Nitrogen Fertilizer Calculator

Trying to figure out how much nitrogen is in that bag of granular fertilizer? Or how much many pounds of N you’re putting down per 1,000 ft²? Use our Nitrogen Calculator below to quickly get accurate results.

Try our other calculators:

• Tenacity Herbicide Calculator
• Liquid Nitrogen Calculator
• Lawn Fertilizer Calculator
• Dimension Calculator (Pre-Emergent Herbicide)
• Prodiamine Calculator (Pre-Emergent Herbicide)

More Lawn Care Calculators

• Azoxystrobin Calculator
• Tenacity Herbicide Calculator
• Liquid Nitrogen Calculator
• Lawn Fertilizer Calculator
• Nitrogen Calculator
• Dimension Calculator (Pre-Emergent Herbicide)
• Prodiamine Calculator (Pre-Emergent Herbicide)
• Quinclorac Calculator

How Do I Calculate the Total Amount of Nitrogen in Fertilizer?

There’s lots of numbers on the front and back of most lawn fertilizer bags that it can be quite confusing as to how much nitrogen (the “N” part of the “N-P-K” values) you’re throwing down per application. The three main numbers we need to calculate are:

1. Nitrogen (N-P-K)
2. Pounds (total weight of the bag)
3. Square feet (amount of ft² covered in the bag)

Let’s use a Andersons Starter Fertilizer for example: 

1. N-P-K = 18-24-12 (Type “18” into the nitrogen calculator)
2. 50 lbs. (Type “50″ into the nitrogen calculator)
3. 12,500 ft² (Type “12500” into the nitrogen calculator)

Calculate Total Pounds of Fertilizer per 1,000 ft²

Now say your yard isn’t exactly 12,500 ft² which the bag completely covers for a full application. My yard for example is broken out into three sections, Zone 1-3: 3,000 ft², 3,000 ft², 9,000 ft². respectively. Taking Andersons Starter Fertilizer as the example again, how many pounds will I need for my Zone 1, which is 3,000 ft²?

Take the pounds of the fertilizer bag (50 lbs.) and divide that by the square foot coverage (12.5).

50 / 12.5 = 4 lbs. of fertilizer per 1,000 ft²
4 lbs. x 3,000 ft² = 12 lbs.

So in my example, I’d need 12 lbs. of Andersons Starter Fertilizer for my Zone 1. In the next section, we’ll break down how many pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 ft² we’re applying. 

Calculate the Total Pounds of Nitrogen per 1,000 ft²

Now that we have the total pounds of fertilizer per 1,000 ft², we can do some quick math to get how much Nitrogen we’re throwing down.

Multiply the pounds of fertilizer per 1,000 ft² by the Nitrogen amount (located on the bag) and divide by 100. In this case, my 3,000 ft² example needs 4 lbs. of fertilizer, and the “N” amount on the starter fertilizer bag is “18”.

4lbs * 18 / 100 = 0.72 lbs. N per 1,000 ft²

And using the formula above (or even easier, the nitrogen calculator) we’re getting 0.72 lbs. of N per 1,000 ft².

Nitrogen Calculations Summary

To summarize a quicker way – aside from using the nitrogen calculator – using Andersons Starter Fertilizer again:

1. 18 / 100 = 0.18 (N)
2. 0.18 * 50 (lbs. bag) = 9 lbs. of N per bag
3. 9 lbs. / 12.5 (square foot coverage) = 0.72 lbs. of N per1,000 ft²

You’ve read how to calculate nitrogen and used the nitrogen calculator. Was it useful?

Please leave a comment below to let me know what you think. Feedback will help provide ideas to help enhance these calculators and possibly build some more in the near future.