How did you use it? It would be very unusual for fertilizer to kill plants unless you had put it on the leaves. It is supposed to be worked into the soil, and the label warns to wash off leaves. Like other granular fertilizers, it is supposed to be activated by water so I don't understand the "crumbled by rain" comment.

Are you sure you used the correct application rate? Plants either need or don't need to be fertilized according to what the existing nutrient situation is. Always not fertilizing is no more automatically valid than always fertilizing (fertilizing without knowing which, if any nutrients may be deficient). Plants do not adapt. They come with predetermined parameters. If you provide the exposure, moisture, nutrients and other site conditions that fall within their tolerance ranges then they will grow.

Tim, what's notable to me here, is that the plants the fertilizer killed were all variegated, in the case of the first two, and an Alba, or white version of the third. Variegated plants, and, sometimes, Albas, are usually lest robust than their higher chlorophyll content kin. That's why they are more expensive; takes longer to propagate them due to their slower ways. Did every plant you used the fertilizer on suffer badly? Do bring up with Bayer this issue again, but specifically mentioning what I've told you about variegated plants. I'd phrase it as a specific question thus, and ask them to please pass it to one of their horticulture experts, more as a question than a complaint. Their formula may just be too high octane for the slower variegated plants. I'm very curious about this, and will ask horti folks I know if they have an answer. Thanks for the Heads Up.

not so sure why u are worried about annuals in ur prairie. unless they are out-of-control thick, ur prairie will beat them hands down in a few years. another little factor to think about. u have prairie and non-prairie side by side now. eventually ur prairie should win given proper management techniques. but in the mean time, (mean time being maybe 10 years til ur prairie really starts to mature) u have ur non-natives doing their thing. and here is the beauty of annuals. they are weak in persistance and strong in soil disturbance, ur prairie is strong in persistance and weak in soil disturbance. remember, u just had a very LARGE disturbance, ie u chem'ed, rototilled, thru on newspaper, whatever one did to kill present veg is a major disturbance. the land is just trying to fix itself the best way it knows how. and that best way is to fill it with any veg that it can find and annuals are top on the list, winter annuals being first on that list. so here u are with ur nice little prairie full of very young natives and all the weeds in the world to select from, because of the recent disturbance and seed bank, wind, etc. what are u gonna choose, weak little annuals that are 14" tall, winter cover annuals at that. OR are u gonna pick some even worse stuff like canary reed or burdock or ... now lets put the picture together. u disturbed the area and killed most of what was there perennial wise. u put on seeds that take a few years. ur soil is fully exposed and SOMETHING must grow there, OR the wind, seedbank, animals, etc will bring in the nasty long lived perennials that u should really be afraid of. so in essence, ur weakling annuals are acting as a cover crop, to protect ur planting. in the long run, they easily help more than hurt. one last comment. lets pretend that u wanna pull every last annual or perennial weed. seems to me that ur ALSO doing 2 things. 1 ur not replacing that area with good seeds. and because of seed bank and wind and animals, only something u dont want is prolly gonna show up. u could change this with adding seeds everytime u pull. jeeze, that seems like not only a folly waste of $$$ but if u did it the first time correctly, adding extra seeds might actually add too much of a good thing. 2 ur moving the soil line. ur acting as a constant disturbance to ur baby prairie. these little plants are trying to grow roots and here u are; rooting around, steppin on em, packing down disturbed soil, giving a place for an animal to break soil line, etc... i say; kill it, set it, forget it and manage it like a prairie. if u do all those thing correctly, u will prolly be much better off than trying to micromanage mother nature. froggy