To apply any source of nitrogen at the proper rate involves knowing the percentage of nitrogen (as it appears you are aware) and the amount of nitrogen recommended per feeding. Typically 1 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft. is recommended per feeding on lawns. If a product is listed as 10-0-0 that means 10% of it's weight is nitrogen. So, one pound per 1,000 sq. ft would be 10 lbs of the material scattered over 1,000 sq. ft. With that in mind here are some common organic sources of nitrogen: blood meal Hideously expensive source of nitrogen. Around 12% nitrogen by weight making it very attractive, but way over priced per unit of nitrogen. Typical analysis 12-0-0 Poultry manure If you have access to a free source of this it is the organic nitrogen source to have, but it isn't only nitrogen making it easy to overload the soil with other nutrients when used exclusively for a lawn fert. Typical analysis 3-4-3. soybean meal almost impossible to score for free, but great stuff. Typical analysis 6-1.5-2. Ideal ratio for lawns. Try to find at feed stores and the like in bulk. fish products If you are a commercial fisherperson or know someone who is, this is great, otherwise terribly expensive. Typical analysis 9-7-0. Should be enough to make anyone stop tossing fish leftovers into the trash. alfalfa meal Can be found overpriced as rabbit food at pet stores or in bulk at farm/grain stores more reasonably. Typical analysis 3-.5-3. corn gluten This is not to be confused with cracked corn or ground corn. Gluten is an isolated portion of the kernel and is not available everywhere. Where it is available prices vary dramatically depending on how it is packaged. Typical analysis 9-0-0 Brewers grains Certainly not easy to come by for everyone, but if you are buddies with a person running a microbrew, then big score time. Typical analysis of 'spent' grains 1-.5-0 cottonseed meal Not available in my neck of the woods, but for those who can get it inexpensively the typical analysis is 6-1.5-2.5. The waste from cotton mills is typically 1.3-.4-.4 so much lower, but around the same levels. egg shells Typical analysis 1.4-.4-.2 Pretty much impossible to find commercially, but should be reason enough to not send them to a landfill. Very high in calcium, a minor plant nutrient as well. feathers Doesn't much matter what creature the feathers come from. Typical analysis 15-0-0 making them a super source of nitrogen. Good luck finding them in bulk, but yet another source that shouldn't be sent to the landfill if you have them. hair, human or otherwise 12-0-0. Breaks down very slowly, but a rich source of nitrogen. Again, good luck finding it commerically, but if you are friendly with a barbershop and don't mind running it through a blender to make it break down faster and not blow away, a terrific source of N. If you are a parent cutting your kid's hair at home, you know what to do ;-) Now let's discuss manures. Typically manures are available in two forms. Fresh and composted. Here it is really, really important to remember one all encompassing, unavoidable fact. Composted anything is very low in nutrients. They get used up/leeched out in the composting process. Compost is great, just not as fertilizer for the big 3 N-P-K. Composted manure regardless of whether it comes from horse, cow, pig, chicken, sheep or something else has a typical analysis of 1-1-1. Not coincidentally compost made from all plant ingredients has a typical analysis of 1-1-1 as well. Also not surprisingly the pH of compost is nearly always neutral regardless of what went into the compost. In other words, compost is compost is compost regardless of what ingredients went into it. Please keep this in mind or you will get ripped off. Now, lets take a look at some controversial sources of nitrogen you are almost certainly producing in quantity and throwing away. WARNING, the following is not for the faint of heart. Dog and human manure are rich in nutrients. They also carry the potential for disease causing organisms. Nevertheless if you have a dog you might want to consider smashing the poop with a shovel to spread it out and speed decomposition rather than sending it to a land fill. It is terrific fertilizer and the round worms, if present in the poop, are already in your soil so don't give it another thought. urine Golly gee wizz (pun intended) if there is a higher nitrogen source than urine I don't know what it is. According to some sources urine is 45% nitrogen. Think about that. 45-?-?. That is a super high nitrogen source. So high that dogs peeing in the same spot can fert/salt burn the turf. Imagine how great it could be if highly dilluted and used over the entire lawn as a nitrogen fert. Well, imagine no longer. For those willing to stomach it, you can quite literally fertilize your entire lawn at no cost. Buy one of those containers you attach to your hose to fertilize with and fill it with urine, your own or from whatever source. Water the lawn. All done. ;-) Gross? I guess. Highly efficient and cost effective? You bet. Quite literally humans flush away one of the best sources of clean nitrogen available to us several times per day. I understand it is kind of gross, but think about it.

"Instead of calling people down you could have just said compost does meet the requirements I need" --Why the heck would I say that? Are you daft? That's exactly the opposite of what I've been saying, that it WON'T meet my requirements for a fertilizer as the NPK values are too low. "Comparing rice to being a protein would be like comparing compost to being nitrogen since it has, arguably in amounts, nitrogen in it. This analogy is just wrong. " Are you stupid? I am not saying that rice IS a protein. I was saying that calling compost a fertilizer due to it having minimal amounts of NPK would be akin to calling rice a protein since it has a tiny bit of protein. Get it now? I was using that to point out that even though compost has a minute amount of NPK, that I wouldn't call it a fertilizer just cause NPK is present, as it does not have enough NPK to really fill the role as a fertilizer in a lawn program. It's there to provide microbes that digest the organic protein from the corn meal, SBM etc. *Facepalm

OK Lou, I have an update on my grain hunt. I did a search on Google and found a feed store that stocked SBM this morning. In fact, I bought 50 lbs today for $14.23 locally. I also bought molasses (Grandma's) at Wal-mart, so tomorrow I'll apply the molasses to the entire lawn. I don't have an Ortho dial sprayer so I'll mix 2 ozs per gallon and treat 1000 sq ft, use a basic pump hand sprayer and hope for the best. None of the feed stores that I spoke with stocked CM, so I'll continue to buy the Quaker Oats brand at the local store until I find an alternative. I took a close look at the blades of grass that has the yellowing and noticed that the grass blade was green (give or take a few) except for the tips. I also noticed that the majority of the new growth if not all inspected was green. This was very encouraging since I started to wonder if the initial alfalfa treatment was contributing to the discoloring. I must admit that I'm a little lost since I've applied alfalfa, 10 lbs per 1000, CGM 10 lbs per 1000, and CM approximately 4 lbs to the problem area 150 sq give or take 50. I think I'm going to hold off on applying anymore grain until I see significant improvement on the damaged area. skoot_cat, I repositioned the sprinklers so that each one (there are 3) is shooting into the lawn. The configuration that I was using originally had 2 shooting into the lawn overlapping the one that was in the middle covering 360*. I noticed the 360* area is the same area that has the discoloration. The test on the original configuration showed that I get 1 inch of water in 2.5 hours but the center got 1 inch in 1.25 hours. The center was definitely getting over watered. The new configuration has each sprinkler covering a specific area with minimal overlapping and an inch is achieved in 2 - 2.5 hours. I'll see how this works for a while, but the coverage is actually better with minimal wasted water. skoot_cat, you're breaking my heart regarding the CGM. I'll have to drop another $31.00 plus gas. That's $62 bucks and I'm not sure if the results will be worth the money. I haven't read where you guys are truly convinced that CGM is a great pre-emergence. Thanks Biggz :)

I'm also new this year to organic lawn care. I applied CGM in the early spring and was disappointed to see a number of weeds pop up soon after. However, in general, my lawn has been pretty healthy and weed free all summer, despite the terrible drought conditions, so I'll be keeping up with the program! I've read a certain amount of speculation that CGM works less like an anti-emergent but rather builds the health of the lawn so well that weeds can't thrive. Either way, it seems to be working for me.