.) As you mentioned, melting down urea and/or other macronutrient products (P and K) to spray. The pros are you have unlimited control over your rates and nothing will wash. Con is you have to get your calibration and application technique down pat in order to be accurate.

2.) Contec DG Fertilizer from Andersons. This prill is meant to dissolve completely with as little as 0.05" of water. It really is a unique product in that it is granular but, is highly soluble. The added benefit is that the size of the prill is a lower SGN that a typical fertilizer you would pickup at a big box or turf supply house. This ensures better and more consistent coverage of the product and less chance of washing. One other pro is there are a multitude of analysis choices with high-quality derivatives. The only con here is cost. For one or two bags at time, you can expect to pay $30-50 per 50 lb bag.

Here is a video that illustrates the difference between traditional fertilizer prills and Contec DG prills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMa8IC53YRo

Irrigation modifications would help but, selecting the proper product and application method will deliver more value for your time and money.

 

[fusebox7]

g-man: I do cycle/soak already. The rotors start moving the prills down the slope right away.

osuturfman: Contec DG is the type of product I was looking for. I buy Anderson's Urea 46-0 today so I'll see if I can source this one. The video at the 1:40 mark shows exactly what happens in my situation. There's 4-5 larger areas in my yard that this problem currently exists in so this would be a huge deal if I can resolve it in a reasonable manner. Thanks for the product info.