Really? No soybean meal in Illinois? Considering they are that state's second largest agricultural crop, I find that hard to understand. Have you tried looking at feed stores or agricultural supply places?

Any other seed or grain meal could work...alfalfa, cottonseed, canola, flax, etc. Or you could try Milorganite, which is a very popular and effective product for this purpose.

Illinois is kind of a big state. What's your closest town?

For the heaviest hit in terms of nitrogen, soybean will be the best and probably the most cost-effective at about 15 pounds per thousand square feet. Cottonseed meal would go down at the same, but is probably not as easily sourced in IL.

Most other items would have to go more heavily to supply the amount of protein required to adequately feed the lawn, or shouldn't go that heavily for one reason or another (alfalfa simply shouldn't go down that heavily as, paradoxically, it can end up doing damage as it decays in large amounts).

For your final feeding when growth stops, you should still use a synthetic. It's too late for organics to work.

The only criticism I have regarding MC is that it does not feed the lawn significantly. It's absolutely amazing as a soil conditioner and worms adore it. But its nitrogen rating is fairly low and the overall NPK is around 1:1:1.

Application of compost, as a general rule, is a fantastic idea anywhere. No usable organic leaves my property; it goes through my compost bin and, usually, the roses or Cleveland pear or lilacs eat it. :-) Some gets diverted to where the dahlia grow year after year to regenerate that bed, too.

The NPK is a number based on weight. So while it's not rated at 20 - 10- 20. Most people put more down in weight than they would scattering dry fertilizer.

I use either mushroom or horse manure in my garden to grow tomatoes and corn and nothing else. I did try bone meal last year. I can grow 9 foot tall IOchief corn and have accidently grown 14 foot tall tomato plants. There's enough nitrogen for that and as I said it's amazing what it will do for evergreen trees in decline.

And on top of that it grows wonderful mushrooms.

The point being, the weight for lawn area. While not directly comparable, 15 pounds of soy per thousand yields a rough equivalent of 1 pound nitrogen equivalency. One would require around 100 pounds of MC per thousand square feet to do the equivalent.

For lawns of small size, that can be done easily. V1rt didn't tell us if he has a 100 square foot postage stamp lawn or, like me, 10,000 square feet. The latter would be...problematic...to feed with MC four times yearly. The former, not too bad.

There's a reason we usually stick to higher NPK equivalencies for higher square foot areas.

Composts are wonderful things, but are not potent plant foods.

I would put more mushroom compost than 100 pounds per 1000 square feet. And I would google "soybean meal Myhome town IL" as I suggested above.

With the inch of MC that lawn will look wonderful in the fall of next year.

Aside from mushroom compost, what other compost is ideal?

If you want to go that route, any compost is technically fine (although really, mushroom compost would be the one I'd recommend). App at rates such that you don't cover the crowns of the lawn (a quarter inch at a time, although it's fluffy enough that half an inch to a loose inch will certainly settle down more than enough to not be an issue), and let it work itself in before adding more.

Personally, I think you're going to be disappointed due to the slow rate of nitrogen release compared to the demanding nitrogen state of lawns compared to many other plants; lawns really want 2-4 pounds of free N (species/cultivar dependent) per year without fail. But it's worth a shot and it's not like it's going to kill anything, hopefully.

I'm not sure what the poundage translation is, but your local supplier should be able to tell you that for your lawn size.

I saw mushroom compost in 40 lbs bags at Home Depot. I can put 3 bags per 1000 sqft. That's about $12+ in total. Front lawn is close to 3000 sqft. I'll need 9 bags.

> Personally, I think you're going to be disappointed due to the slow rate of nitrogen release compared ...

What fertilizer would you recommend?

You seem to have made up your mind. Give it a whirl and see how it goes.

I think you should wait to see the results from the MC application.

If you’re close to Arlington Hts. Animal Feeds & Needs can order just about anything for you. They are doing some deliveries now too. Good luck!

Here's a sampling of places to buy soybean meal in IL. If you had answered morph's question from a couple days ago, I could have given you some closer choices. You can likely find corn gluten meal at good prices, too. Both go on at 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet. They are a lot easier to apply than compost, too - especially if you are using compost on the lawn. The application rate for compost on a lawn is 700.00 POUNDS per 1,000 square feet, not 120 pounds. That's 17 and a half bags per 1,000 square feet. And that's why we recommend organic fertilizer rather than compost.