Sunday Fertilizer Lawn Nitrogen Burning - Large Yard Beta Test Update

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the details of how I was participating in the Get Sunday Large Yard Beta Test for fertilizer.  They shipped me a couple of bags of granular product and a large hopper Chapin broadcast spreader.  In that post, I disclosed that I wasn't thrilled with the Chapin spreader - and put down too much of the product in the location I was loading.  From that post:

I ended up spreading a little bit too much in one spot. The spreader had a little malfunction (operator error??) so when I was filling it the first time, I ended up dropping A LOT of the product in one place. This Sunday GrowGreen product isn't billed as 'non-burning', so I'm assuming that I'm going to get a big burn spot. I did my best to get as much of the product out of the one spot - first by hand. Then with my blower. Then I watered the heck out of the area to try to saturate the turf with water in a hope that watering it down would do something? We'll see what happens with the lawn burning in the coming weeks.

Sure enough.... I experienced some lawn/turf burnout from the treatment.  See the photo at the top.  This is operator error.  Any non-burning nitrogen fertilizer is going to burn if you put down too much.  That's what happened here. 

As I mentioned in the initial post - and to be very clear - there was no "non-burning" messaging on the packaging or as part of the trial, so my expectation based on past experience was that this stuff would burn if put down in a big spot. 

And it did. 

Not the products fault.  This was my fault for putting down too much in one spot.  Also, lesson learned....on YouTube, someone recommended that instead of BLOWING the excess fertilizer, use a shop vac to pull it out of the lawn.  Next time! 

Also, one other note worth sharing:  even Milorganite - which bills itself as non-burning, can burn.  I made a similar mistake while loading earlier this year.  And I burned a spot out in the back, too!