September: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate. October: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate. Memorial Day 2015: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate. Starter-fertilizer... Got it. pH 7.5: High, but nothing unworkable. The reason why it's this high is below. However, do not lime. Lime must not touch your property as you're already showing a magnesium imbalance. Phosphorus as P2O5 169: I disagree with their evaluation here given your pH and would really like to raise this. Recommendation for application of starter fertilizer is above. Consider a re-test using Logan http://www.loganlabs.com/ next year, the numbers are easier to read and I know what their targets are. Target for a higher pH lawn of this particular...well, particulars...is around 250, and I wouldn't mind seeing 300. Calcium 75% saturation: Optimal. No adjustment necessary or desired. Magnesium 23% saturation: Very high. No adjustment necessary or desired. This is very out of balance and is often characteristic of using inexpensive dolomitic limestone (the $4 to $8 a bag stuff) too often. Again, stop liming if you lime. If not, you simply have a lot of dolomitic lime in your soil. Potassium 1.8% saturation: Low. However, adding it is probably a lost cause at this point. I'd rather see saturation around 2.5%, but the magnesium is grabbing onto the soil harder than the potassium will, and K can't displace Mg very easily. Let me know if you want to try and we'll do it if so. Explain? Trace minerals: Not tested. Your tissue test shows no obvious shortages, although iron and manganese are on the low side. To improve the iron--and you'll need a lot of it for good green colors at that pH--I'd recommend using Milorganite as your back and budget can bear it. It doesn't interact with anything, so can go with the starter fertilizer, or separately if you'd rather. Use in May, August, September, and October will slowly (very slowly) raise your iron levels. Since the soil manganese wasn't tested, I can't give you a recommendation on adding any. Sidenote: Calcium / Manganese is optimal in the 8 to 10 range. Dividing yours out (3000/550) gives a ratio around 5.4. We can't raise calcium and can't preferentially get rid of the magnesium, so we live with it for now. There are methods to abolish the magnesium, but I don't think they'll work here, and I don't want to finagle with a calcium balance that's perfect already. Just keep in mind that excessive magnesium will make soils tight and heavy, compact easily, and water tends not to flow in easily. While generally true of even sandy soils, it just means all those are worse than a well-balanced soil of the same type would be. A very sandy soil will still absorb water fast. To get around this, if you lime, stop (as I keep saying). Adding organic material slowly over time will help make the imbalance matter less, plus lighten and open the soil to air better. The Milorganite will assist with this, as would any other type of organic feeding. I have one additional bag of iron-sulfate… Okay to apply now? Then continue with Milorganite? If you wish, you can try the baby shampoo/Suave formula to lighten and open your soil a little. It'll help, but doesn't work miracles in the face of an imbalance. Love this! I read: 3-onces per 1000 square-feet. Okay?

Arid soils are typically high in sodium, and the alkalinity is separately derived from the carbonate that is usually associated with calcium, but can also be associated with any other metal cation (eg., magnesium, or sodium). Was the soil tested for sodium level and calcium, along with the pH ? You can have "high calcium", but high is relative to the soils ability to bind and hold positively charged metal ions (that's CEC). As I noted in my previous post if you don't have free lime in the soil then reducing sodium levels is usually accomplished by adding more calcium. If the soil is alkaline, which arid soils that are sodic typically are, then you don't want to add more carbonate which would further raise pH, hence the use of gypsum which adds the calcium as a soluble and pH neutral sulfate instead of lime (calcium carbonate). If you have enough free lime, then adding sulfur along with using very clean water (low in both sodium and carbonate and pH neutral to slightly acidic) can do the job. The recommendation to add both sulfur and gypsum suggests your soil is high enough in sodium that it is a concern for plant growth and health, and that the available calcium is not sufficient to mobilize the sodium. It further suggests that you don't have any appreciable free lime in the soil (mine has chunks of it - enough that adding sulfur at any reasonable rate won't much touch the pH). The other culprit that plays a role in the whole thing is water quality. If your water is high in sodium then it becomes difficult to mobilize and remove sodium with that water source. If your irrigation water is very hard and alkaline with high calcium and carbonate levels (as is mine), then using sulfur to lower pH and effect free lime conversion doesn't really work (in my case I add ~0.5 lbs of lime per 1000 sq feet for every inch rain equivalent of irrigation). So what was tested other than pH, and who did the analysis? Did they report analytical levels, (eg., ppm or lbs per acre)?

Keep in mind that it could take several months for the sulfur to change the soil pH. A soil test is one tool and is valuable only when you have others to compare to see what is going on. As long as you use a soil testing lab that uses the same procedure you can compare results from time to time. As this chart indicates most all essential nutrients are about as available with a soil pH at 7.0 as at 6.5, so there is probably no reason to try to change it especially since the organic matter will act as a buffer. http://www.avocadosource.com/tools/FertCalc_files/pH.htm Perhaps these simple woil test might be of some help as well, 1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter can be bad as well. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

Ah yes a good choice and my alma mater but to show you how frugal I am. For residents The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station will do it for FREE. So if you live in CT contact either of them. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station History of the Morgan Soil Test More than fifty years ago, M.F. Morgan of this Station added immeasurably to our knowledge of the relationships between plants and soils. He devised a soil test that could estimate deficiencies or excesses of plant nutrients. Called the "Morgan Soil Test," it became the world’s first widely accepted method for quickly estimating soil fertility. Today, soil testing extends our knowledge of Connecticut soils and helps farmers, gardeners, and homeowners learn how to improve soil fertility in an environmentally responsible manner.