Anyone here treat weeds or fertilize on a multi-acre property?

[Brian Elfert]

I bought a house with three acre lot last fall. I have about two acres of grass. Do any of you with this much grass actually fertilize or treat for weeds? Just the initial fertilizing with crabgrass preventer would cost me about $250, not to mention the time to apply it all. I can get a spreader to tow behind my riding mower for $30 to $70.

I thought about the need for a riding mower and the time to cut the grass when I bought a multi-acre lot, but I never thought about the extra cost for weed control and fertilizer.

[Pat Barry]

I would not do the entire acreage for sure. I think possibly the front lawn but that would be it.

[Larry Frank]

I have two acres and fertilize the front yard and where we spend time. Areas that are looking bad will get some also. I look for the best sales and avoid the more expensive. A lot of times you can buy broken bags cheaply and you can make them an offer.

Parts of the yard get crab grass prevented and insect stuff to discourage moles.

I water the same way and pick the areas. Even with a well, it is expensive to water.

A lot of effort to have acres but I love it and not having a neighbor 20 feet away.

[Jim Andrew]

If you have a farmer close by, he would probably agree to fertilize, and cut and bale the grass. Those of us with animals need all the feed we can get. Don't be expect to be paid a lot for rent. If it were a large tract it would be worth paying for, but 2 acres is hardly worth the cost of moving equipment around.

[Clarence Martin]

Neighbor has 7 Acres. Other than the House, garage, shed, driveway and several trees and shrubs , the rest is all lawn. Mows it every week. Told me he spends $20.00 each week for gas for the lawn tractor. Got a pull behind broadcast spreader he uses to fertilize and weed kill the yard each year. This is the 3rd lawn tractor he has gone through in the past 20 years. It's a John Deere , so this one may last a while.

[Brian Henderson]

I've got 10 acres but as others have said, the only parts that are grassed are the ones that get used close to the house. The rest is all orange groves and is rented out to a commercial outfit that maintains the trees and pays me for the land.

[Tom M King]

Check with farm supply stores for materials. We lime, fertilize, and spray several times that much grass, and it doesn't cost that much. I think it costs me about 8 dollars an acre to spray the pastures for weeds, and it's the same chemical used on lawns. We use the same stuff on the lawns as we do the pastures. The difference is I buy enough to mix with 100 gallons at the time rather than a few. Fertilizer prices have gone up over the years, but it's still not that bad.

[Andrew Joiner]

I'd get one of these:https://www.prairiemoon.com/tool-shed/native-prairie-plants-sign.html

[Wayne Lovell]

Deere is real proud of green paint.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Knowing where the lawn stops and the pasture starts is a bit of a challenge for some, me included. I've tried to take care of about 5 acres of lawn, and that is all you do all summer. Each place I've lived at, the ratio of yard to pasture decreases. The place I just moved to this winter is going to be all pasture. Just spray the weeds once, mow once with a bushhog, and enjoy the spare time.

[Brian Elfert]

I already have 3/4 acre that the bank let go to tall grass when they owned it before I bought the house. I have no plans to cut the grass over there right now.

I really wish I had a 62" mower instead instead of a 48". I just don't want to spend the money for another unit for a few years.

[Jim Andrew]

I have a 3 acre lot, and the state has a large right of way in front they bought about 45 years ago to replace the highway, but have not. So I figure it is about 4 1/2 acres. I would bale the extra area outside of the yard but my wife insists on mowing it. A few years ago I bought her the biggest Xmark zero turn mower they build, has a 72" mower deck.

[Scott T Smith]

Check with farm supply stores for materials. We lime, fertilize, and spray several times that much grass, and it doesn't cost that much. I think it costs me about 8 dollars an acre to spray the pastures for weeds, and it's the same chemical used on lawns. We use the same stuff on the lawns as we do the pastures. The difference is I buy enough to mix with 100 gallons at the time rather than a few. Fertilizer prices have gone up over the years, but it's still not that bad.


What Tom said. I have quite a few acres in hay and it your best bet is to purchase fertilizer and weed control agents at a farm supply store - not a home center. Typically I will use a 2-4-D mix for weed control, and do soil tests to learn the appropriate fertilizer mix to use.

[Matt Meiser]

I didn't use to at our old house. Way to expensive. The expanse of a large yard hides a lot of what looks bad in a small yard from my experience. When I got my ZTR and was getting a great cut with even distribution of clippings our yard looked great. Sure if you were standing on it and looked down there'd be weeds but the scale of things would hide them.

[Chris Padilla]

Goats eat anything and everything. :)

[Jim Andrew]

Was just talking to a neighbor today, he has 50 nanny goats, and a few cows. He got the goats to eat the weeds, and avoid spraying. Cattle eat the grass. Said he never dreamed goats could be so much work.

[Alan Rutherford]

We have 2 acres in Florida and fertilize nothing and spray nothing. We stick cut ends of poison ivy and vines into Roundup concentrate (carefully) and feed the fire ants with Amdro around each mound.

A couple of things to keep in mind: All that stuff that's supposed to biodegrade on the grass lives forever if it's tracked indoors. If you have carpets, that's where it ends up. Kids and pets spend a lot of time close to the carpet.

The World Health Organization just declared Roundup to be a PROBABLE carcinogen.