You're going to get more substantial responses than mine, but the bottom line is it's basically impossible to put down too much Milorganite. If you think your lawn needs more, just put more down, it won't burn the grass.

One of the regulars on this forum applies Milorganite at twice the bag rate about 15 times a year, or about 30 "bag rate" applications per year. He has one of the best lawns you'll see.

I am one of the people that applies it at 2X rate often. It works very well and density and color is great.

{{gwi:115031}}

Dealer's choice. I wouldn't personally bother with half rate twice as often--Milorganite is already a nice, slow release nitrogen source, so you don't have to trickle feed it. The Milo you put down today will still be releasing a very thin trickle of nitrogen in August 2015.

However, if you want to do that, go right ahead. It's absolutely not going to hurt a thing.

Right now, I'm currently in the season where I apply a full rate organic every month (fall is the time for heavy feeding). I wouldn't be at all upset to see you do that with Milorganite, or any other organic. There have been years when I applied full rate twice a month.

It's really hard to overdo the organics. My top year was 1,300 pounds per thousand square feet total (if that were Milorganite, the equivalent of about 90 applications in a single year [it wasn't, I used half a dozen different things--Milorganite was just one of them]). The lawn flourished.

I don't recommend that unless you've already been organic on your soil for at least a year. The bacteria and fungi wouldn't be up to digesting that much material on a newly organic soil.

Keep in mind that 40% of the Nitrogen is fairly fast release (so like 2% of the 5%) - the rest lasts for 4-7wks.

Because of the fast release... I prefer to not do more than every 2weeks, but i'm a low-medium input type guy.

I prefer to limit the flush of growth and don't want a stockpile of slow release waiting....

It only works if grass gets regular watering which is me... I only pay attention to young trees, shrubs, etc but not grass. My bermuda grass can come back from dead but not trees and shrubs. My grass is partly dead looking. Oh well. Bermuda is already the worst grass ever. I miss St Agustine. So much easier to care for.

>>It only works if grass gets regular watering

It'll stop-start as rainfall does or does not reach the soil (the soil state is actually the most important). On the up side, that's pretty much the way you want it to work. Release nitrogen from decay when damp, don't when dry (and when the grass can't use it anyway as it has bigger fish to fry right then, like dormancy and waiting for moisture).

Right now, there's 15 pounds of soybean meal on my lawn waiting for rainfall, which has been scarce the last month or so. It'll be along. Eventually. Maybe.

>>Because of the fast release... I prefer to not do more than every 2weeks, but i'm a low-medium input type guy.

In these instances, I tend to recommend 100% slow release, like any grain, over Milorganite. If you really want to be low input, slow release N, find a source of feather meal. The stuff is achingly slow, but sure does last a long time.

Where do people buy milorganite? I have seen it at lowes and HD but it is like $13 a bag. Considering the size of my lawn I would need 12 bags 4 times per year. That's over $600 per year. Might as well stick with my lawn service for that amount.

>>Where do people buy milorganite? I have seen it at lowes and HD but it is like $13 a bag. Considering the size of my lawn I would need 12 bags 4 times per year. That's over $600 per year. Might as well stick with my lawn service for that amount.

Most of us prefer a lawn richer, thicker, and healthier than a lawn service will do.

Although we should note that I use soybean meal far more than Milorganite on the lawn, and Milorganite far more than soy in the gardens (the soy shows on the mulch, the Milo doesn't, although by July that wouldn't matter very much as the plants cover the entire garden).

Soy runs about $4.50 per application per thousand square feet, a grand total of $45 per application, four apps a year, for $180. I could probably beat that slightly with a lawn service but...I do a much better job than they could.

Adjusted rate Milorganite (1 pound nitrogen per thousand, not bag rate which is 0.72#N/k) would run me $7.75 per app per k-foot, or $310 per year. I could definitely beat that with a lawn service, but...again, my job would look better.

To keep costs lower - I typically use a small amount of value brand fertilzer (forevergreen/menards) mixed in slightly with the milorganite . And even then a little light on the total N.