finally.. a box to type in ....

first.. i would contact your county Ag or extension office.. and have a soil test done .... this is the primary place to start with figuring out if in fact.. your soil needs anything ... moss can be an indication of a nutrient poor soil ...

and if your soil is that depleted.. a little foliar fert isnt going to do much ...

next.. i went thru exactly what you are thinking about with a cheap sprayer ... bottom line ... the applicator you have is devoid of any science ... and there is no way to predict the amounts fed out ... to get a machine with that precision ... you would be shopping the the horticultural trade vendors.. and probably spending hundreds.. if not thousands for a precision applicator ...

so then you would be down to trying to use a search engine ... and find out how much to put in your gizmo ... and just winging it... with the primary focus on ... you can always repeat a light application in a month .. but you will be hard pressed to revive a plant you burned the heck out of with to strong an amount ...

i am not one to think that fert is a remedy for much of anything .... in fact.. i gave up using it long ago ...

which leads me to wonder about your project .. and what other variables are a problem ... and how you might fix them .... the following variables come to mind:

1) if grass was hard to grow ... how much sun is available .... many thing will grow in shade ... but i might be hard to get things established and thriving in low sun .... not enough light .. to grow the roots they need to thrive...

2) if grass wont grow.. are the trees sucking away all available water and some of the plants are suffering or failing.. are you watering individual plants.. causing the tree roots to invade the planting hole ... rather than broadcasting water ...

3) and finally ... if you pant a hundred plants.. it isnt surprising to lose some ... its simply the odds ...

fert will not fix any of those variables ...

all that said.. you dont mention what kind of ivy .... but many of them root rather easily ... and you might be able to root some sprigs from the better plants... and have some to plant in fall .... fill in the holes ...

good luck

ken

I think the moss thrives in moist shade whereas the ivy tolerates drier soil and much more sun. The ivy is fine without added fertilize.

Suggest you re-think what kind of groundcover you use in the woods. Ivy isn't it!

There are a great many groundcovers suitable for shade, but highly aggressive English ivy isn't one of them. I doubt you want to do the constant maintenance to control it that it requires--just one example, you do NOT want it to start climbing your trees.

In the end, I decided to apply a granular fertilizer. Our ivy is not that aggressive, and looks great.