I never put more in the hopper than I plan to use. If I'm applying fertilizer, I calculate the amount I need to get 1 lb N per 1000 sq ft, and pour that much in. I open the hooper about half the recommended amount and go over the lawn twice in different directions. If there's still some left, it means I walked too fast. I keep walking until it's gone. This may result in part of the lawn getting a little more than 1 lb/1ksqft, but if so, it's only a little more, and most of the lawn has a pretty even application. If I have it open wide, the area that gets extra gets too much extra.

By the same token, if I run out early, part of the lawn got a little extra, but all of the lawn got at least half as much as it should. If I try to do it all in one time around and run out, part of the lawn gets nothing.

When the hopper is empty, any big chunks can get pulverized (manually if necessary) and there's no spill area.

It's not a question of how much fertilizer I'm putting in the hopper. The door is being jammed open by slightly larger granules of fertilizer that can't get through. It can happen right in the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the fertilizing.

I forgot to mention that I don't measure how much I'm putting in the hopper. I just dump in an amount that I think I'm going to need. I'm only concerned with the setting on the hopper. I figure if I have some left over, if it's a very large amount, I'll just dump it back in the bag, and if it's a smaller amount, I'll walk around until it's gone. If I run out, I go and get some more. Of course if the door is stuck open, it's still a nuisance if I'm in the middle of walking around and have to stop for a second and it's still pouring out.

Yeah, I had that happen to me on Sunday spreading lime. The only thing you can do is swirl through the material making sure you've reduced the larger chunks to smaller ones before you start and as you pour in the material...or stick you hand/stick in there an free the the hopper chute or dump out the material until you can see the obsruction then take care of it. That's about all I can think of. :)

jimtnc - Thanks, I'll have to do that. I may be looking at another spreader next year anyway, one that's easier for me to walk with and is possibly designed a bit better so this doesn't happen.

bpgreen - Yes it's only really a problem if I still have some left over when I'm done, but I can sort that out. I don't quite see how by going by the suggested spreader setting is a bad thing. After all isn't that what most of us do? Or are you just talking about doing the math so you know how much to fill the hopper with? If that's the case, I could see it being an issue if I was walking around until the extra was gone, but I'm not. Once I've made all my passes, I'm done whether I have extra or not so I'm not over applying. Any extra goes back in the bag.

I've had this problem with my EdgeGuard spreader as well. It really doesn't matter what material you are spreading, whether the granules are consistent, random, clumped or not. Sometimes a clump will jam the door but more often than not I have the door just not want to shut. I believe it is due to dust/residue getting in the mechanism and between that and the material being in the way, the door just doesn't want to close.

The only thing I've found to do is be proactive about making sure that door closes when putting down 'hot' material. If it's organic, I really don't care. If it's Scotts, when I let go of the handle, I reach down under the backside of the door and slam that trapdoor shut.

I've also wondering if a different/better spreader would fix this problem. But of all the things I'd like to spend money on, this is not one of them. A small issue IMO.

Rob

Yes, I'm talking about figuring out how much I need to use and using that much.

If you use the spreader setting to determine how much to apply, any number of things can cause you to apply too much or too little. If you walk faster than the manufacturer expected, or there are clumps blocking the outlets, or the fertilizer is a little larger than anticipated, you apply too little. If the fertilizer is finer than expected or you walk more slowly than the manufacturer intended, you apply too much.

There's no way to tell how much fertilizer you're spreading by using the spreader settings. I don't know if that's what most of us do or not. If it is, most of us should consider changing how we're determining how much fertilizer to apply. It's not the way I do it.

The only way to know that you're applying the proper amount is to calculate how much you need and apply that much. To determine how much you need, simply divide the number of square feet in your lawn by the the first number on the bag, then divide the result by 10. For example, if you're using 21-0-0 fertilizer and you have 4000 sq ft of lawn, divide 4000 by 21 to get a little over 190. Divide 190 by 10 to get 19. Since the fertilizer comes in 20 lb bags you can round to 20 and use 1 bag. I wouldn't go too wild with rounding, but that extra pound isn't too big of a change--it applies 1.05 lbs per 1k sq ft instead of 1 lb.

I've had this problem too with my Scotts 2000 spreader. Like rlembke said, my problem is not caused by granuals getting stuck, it is just the door mechanism getting stuck. I put some spray silicone on it and it helped for a little while, but probably just attracted dust and made it worse. I am going try shooting some graphite in there to see if that helps.

No the door is definitely getting stuck by larger granules. When no larger pieces get in the way, it shuts fine. I know because I had to knock the pieces out from in front of the door so it would shut.

bpgreen - That makes sense with how many pounds to use. I did the math I came up to 41 lbs which seems about right for what I used yesterday. But how do you adjust it so that too much or too little isn't pouring out all at once if you're not going by the setting on the bag? I could need say 30lbs, but if the hopper is open too much I could wind up using it all up before I'm done or if it wasn't open enough, I could possibly have to do a second pass and run out during that.

