Sta Green vs Scotts Fertilizer — Best Lawn Care Choices

Last Updated on August 21, 2023 by Grow with Bovees

If you’ve decided your lawn needs a bit of love and attention, you will most likely be looking for a lawn fertilizer or weed & feed to help your grass to grow into that healthy, deep-green lawn you’ve always wanted.

The trouble is, there are so many choices these days and while it’s great to have such a variety of lawn fertilizers, it does make it difficult to pick the right lawn food for your own particular yard!

Always wanting to help, the team at Bovees decided to take a look at two of the top brand name lawn products and do a Sta-Green vs Scotts comparison.

We’ll look at what the differences and similarities are, which one is best for a healthier lawn plus much more.

Types of Lawn Fertilizer and Lawn Maintenance Products

Before we take a look at our two main competitors, we thought it would be useful to go through the main categories of lawn care products, fertilizers and weed & feed formulas to make it a little easier to compare.

These days, you can buy a particular type of fertilizer for where you live, what grass types you have or even what season you are in so it can be quite tricky.

We’ve listed out the main types of lawn care packages you can buy below:

Crabgrass Preventers

These pre-emergent products are used for crabgrass control plus stopping many other forms of weed in your lawn before they have a chance to germinate.

Best used in early spring before future weeds have started to emerge, crabgrass preventer is available with and without fertilizer.

Lawn Starter Fertilizer

This fertilizer is specially formulated to use when starting new lawns from seed or sod. Apply this formula to promote a healthy root system, faster root development and deep roots when you plant grass seed along with a good level of winter hardiness.

All-Purpose Lawn Fertilizers

The standard range of nitrogen-rich fertilizers which should be applied anytime during the active growing season or mid summer application. This type of product can feed an established lawn for up to three months with just one application to produce long-lasting results and healthy lawn soil.

Weed & Feed

Post-emergent products that are used to kill weeds when they are actively growing whilst also feeding your lawn grass blades. Works on a wide variety of existing broadleaf type weeds. 

Southern Weed & Feed

Specially formulated for use in Southern USA areas, these products control many broadleaf weeds in a lawn consisting mainly of Centipede and St. Augustine type grass. Used during the active growth season of weeds.

Winterizer & Winterizer Weed & Feed

A winterizer fertilizer will help prepare your lawn for the stresses of the winter season and will boost your lawn for an early green-up during spring feeding.

The weed and feed product has the additional benefit of late season broadleaf weed control as well.

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Note that this is not an exhaustive list as each manufacturer will have their own specific products depending on lawn type, if you’re in the North or South, what weeds you need to control etc. etc. and some of which may not fall into these categories, but it covers most of the basics.

What do the  N-P-K Numbers Mean?

Another important bit of information you might need when comparing fertilizers from Sta Green and Scotts for your lawn care regime are those numbers you see on the front of all the bags.

These are known as the N-P-K numbers for essential nutrients and will tell you how much N — nitrogen, P — phosphorus and K — potassium they contain.

So, if you see 18-24-6 on the front, it means that the pack contains 18% nitrogen, 24% phosphorus and 6% potassium.

Who Makes Sta-Green Fertilizer?

The STA GREEN brand has been around for decades and was originally owned by the Sylacauga Fertilizer Company, Alabama which later became the Parker Fertilizer Company, after its founder, DeWitt Alexander Parker (1866-1930).

DeWitt started the Sylacauga Fertilizer Company with his partner John Brown in 1904 and, by utilizing new techniques and innovative methods, their products quickly became sought after in the agriculture industry.

Eventually Dewitt handed down the Parker Fertilizer Company to his son, Howard Arrington Parker (1896-1964).

Sta Green plant food was his first lawn chemical product aimed at the growing homeowner market which he launched in the 1950s, and it soon grew into a large range of garden and lawn care products.

Who Owns Sta-Green?

Jimmy Pursell (1930-2020), his son-in-law, became his partner and eventually the company name changed to Pursell Industries, which is still thriving today in the hands of DeWitt’s great-grandson Taylor (1955-present).

Although the company no longer owns the Sta-Green brand, Pursell Industries carries on the family’s legacy of producing high-quality agricultural and fertilizer products, and we believe still makes Sta Green products.

The current Sta Green is now a Lowe’s store brand of lawn care products as the owners of Lowe’s home improvement retailers hold the brand name and that’s where you will find the largest range of STA products.

The Sta-Green Product Line

The Sta-Green brand has a wide selection of lawn care fertilizers and products to cater for grassy weeds that help homeowners throughout the year and tends to be in the mid-range price bracket compared to similar products.

As we mentioned previously, Lowe’s is the best place to pick these up at the time of writing, although some can be found online at other suppliers.

They have products covering all the main categories we listed above with their all-purpose fertilizers utilizing a slow-release granular formula that can feed your grass for up to 3 months.

