A compost spreader is a great tool for any lawn. It will keep your yard looking fresh and green all year round by applying the right nutrients to the soil. This blog post will give you some tips on how to choose the best one for your needs!
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Table of Contents
Compost Spreader For Lawn – Comparison Table
What is a compost spreader for the lawn?
A compost spreader is a tool that lets you apply the right amount of fertilizer to your lawn. It’s usually comprised of a hopper filled with organic material like manure, leaves, and grass clippings. The bucket then empties over an area at predetermined intervals to produce fertilizing layers or bands in your yard. They’re usually only needed in the spring or fall during active growth periods.
It is usually pulled by a tractor, but it can also be pushed manually.
The most common type of compost spreader has an arm that rotates to release the material in front of wheels or rollers on either side. It typically has forks at the end of this, which are used for tossing and turning over the soil as you go.
How to use a compost spreader?
Typically, the operator will drive or walk along a pre-established pattern to fertilize your lawn. You may also adjust the spreader depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with your fertilizer application.
The arm should be positioned to rotate over and under each wheel/roller (or every third wheel). Material is then released evenly as if the machine were a high-speed version of spreading butter onto toast. The material should not touch any other part of the machinery than these two points for best results. If this occurs, there’s likely too much weight in one area, leading to problems like uneven coverage and damage from dragging equipment across surface areas.
There are some tips you want to keep in mind when using a compost spreader:
- Don’t overload the hopper. You want to load enough material, so it doesn’t needlessly drag across your lawn, but also don’t fill the bucket with too much weight that will cause uneven fertilizer distribution and damage from dragging on hard surfaces.
- The arm should rotate over and under each wheel or roller, not alongside them for even coverage. The material should only be coming in contact with these two points. Otherwise, you are likely applying more than necessary, which can lead to problems like thin application areas and a dragged equipment path around your lawn (against grass).
- Be cautious when walking against slopes such as hillsides, where there is an increased risk of sliding down due to gravity.
How to use a lawn spreader just like a professional but in a way that you can do it as a homeowner. And people need help because when you misuse the lawn spreader, you get things like zebra stripes, burn marks, and none of this is good for the lawn. We give you tips and tricks and a foolproof way to put down fertilizer never to have those problems.
Check the tires’ air pressure.
Some spreaders out there have pneumatic tires, and all that means is that these are the kind of tires that you can add, Aaron, so that does create a problem if you don’t keep an eye on it. What you want to do is make sure that you check these tires’ air pressure. Now the pressure is not really the biggest part. The most important thing to worry about is that both tires match because if they have the same amount of pressure, that means that the spreader will be balanced from right to left, the seems very basic, but if you finish your job only to find out that one of your tires is flat, you’re gonna have big problems.
Our choice is around 15 psi per tire. But that can vary a lot based on manufacturer specifications. For you, put an ounce of anything into your spreader that you take a look at all the mechanical parts, and that includes things like the hopper door; you want to make sure it opens smoothly and properly. And also, if you have a side deflector, you want to make sure it’s working. Because once you put that stuff in the spreader, there’s no going back and dumping it out is an absolute pain of a job, and you don’t want to do it.
Save your time with the pickup track.
This tip will save your back time and potentially spilling a lot of fertilizer on the ground. If you’ve got your fertilizer in the back of a pickup truck or hatchback, pull your spreader right up to the tailgate. This will eliminate you moving the bag one more time, which is going to save your back. But the more important reason to do it this way is by opening the bag while you’re on top of the spreader. You’re going to eliminate the potential of spilling stuff all over the place. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen people lift the bag, and it seems so simple.
Don’t burn your lawn.
So if you don’t want to deal with professional fertilizer, adding some humic acid is a good way to put something down that gives you all the benefits without that extra step. If you’ve ever put down fertilizer and gotten those zebra stripes a couple of weeks later, this is the tip for you. So there’s a trick to making sure that you get perfect results, just like they do that in a way that you can easily do yourself.
When most people fertilize, they’re going to go back and forth in the same type of pattern across their lawn until they’re done. If you don’t get those lines spaced exactly right, you’re going to get overlap, or you’re going to underapply; what we recommend that you do is to make those straight lines. But now go back and do the perpendicular rows as well. So it means that you’re going to be making a type of checkerboard pattern.
