Seasonal weekly benchmark — May 24
Lawn Fertilizer
May 24Rank Trend
How top brands moved week over week. Rank 1 is the top position.
For a suburban DIY homeowner, AI routes overwhelmingly to Scotts and Milorganite first, with The Andersons the premium step-up. The trackable signal is Lesco: it surfaces only in Gemini (ranked #1 in Gemini's brand-comparison prompt for the second run running). Though across all of Gemini's prompts its aggregate top pick is Milorganite. Lesco is the only brand any model elevates to a #1 slot in any prompt besides the Scotts-Milorganite-Andersons core. A brand outside that core is effectively invisible at purchase intent unless the buyer names it.
Top Brands by AI Mention Frequency
Mention frequency counts how many times a brand appeared across all AI responses. This differs from top-pick rank, which reflects each model’s #1 choice.
Dropped this week
Opportunity for Brands
- The category is a tight Scotts-Milorganite duopoly at the top with a fragmented challenger tier.
- Lesco appears only in Gemini (but as its #1, twice running).
- Yard Mastery, GreenView, Sunday, and Expert Gardener each appear in a single model.
- Major brands with retail presence are absent this run: LawnStar, BioAdvanced, Spectracide, Ironite, Sta-Green, Vigoro, Dr.
- Earth, and Sunniland (several of which appeared in prior runs and have dropped).
- No model surfaced a clear sub-$15 budget winner with cross-model agreement, and the organic tier beyond Milorganite (Espoma, Dr.
- Earth, Down to Earth) remains thinly and inconsistently represented.
Cross-Agent Comparison
How 4 AI models rank the same category. Hover a brand to trace it across models.
4 agents · top 3 each
| Agent | #1 | #2 | #3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| chatgpt | The Andersons | Scotts | Milorganite |
| claude | Scotts | Milorganite | Lesco |
| gemini | Milorganite | Scotts | Lesco |
| perplexity | Scotts | Milorganite | The Andersons |
What This Means
- All four models keep Scotts and Milorganite as the core But diverge on the aggregate #1: the rendered table computes ChatGPT's top pick as The Andersons (it leads ChatGPT's P1 discovery list), Gemini's as Milorganite, and Claude's and Perplexity's as Scotts.
- ChatGPT is commerce-formatted, surfacing 8-plus price-tagged SKUs and elevating The Andersons and Yard Mastery in discovery before ranking Scotts #1 in its explicit brand-ranking prompt.
- Claude is premium-leaning, repeatedly elevating The Andersons PGF Complete and uniquely surfacing Lesco and Simple Lawn Solutions.
- Gemini is lifestyle-formatted and, for the second consecutive run.
- Ranks Lesco 24-0-11 #1 in its brand-comparison (P3) prompt specifically - the only model to put Lesco at the top of any prompt - even though its all-prompt aggregate lands on Milorganite.
- Perplexity is the most consolidated, ranking The Andersons #1 in its brand-ranking prompt while keeping Scotts and Milorganite as the safe core.
Why These Brands Win
- The brands AI favors share nitrogen-forward NPK ratios (32-0-4, 24-0-11, or similar) suited to established lawns.
- Slow-release formulations cited as the lower-burn-risk default, added iron as the deep-green differentiator, and wide big-box availability (the explicit reason Scotts wins ease-of-use).
- Every model recommends a soil test first (~$15-20 from a university extension).
- Roughly 1 lb nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft, and spring plus early-fall as the key application windows.
- Milorganite universally wins the zero-burn, kid-and-pet-safe slot.
Frequently Asked Questions
What lawn fertilizer does AI recommend most?▾
Which lawn fertilizer brand ranks #1 across all AI models?▾
Why does ChatGPT recommend different lawn fertilizer than Claude?▾
What lawn fertilizer brands are invisible to AI?
How we measure this
Each benchmark runs the same standardized prompts across multiple leading AI systems, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. We use consistent, category-specific questions designed to surface genuine product recommendations — not sponsored results.
Responses are parsed to extract brand mentions, rank position, and frequency. We then analyze cross-model agreement, identify which brands consistently appear in top positions, and flag where AI outputs diverge from marketplace trends.
Seasonal categories are benchmarked weekly during active periods. Results reflect organic AI behavior at the time of testing. Read the full methodology
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Conducted personally by Robert Hu.
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