Their sulfur-coated slow-release fertilizer was groundbreaking back in the 1970s, and they were actually the first fertilizer company to start making this in their own factory.

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Other active ingredients in Sta Green fertilizer include slow release Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus in varying quantities (including phosphorus free) depending on their purpose.

One thing that their products have that not all Scotts contain is that their lawn fertilizers all contain 2% iron to help green up the lawn grass and promote healthy growth.

Another difference is in the Sta-Green weed and feed pre-emergent products where they use the more recently developed prodiamine which has been shown to be more effective against crabgrass than other weed killers. 

Sta-green is a range of granular fertilizers that make it very easy to spread and produces great results as can be seen from the wealth of rave reviews the products get.

Who Makes Scotts Products?

The Scotts brand has been around since 1868 and was founded by Orlando McLean Scott in Ohio.

Originally, he just sold seed for agriculture, but in the early 1900s, moved into selling grass seed for homeowners.

Although the Scotts range of products can now be found on the shelf in most home and garden stores, originally their products could only be ordered through the mail! 

That was until 1924, when Scotts became the first seed company to ship grass seed products directly to stores. 

There have been numerous mergers and takeovers through the years, one of the most significant being when they merged with Miracle-Gro Products in 1995 and Emerald Green Lawn Service in 1997 to add being a lawn care company to their portfolio.

They continue as Scotts Miracle Gro company to this day and manufacture a large range of products including their own brand of lawn care fertilizers as well as the Miracle-Gro, Roundup and Ortho weed brands.

Scotts produce a larger variety of lawn food (such as Scotts Winterguard Lawn Food), winterizer fertilizer, weed and feed, weed control, grass seed, disease and pest control, as well as soil, compost and mulch.

Alongside their innovative and infamous spreader, they also sell myriad other yard and gardening supplies, such as mowers, irrigation equipment, landscaping fabric and grass care equipment.

Scotts have recently launched an app which can help you design your personal lawn care regime and troubleshoot any problems, which is very handy to have.

Orlando Mclean Scott would be very proud of how the company he started over 150 years ago has evolved over the years.

The Current Scotts Lawn Care Range

If we just concentrate only on their lawn plus weed and feed products, we find they still make a huge range, far more than the standard Sta-Green Fertilizer applications in comparison.

Their line tends to be in the mid to high price range when compared to other similar products.

Widely available from many stockists nationwide, the main product of their lawn care programs is their Scotts Turf Builder range, which caters for lawns of all types of grass varieties : dry lawn, wet lawn, cool-season lawn or any other type of grassy lawns!

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You will find a fertilizer for every season and location in their range, and they have excellent types of weed prevention for annual weeds, southern weed, mature weeds and even cold resistance weed & feed, although they tend to rely on the older 2,4-D based herbicides including pendimethalin for the application of weed control.

Scotts grass fertilizers also use a quicker release coating that provides essential plant nutrients very quickly boosting your lawn’s ability to repair itself, whilst releasing more over the following 6-8 weeks, and they also have phosphorus free versions.

As with Sta-Green Fertilizer, Scotts Turf Builder is granular which helps with fast and accurate spreading, especially when using a broadcast spreader.

Again, they are very popular products and Scotts fertilizer ratings are high with rave reviews.

Which Should You Choose — Sta-Green vs. Scotts

Is Scotts or Sta-Green better?

Both these brands are tried and trusted when it comes to lawn products versus cheaper other brands, and you will not go far wrong or get a noticeably poorer result using either range, but as you can see, there are a few little differences you might want to consider:

Cost — in terms of price, Sta-Green tends to be a little more budget-friendly value than the Scotts product for comparable types of fertilizer.

Range — Scotts has a much larger range than Sta Green, which can be a good thing if you want to find the specific fertilizer or weed & feed for your particular location, lawn grass, season etc.

Plus, of course, these specialist products can be a bit pricey. We think that if your primary concern is to just want to find a good all-rounder, then the STA range may well be better for you.

Availability — Scotts is available from stockists large and small around the country, whereas Sta Green can currently only be purchased through Lowe’s and a handful of online stockists. 

Nutrients — Sta-Green products mostly all have iron in them to help provide a lush looking lawn, whereas several of the Scotts Turf Builder range do not. N-P-K numbers will differ between fertilizers and what use they are intended for, so it’s best to do some research and find out what combination would be best for your yard before buying.

Weed Killer — Sta-Green weed killers use a more modern compound in their weed and feed range, which has been shown to be more effective at crabgrass prevention in some cases.

Ultimately, it will come down to personal choice for what you think will work best around your yard, but hopefully we’ve given you a few ideas on the things to look at so that you can make an informed decision when you start working on your lawn care and maintenance regime.

Resources;

https://scottsmiraclegro.com/who-we-are/history/

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Sta-Green-Weed-and-Feed-16-lb-5000-sq-ft-29-0-10-Lawn-Fertilizer/1000140065

https://www.scotts.com/en-us/mylawnapp