So you don’t want to put down twice the recommended amount of fertilizer; you’re going to put down half.
Clean area before composting/fertilizing
Another important professional tip is when you’re all done, and pool patios, walkways, or driveways need to be blown off because you’re going to get some fertilizer on them. So go around with a blower and blast that stuff back onto the lawn. And you don’t have to worry about any excess overload on the product. I’ve never had an issue with this. But you don’t want to leave those pellets in those spaces because people can walk on them, or potentially cuts could eat them.
Keep compost spreader clean.
A lot of people complain about how their lawn looks, and they find out later that the spreader was to blame, and it’s not that your spreader is a piece of junk; it might be that it’s so dirty and has so much stuff built up that it’s just no longer accurate. Now you can spray your spreader down with your hose like this, and it works okay, but I’ve got a better way and what you do is you’re going to close the door to your spreader and then start filling the hopper up with water.
Now we use a product that we’ve used for our lawn sprayers, and that’s called blazer, and it’s a simple soap, but it’s designed to eat away that kind of material that gets on those surfaces. So we fill it up with a capital of the soap.
We swish it around a little bit, and then it just opened the hopper door, and we rinsed the whole thing clean, and now the spreader looks brand new; the total time to clean this thing at the end of use is about 60 seconds, so there’s really no excuse not to do it. Especially you’ve got a decent spread of what you want to last and remain accurate.
Benefits of using a compost spreader for lawn
- A compost spreader can offer a more even distribution of fertilizer across your lawn. This ensures that all areas are getting the same amount and not just concentrated in certain sections like traditional hand spreading.
- The machine will typically release the material at predetermined intervals, which helps achieve an efficient fertilizing pattern over time without maintaining it yourself manually. It also helps prevent ruts from forming in your lawn when too much weight is put on one area from dragging equipment paths or human foot traffic (which often happens if you have children playing outside).
- You’ll be able to easily and quickly remove any leftovers by emptying the hopper once you’re done applying them. They don’t tend to cling to the material like it does when you apply by hand.
- A compost spreader is typically easier for individuals with arthritis because they don’t have to use a lot of force in holding or spreading the manure, leaves, and grass clippings as would be needed if doing this manually without any mechanical assistance.
- It helps improve soil structure and organic content through aeration that may not occur while applying fertilizer by hand due to density from overworking soils, often leading to compacting, which can inhibit water retention and hinder root growth. This will eventually lead to reduced plant vigor, which could signal more frequent watering needs – something that’s already taxing on homeowners today (especially with drought conditions). Composted materials are usually much coarser than manure or compost, so less work is required once they are applied to your lawn.
- A more organic way of fertilizing your turf will help prevent weeds from getting out of control which can be a big problem for homeowners today who only use chemical-based products (which may not provide adequate nourishment and sometimes causes some plants/grasses even to die off). Organic methods also don’t contain any synthetic chemicals that could harm plant roots, animals, and other living organisms found within the soil. It’s worth mentioning that synthetics have been shown to contaminate surface water through rain runoff as well, going against what we’re trying to accomplish when focusing on sustainability efforts with our environment.
- You’ll often be able to purchase a compost spreader that’s compatible with your lawn size at the time of buying. This helps ensure you get exactly what you need and don’t have to make any adjustments when adding or subtracting land from your property in the future (which can be costly).
- A compost spreader is also safer on sensitive turfs like golf courses where there are many hazards found around greens, tees, and fairways, such as deep sand traps, water hazards, and roughs. It also tends to provide less wear on grass blades than other methods, leading to more frequent mowing needs over time because it doesn’t damage them so often.
- It offers increased aeration for soils due to all the material being mixed up while going through the machine and then applied to your lawn.
- The compost spreaders are typically more cost-effective than hiring a professional, especially if you have an area of land that’s not very large (but still want proper fertilizing).
Disadvantages of using a compost spreader for lawn
A compost spreader is one of the best ways to fertilize your lawn. But it’s not a perfect tool, and there are some disadvantages that you need to be aware of before you start using it on your turf. These include:
- It can only work with certain types of grass, such as bluegrass or fescue. If you have any other type then this will not work for them. This means that if anything else were planted in your yard, it probably wouldn’t help much since they’ll most likely grow slower than those two breeds mentioned above.
