On a trip to our local co op feed store I see that they carry dried distillers grains, by product of ethanol production I am guessing. The clerk said it was used as ingredient in cattle feed, but didn't have much other info about it. Google says it has similar npk ratios as soybean or corn meal. Would it be usable as a fertilizer?

Hmmm. Maybe you should send a few bags down to me for testing

Yes, they would be great for fertilizing. If they have any remaining yeast on them, so much the better.

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David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum

I trade you a couple of bags worth for some Texas weather in January and February!
It turns out that they have it listed but "unavailable", it seems it is valuable to some one as they have bought all available quantities. I will be trying Scott's Organic Lawn Food, soybean meal, Milorganite, Dried Molasses, and alfalfa meal in the order of listing starting in May and at one month intervals thereafter at around 10#/1000 square foot or less, I plan on one bag of each item at weight ranging from 36# of Milorganite and Scott's Organic to 50# of the seed meals and molasses. To clarify, 1 bag Scott's in May, 1 bag soybean meal in June, and so on. I'm in East Central Illinois, with unknown bluegrass, fescue mix irrigated lawn that's been strictly chemically fertilized until now. Does this sound appropriate? Any suggestions appreciated!
Mark

If it says "Scott's" I wouldn't trust it to be truly organic. I'd put that at the bottom of the list - there are so many other legitimately organic products out there. The rest of the choices you list will work just fine.

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Northwesterner

I have also heard some questionable things about Scott's Organic, but I could replace it with cottonseed meal that is also available locally.
On a similar tangent, would it be advisable/practical/beneficial to premix the cottonseed meal, soybean meal, Milorganite dried Molasses, and alfalfa meal and dropping the mixture at a rate of 10#/1000 square feet once a month instead of the separate components? Any comments welcome!
Mark

With organics you're pretty much open to do it how you want. Mixing them and applying at once versus staging each product over time would probably be fine. But every month sounds too often for some places. The vegetable garden can use more fertilizer than other zones. Dschall will probably come along again one of these days and answer that according to frequency and amount. That number of products may be overkill, you might still get a very good effect with less meal in the mix.

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Northwesterner

Any way you want to apply is good. One of the gurus on another forum I participate in tried to overdose his lawn and he couldn't. That was not really what he was trying to do but he applied 50 pounds per 1,000 of Milorganite and soybean meal, every weekend, all summer long. Nothing but good things happened.

Regarding mixing them: go for it. I don't have anything to back it up but we get different vitamins, minerals, protein, and carbs from different foods. I would extend that idea to the soil microbes and suggest it would be a good idea.

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David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum

Our local farm and home supply store has about 20-30 different feed mixes for horses, cattle, rabbits, goats, chickens etc. They all look to be potential candidates as they contain corn, soybean, alfalfa, oat, dried distillers grains, molasses. I am thinking to try one of them to eliminate having to buy so much to mix up to start. I will shoot for the highest protein, lowest salt, lowest price feed that will work in my broadcast spreader. I am trying to keep monthly cost to $20/month. I have 5000 square feet that I would like to drop 10#/k a month of product from May through November. I have also been researching online for catfish food but can only find the nutrition analysis but not the actual ingredients. Anyone have much luck with either of these approaches?

I just put 50# of Nutrena Vitality Mare And Foal on 5k of KBG/fescue thru a Scott's Basic broadcast spreader. the 1/8" extruded pellets flowed fine but at wide open settings. I adjusted my walking speed and flow setting as I went along to facilitate 2 trips across lawn at 90 degree angles to ensure even coverage. I'll report back in a month with results, good or bad. I would include the ingredient label, but it is too messed up to scan or photograph. Below are the ingredients in order of listing. Any comments welcomed!

Dehydrated Alfalfa meal
dehulled soybean meal
wheat/wheat red dog
ground corn
corn distillers dried grain solubles
cane molasses
soybean oil
yeast culture
lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product
lactobacillus casei fermentation product
vitamins A,D3,E,B12 supplements
Riboflavin
Biotin
Folic acid
Thiamine mononitrate
Calcium carbonate
Salt
Zinc sulfate
Copper Sulfate
Manganous Oxide
Manganese Sulfate
Ferrous Sulfate
Ferrous Carbonate
Copper Chloride
Zinc Ethylene Dihydoiodide
Calcium Iodate
Cobalt Carbide
Sodium Selenite
Natural and Artificial Flavoring
Propional