Also what if the first number on the bag is 0? The weed and feed I put down in August had no nitrogen at all.

I am disabled so I tend to walk a bit slower than what is recommended. So to counter that I usually put the setting a little lower than what was recommended and walk a tighter pattern. A few people have recommended I do this.

Since they probably don't sell 41 lb bags, if I were doing your lawn, I'd round down to 40 lbs. That's easy if it comes in 20 lb bags. If it comes in 25 or 30 lb bags, I wouldn't weigh it as it went in, but I'd try to come as close as I could to guesstimating the right amount.

I've got a store brand spreader that had a conversion chart when I bought it but I lost that a long time ago. I basically just set the spreader fairly low and make multiple passes. If it's coming out faster than I wanted, I set it a little lower. If it's coming out slower, I figure I'll have to make more passes.

I'm not sure what to do when the first number is 0. My soil is naturally high in P and K, so if I use a chemical fertilizer, it's something like 21-0-0 or 46-0-0.

Since you're disabled, you may not want to do my multiple pass approach, since you'd need to walk at least twice as far each time. In that case, I think you're probably doing things about the best way for your circumstances. Unfortunately, if you have some left at the end, you may not want to keep going and over fertilize part of the lawn (less of an issue with the multi pass approach) so we're back to the original problem of the sticking door. Unfortunately, I don't have a good solution to that. The way I solved it for myself was to run all the fertilizer through every time, but that sounds like it may not be an option for you.

I made a mistake, I was thinking of another fertilizer. The one I put down was 32, so I was supposed to use about 31lbs, which I think I got fairly close to out of a 50lb bag. Our scale sucks so I couldn't weigh the bag, but I weight myself first, got 170 (I need to lose weight) and then held the bag at my side in my left hand and got 190. So roughly I used about 30lbs.

I think the only reason I had some left is because I did a section of my back yard and needed to take a break. I can only push with one hand (crutch in my right hand) and I felt like I was going to keel over. I noticed that I had a little left, but not enough to finish the rest of the 90% of the back yard. So when I came back out from break I put a tiny bit more in. I must have put more than I needed and that's why when I finished up I had a bit left over. So that means that I didn't put quite enough in the hopper when I started. Either that or I misjudged and could have finished the back yard before my break without putting more in.

At any rate, I put the setting a bit lower than recommended (the guy at Lesco said about 4 or 5 for my spreader as it's not listed on the bag but the website says 5) and I put it at 3 to counter for my slower and less even pace walking speed. I think I did pretty good overlapping and of course when I was done I stopped even though I had a bit left over.

I'm just concerned about whether or not I put down enough. But I think you know, I think all things considered, I probably shouldn't worry. I used atleast close to the amount suggested and evened things out with the setting in regards to my walking speed and tried to make it as even as possible. I figure too little is better than none at all.

It sounds to me like you came pretty close to applying the amount needed.

The only thing I can think of for the stuck door isn't really a fix, but if you could put some plastic down someplace near the end, you could go there and let it drain on the plastic while you cleaned out the bin so it would close. I wish I had a better solution for you, but that's about the best I can come up with.

Good. I'm glad it sounds like I didn't do a terrible job of fertilizing. I'll practice again when I put down winter fert.

You know, the same thing happened to me last weekend with my Scott's "Standard" spreader (I believe they used to call it Scott's 1000). One of the granules was just large enough to get caught on the way through, then when I released the handle, the granule was wedged in the opening so the slider would not close. Luckily the hopper was nearly empty when I noticed it, so I didn't drop my whole load, but I can see where this could be a problem. Thinking about it later, I think part of the problem is that I was speading at a low rate, so the opening in the speader was adjusted to be not much bigger than the size of the granules. Then a bigger than average grain wedged in the opening. In my case it was because I was using up a leftover half of a bag (not very scientific, I know), but I can imagine this happening frequently if someone applies at half the recommended rate in order to make two passes, or just to adjust your walking speed, as you did.

There are several problems with this spreader but this is the one that can causes the most damage. Some fertilizer pieces actually get stuck together during manufacturing and cannot get through the rectangular dispersion hole in the spreader. This causes the hole to lock in the open position. I had a very significant problem using 12-12-12 fertilizer that had larger granules to begin with. Almost destroyed my beautiful yard. Until I get a new spreader in the spring, I am using slow release fertilizer that has smaller pellets. I also go through every load to check for problem granules. They often look like rocks and can be much larger. I just load some fertilizer, run my gloved hand through the load and turn the granules over. After every run I close the "door" by snapping the handle causing a loud click letting you know the door is closed. This causes a little more work spreading but in my case saves a lot of money and work.