- The fertilizer cannot penetrate deep into the ground, limiting how long its effects last (usually about three months).
- A lot depends on when exactly during the year you use your compost spreader. If you do it in the driest parts of summer (during July and August), then there is a chance that not enough water will be present for the fertilizer to dissolve and work well on your lawn.
The bottom line is, if you want to give yourself an edge over other yards, especially those who don’t fertilize their grass at all, then this tool can help but only with certain types of grasses under specific conditions.
Tips on how to choose the best one
If you want to choose the best compost spreader for your lawn, then there are a few things that you need to remember.
First, it’s not always necessary to get an expensive one. Though more expensive ones tend to have better features and attachments like side-discharging or bagging kits, these might be useless if they’re not what you really need to keep your yard healthy.
- For instance, though cheaper models may come with just three or four options when it comes time for spreading fertilizer on your lawn (granules only) if all of them work well for this task, then why spend the extra money? You can even save up by using less fertilizer every year instead, so that way, any savings from buying a lower quality model will soon be paid off.
- Secondly, don’t forget to consider what type of lawn you have when choosing a compost spreader for your grass. For example, if it’s on the thin side, then a rotary or spinner will not do much good cause they’ll only fertilize about an inch deep, which means that whatever happens beyond this point won’t get touched by them. A broadcast model is better since these cover more ground and might even reach places where water can penetrate deeper than usual (which will, in turn, make the fertilizer work faster).
- Thirdly: always read reviews before buying! You want one that matches your requirements, so reading what other people say first could save you from wasting time looking at many products you don’t need.
Which are the best brands and models based on research and reviews?
When you’re looking for a compost spreader, there are a few brands to keep in mind. These include:
- Landzie
- Husky Farm Equipment Limited
- Cub Cadet
- Gardena (this brand is only available in Europe)
- Suncast
- Agri-Fab (This company also manufactures lawn vacuum and aeration tools, which may be of interest depending on your needs).
It’s good to know that many people seem to prefer Husky models since they have been around for years and the quality has never gone down. But if budget is more important than name recognition, then go with Landzie or Agri-Fab instead. They might not last as long, but their prices will often be lower.
Landzie Lawn & Garden Spreaders
This is a perfect tool for fertilizing your own lawn. This 24-Inch Metal Mesh Basket Compost Spreader does the work of spreading fertilizer evenly and effectively without being messy or time-consuming.
With this compost spreader, you’ll be able to weed on the tidy surface of your yard that our spinner creates through careful shaping of topsoil with its spaces built in for proper aeration and drainage systems.
The easy-grip, lightweight design means there’s never any need to break a sweat when it comes to fertilizing your own fields at home!
Makes Easy Work
- The drum meters compost well so that you can easily achieve an even application throughout the lawn without too much effort.
- Please keep it clean by spraying off the drum with some water periodically before applying fresh compost again.
- Make this outdoor chore super easy on yourself by stacking those larger tools up high inside to make sure they all fit through the door again next time you need them!
Seymour 85755 Compost Spreader, 24″ x 18″
Seymour is the king of composting, and when they designed this product, they had one goal in mind: to make your life easier. To do that, Seymour went back to the drawing board and created a 24″ x 18″ composter spreader made entirely with metal – no wood or plastic here!
The front-facing loader makes for easy loading of compost into these barrel-style rollers. And you’ll be sure to appreciate how evenly moistures spreads due to its ½ – ¾ inch diamond grids. This tool is perfect for high-quality yard care at home or on any commercial property; it can easily handle thicker piles of material by reducing moisture content before use.
But don’t take our word for it; check this item!
Agri-Fab 45-0543 100 lb. Tow Spiker/Seeder/Spreader, Black
The Agri-Fab Spiker/Seeder makes it easy to plant your lawn in the spring or summer with its soothing green color. The spinning spikes on one side of the machine help distribute grass seed and fertilizer evenly.
On the other side of this useful tool, you’ll find a mechanical push seeder that helps make holes for young plants before pushing them into place – saving your back from a lot of bending over!
In Conclusion
You don’t want to underestimate the power of a lawn spreader. Now it’s not an exciting tool but what it does for your lawn is because it will make your lawn look great if you use it right.
