# Man destroys his lawn with wrong Ferti-lome product. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335 "2012-07-15T19:54:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/1 "2012-07-15T19:54:11Z")
**This** is why I pay several hundred bucks a year to a local lawn care company. They have a scheduled, yearly program similar to Chem Lawns old program. > **[Man destroys his 40,000 square-foot lawn after mistakenly buying weed AND...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2173781/Man-destroys-40-000-square-foot-lawn-mistakenly-buying-weed-AND-grass-killer.html)** > > A once green fingered Minnesota man is ruing not reading the labels on the weed killer he bought after it killed all the grass on his 40,000 square foot lawn. 2 1/2 acres ruined. :eek: I know here my pre-emergient weed killer is applied in the winter (Jan). The guy was just here 2 weeks ago fertilizing. He also spot killed a few weeds. The stuff he uses won’t kill St Augustine grass if its applied only in a few spots. . I decided years ago that home consumers can’t buy the really potent chemicals. Takes a license and I let the pros handle my lawn care. Geez, that Ferti-lome is some good grass killer. 😉 > [@](#): > > Rob Olson says he consulted with three employees of the Dege Garden Center prior to his purchase of several bottles of Ferti-lome brand weed killer. > > Olson says he called the store after his yard began to die only to learn that the product also contained a pre-emergent and post-emergent grass killer that not only killed his lawn, but will prevent it from being reseeded or sodded for up to six months. > > Olson believes the mistake is less the fault of the garden center than the labels used by Ferti-lome. **Video** [http://www.kare11.com/news/article/982592/391/Backyard-fundraiser-canceled-after-lawn-mistakenly-killed](http://www.kare11.com/news/article/982592/391/Backyard-fundraiser-canceled-after-lawn-mistakenly-killed) ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/2 "2012-07-15T20:01:23Z")
Read the label, oops. That is too funny ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/3 "2012-07-15T20:18:29Z")
I love the caption on the third photo in the first link: “At first glance it is easy to see how the mistake was made”… Uh, no, it’s not easy to see that. That photo clearly shows the label says “Weed & Grass Control” right on it. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/4 "2012-07-15T21:15:49Z")
People and their fucking grass. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/5 "2012-07-15T21:30:54Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I love the caption on the third photo in the first link: “At first glance it is easy to see how the mistake was made”… Uh, no, it’s not easy to see that. That photo clearly shows the label says “Weed & Grass Control” right on it. Maybe it needs to say, “KILLS WEEDS AND GRASS!” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/6 "2012-07-15T21:32:49Z")
Here’s what I saw by simply looking at the photo of the label in the OP’s link. Pre-emergent and post-emergent weed and grass control. The first ingredient listed is glyphosate. If you don’t understand what “Grass control” and “post-emergent” mean, and you don’t understand what glyphosate does, then you shouldn’t buy $175 worth of the stuff and spray it all over your lawn without maybe trying a test spot first. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/7 "2012-07-15T21:35:16Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > People and their fucking grass. :rolleyes: Yeah. Living in the city now instead of the woods, I want to pour concrete and paint it green. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/8 "2012-07-15T21:50:19Z")
If I was paying a lawn service a few hundred bucks a year, I don’t know what they’d be doing to earn it, seeing as it is mostly brown and (hopefully) dormant during our extended drought. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/9 "2012-07-15T21:52:34Z")
Glyphosate is used in Round Up too. A potent grass killer. > **[Glyphosate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate)** > > .mw-parser-output .ib-chembox{border-collapse:collapse;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .ib-chembox td,.mw-parser-output .ib-chembox th{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:40%}.mw-parser-output .ib-chembox td+td{width:60%}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .ib-chembox figure:not(.skin-invert-image):not(.skin-invert):not(.bg-transparent){background:var(--background-color-inverted,#f8f9fa)}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-... > [@](#): > > Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses known to compete with commercial crops grown around the globe. Initially patented and sold by Monsanto Company in the 1970s under the tradename Roundup, its US patent expired in 2000. Glyphosate is the most used herbicide in the US. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/10 "2012-07-15T22:01:45Z")
