Soil Test Results - Bridgewater, NJ

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

Logan just sent me the results:

Not nearly as bad as I was expecting, especially since the jar test seem to indicate a soil with a moderate amount of clay.

So, what do I need to do? The plan is to get the soil happy and then to nuke the builder provided grass and sow some KBG in the late summer.

Edited to add: I'm dealing with about 10,000 SF here, btw. So somewhat large (much larger than the 625 SF I'm used to working with).

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User

9 years ago

While you've some work to do, this isn't that bad. While I've filled the season with stuff to do, it's because I kept amounts going down at any one time fairly low to avoid stressing the soil.

EC 8.6: What clay you have must be Bentonite or Kaolite, because it sure isn't showing in the EC, which is more consistent with silty sand. Given your sky-high aluminum numbers, I'm betting on Bentonite. Basically, you get all the disadvantages of modest clay soils with none of the advantages, and we're going to treat this as a sandy soil as that's how its resource profile will act. I'd be tempted to re-do the jar test with new soil for a second opinion just to be sure.

pH 5.9: Symptom, not disease. We'll raise this a bit as we balance soil ions properly.

OM 5.3: In the Good range, but with your EC I wouldn't mind seeing this go up. Feed organically, mulch your fall leaves, import leaves from good lawns, steal leaves, whatever.

Sulfur 20: Good. We have margin to work with, but I won't need much margin and you have a large amount.

Phosphorus 102: Low-ish, but not deficient. Target on your soil is around 200.

Calcium 61.6%: While at the low end of optimal, this should come up a bit, which will also kick up your pH. Purchase Encap or Mag-I-Cal calcitic lime--not the cheap lime off the shelf. Those two are effective, require a lot less material, and work fast.

Magnesium 12.8%: Perfect. No adjustment required or desired.

Potassium 1.45%: Low, and about to fall off the cliff. Most landscape or garden stores will be happy to order potassium sulfate for you, plus it's available online (with expensive shipping). Apply as below.

Sodium 0.5%: Perfect, sodium is toxic at high levels.

Most minors: Great ranges on most of these, except for Boron and possibly Iron. Iron is optional.

Boron 0.43: Somewhat low. Pick up a box of 20 Mule Team Borax in the laundry section of the grocery store, blue and white box. We use Milorganite as a carrier. In a wheelbarrow or the like, dump the Milo. Spraying very, very lightly with water (I use a spray bottle like the kind people use to damp their clothes when they iron) will help the boron stick. Add the recommended amount of boron and stir, spraying occasionally to get the stuff to stick to the Milo. Then apply over the recommended area. So if going for bag rate Milorganite (1 bag per 2,500 square feet), you'd add 7.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax.

Iron 261: Entirely a good number, but the added calcium and rising pH might yellow your lawn a little bit until things settle down. Any time you like, you can apply Milorganite at bag rate to enhance color and add a little organic material to your lawn. Plus we're using Milorganite as the carrier for the boron. In your case, if Oceangro is cheaper or more available, you can use that instead, it's essentially identical.

Recommendations:

Sometime now to May 1: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal at 4 pounds per thousand square feet.

May 15: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate.

June 1: Apply 3 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

June 15: Apply 3 tablespoons 20 Mule Team Borax per thousand square feet.

September 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate.

September 15: Apply 3 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

October 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate.

October 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal at 4 pounds per thousand square feet.

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Comments (12)

User
9 years ago
Aluminum 1139: I separated aluminum because it isn't a resource, it's a toxin. And your levels are phenomenally high.

Fortunately, aluminum is bound at pH levels above 5.0 and doesn't become freely available until the pH falls under 4.5. In your case, never let your pH fall under 5.5 as we don't want pockets of soil at lower pH that are starting to release aluminum.