A friend of mine used to work for a national lawn care company. When he was working in my area he would skimp on other jobs and then treat my lawn with left over chemical. He did this as a friendly prank. It truly freakked me out. Suddenly my lawn was more lush, green, and fast growing. I had to mow every 5 days instead of every 7 - 10. When he confessed what he had been doing I begged him to stop. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/11 "2012-07-15T22:04:13Z")
Killing his lawn was an expensive mistake. I put down 50 yrds of St Augestine (a pallet) May 1 at $4 a yrd. That covers a 21x21 ft square (L times W)/9. I was repairing damage in several areas from last years drought. Imagine 2 1/2 acres. The labor alone will easily be in the thousands. There’s no way one guy can lay that much sod by themselves. Heavy rains may wash away the top soil. That means expensive grading work before the sod can be put down. With a huge area like that, they’ll probably buy rolls of sod instead of squares. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/12 "2012-07-15T22:06:27Z")
My first thought on looking at the photo was: “He missed a spot.” Have I ever told you guys about the time I planted a polka-dot lawn? My landlord was hopeless with lawn care, and the thing was about 60% wild strawberries. So being the industrious little suburbanite that I am, I decided to plug in with Zoysia. I was a little low on funds, so put the plugs a little farther apart than called for, but figured it would take over within about three years, and in the mean time it certainly couldn’t look any worse. LOL! We had the worst drought in 20 years that Summer. Watering was restricted, and I was sure my money and effort would be wasted. As the weeks wore on though, it became clear that I’d chosen the right product. Everything else in the lawn went dormant and turned khaki-tan, but the Zoysia stayed green and bright - a polka-dot lawn. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/13 "2012-07-15T22:34:44Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > the Zoysia stayed green and bright That’s good to know. My plan to pour concrete and paint it green having been vetoed, I’ve been planting zoysia plugs. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/14 "2012-07-15T22:53:50Z")
St Augustine can be sprigged. My dad bought a few squares and carefully broke it apart into hundreds of sprigs. It’s ten times more work sprigging. But within 3 summers that area was filled with St Augustine grass. Saved a lot of money too. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/15 "2012-07-15T23:05:23Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Glyphosate is used in Round Up too. A potent grass killer. > [Glyphosate - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate) Holy Cow, this guy put generic Roundup on his lawn?!?! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/16 "2012-07-15T23:12:22Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A friend of mine used to work for a national lawn care company. When he was working in my area he would skimp on other jobs and then treat my lawn with left over chemical. He did this as a friendly prank. > > It truly freakked me out. Suddenly my lawn was more lush, green, and fast growing. I had to mow every 5 days instead of every 7 - 10. When he confessed what he had been doing I begged him to stop. I have a lawn service and have considered taking a year off for that reason. That or asking them to skip some of the treatments. There’s a month or two in summer where I end up mowing at least twice a week. Because of that I haven’t bothered watering the grass during the drought we’ve been having. It’s all brown and looks like straw, but I know it’s healthy and should come right back (it’s all nice and green around the ginko tree that I watered twice) as soon as we get a couple of good rains. In the mean time, I’ve been more then happy to not mow for the last two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/17 "2012-07-15T23:16:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I want to pour concrete and paint it green. 🙂 You can _alllllmost_ sing that to the Stones. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/18 "2012-07-15T23:23:55Z")
_I want to pour concrete and see it painted green._ ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/19 "2012-07-15T23:34:02Z")
_I see a green lawn and I spray till it turns black No colors anymore the whole damn thing is black I see the Chemlawn guys dressed in their summer clothes I have to turn my head until my darkness goes_ ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335/20 "2012-07-15T23:38:51Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That’s good to know. > My plan to pour concrete and paint it green having been vetoed, I’ve been planting zoysia plugs. > > 🙂 Hey, how’s that going? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-destroys-his-lawn-with-wrong-ferti-lome-product/628335.md?page=2)