So here, some occasional attention to soil tests and calcitic lime if required is a really, really good idea.
Chris thanked User
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Given the consistency between tests, I don't see too much chance that all four are off, no. Let's begin at the beginning. All recommendations are for everything except the holly, which actually likes soil like this (there are plenty of plants that actually prefer poor soils). For the most part, I won't quote the holly bed in the stuff below. Big point: stop using the compost. It's probably got way too much phosphorus in it. Standard depth of soil testing is 4 inches, so some numbers aren't quite as bad as they look. I'll adjust recommendations accordingly. ME 10-13: Sand with silt, and a nice place to be. Once we stabilize this--in a few years as it's really far off--you can probably test every 2 or 3 years and be fine. pH 4.8 - 5.5: Very low, but not the lowest I've ever seen by a long shot. My own initial test was below 4.8--4.3 if memory serves. We'll fix this under calcium, magnesium, and potassium below. OM 5-12%: Good to extraordinary, and you don't need any more at this time. While I wouldn't mind seeing the Right Bed area come up to match the others, I don't want it badly enough to add more phosphorus! Sulfur 13-15: Completely normal numbers and entirely appropriate. Phosphorus 1282-2187: You don't quite take the crown for highest phosphorus I've ever seen (that was over 2,400), but it's close. Avoid any and all phosphorus sources (hence the recommendation to avoid the compost). Soybean meal is OK as it only contains 1% P versus 6.25% N. However, even with organics, never use anything that's above a 1:4 P:N ratio. That pretty much means soybean meal. Calcium 37-54%: The Right Bed is actually not awful, while everything else needs a serious boost. In this case, with your low pH, I don't recommend dolomitic limestone--use a good calcitic like Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. But don't throw out the dolomite, I want you to use that as well to raise the magnesium levels at the same time (just very slowly). Magnesium 4.3-7.1: Low to low-ish. 30 lb/K of dolomitic this year will very slowly work to raise this. It's not an emergency, most plants do OK at 4%, they just prefer around 10 in a soil of your EC. Potassium 1.0-1.5%: Quite low, the floor value would be around 2.5%. I'm actually a fan of being in the 4-5% range. We use potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash) to fix this, which you can get from some garden or landscape stores, or they'll order it for you. Minor Elements: I wouldn't mind fiddling with boron, but you have so many other issues that I don't wish to do that--and I'm not completely sure what will release from the organic matter in your soil. So hands off that for this year. Iron is great, none is needed. Copper 36-60 PPM: These are through the roof...and there's not much we can do about it. Some types of organic matter (manure compost, I'm looking at you, here) will contain large amounts of some elements. Apparently yours had excessive copper. I have to do some research to be sure, but this shouldn't be much of a problem...I hope...however, avoid any copper source, no matter how small. Zinc is also quite high, but that's not a problem. Aluminum is extremely high, but raising your pH will overcome any possible problems from that. It's not an issue unless pH is below 5, and not a severe issue until under 4.5. Recommendations: Now: Apply 9 pounds per thousand square feet Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. Apply 15 pounds per thousand dolomitic limestone. June 1: Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet potassium sulfate. September 15: Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet potassium sulfate. October 15: Apply 9 pounds per thousand square feet Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime to everything except the Right Bed--apply 3 pounds per thousand there. Apply 15 pounds per thousand dolomitic limestone everywhere.
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Chris
Original Author
9 years ago
Awesome! Thank you so much!

Now a few questions, if I may:

1) For the boron treatment: can I use oceangro as the carrier for that as well? Is the 7.5 tablespoons per bag of carrier or total for the 10,000 SF?

2) Can I swap the mag-I-cal treatment and the starter fertilizer treatment? I ask because I plan on putting down starter with Siduron this weekend as a pre-M.

3) How does a renovation work with this? I plan on nuking everything mid-Julyish and seeding mid to late August. I imagine I can just move the 9/1 starter fertilizer app up to the renovation date and then proceed with the plan as defined?

4) Could softened water have an effect on the jar test? Maybe I should try again with hard water from the hose bib.
User
9 years ago

1) Sure! Any chemically non-reactive organic is fine, and Oceangro fits that bill. I essentially consider Oceangro and Milorganite to be identical.

2) No problem!

3) I didn't know that. Let me revise the schedule below. Since the old lawn is disappearing, I'm not sparing it over the summer. This is likely to cause some stressed grass.

4) It shouldn't, but let's go with hard water from the hose bib next time just to be sure!

Revised Renovation Recommendations:

Sometime now to May 1: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal at 4 pounds per thousand square feet.

May 15: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate.

June 1: Apply 3 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

June 15: Apply 3 tablespoons 20 Mule Team Borax per thousand square feet.

July 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate.

July 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal at 2 pounds per thousand square feet.

August 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate.

August 15 Onward: Renovate! You can apply Oceangro any time during this process to gently feed the reno and provide a bit of extra phosphorus and iron.

October 1: Apply 1.5 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

October 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal at 2 pounds per thousand square feet.

November 1: Apply 1.5 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.
User
9 years ago
I've actually moved the starter applications up before the renovation date. If you'd rather shift the August 1st app to renovation day, go ahead. It won't matter to the seed, and doing it early will reduce the number of tasks you have to do the day the reno goes. The nitrogen is long gone before the grass can use it, the phosphorus binds and moves into the soil profile very slowly. That two weeks either way simply doesn't make much difference to the lawn.

I've also split amounts of calcium and potassium. Calcium is also very slow to move through the soil so I'd like to have it down early. Potassium moves much faster, and it's gentle, so it's fine on new lawn. The October app of calcium is low enough not to set off chlorosis and then has months to move in over spring and fall.

I didn't include a feeding schedule for the new reno. Organics work best if applied with seed (they won't be available for about three weeks). Synthetics go a month after seeding, after which the roots are mature enough to use some of what you apply. Personally, I'd go with the organics.

Since you're renovating, there are no limits on what and when you drop organically before the renovation.
Chris
Original Author
9 years ago
Perfect, thank you!

I can source mag-I-cal easily, so no problems there. Potassium sulfate = Sulfate Of Potash? If so, no problems there either.
User
9 years ago
Yep, potassium sulfate's superhero alias is sulfate of potash.
Chris
Original Author
9 years ago
Also, forgot to mention, after the reno I do plan to stay organic, or as close to it as I can.

Will be picking up the oceangro tomorrow. Can't beat the $7.99 price for the month of April.
User
9 years ago
Post reno, the only synthetic that will need to go is a winterizer application when top growth stops but the lawn is still green. That should be around Thanksgiving, give or take some, in Zone 6b, and uses a high nitrogen, low or zero everything else fertilizer at bag rate.
Chris
Original Author
9 years ago
Wellp, apparently my source for potassium sulfate is bunk. The places I called tried to sell me muriate of potash instead, and from what I understand that is a big "no-no". One of the places said that 'Jonathan Green has a product labeled "Crabgrass and Weed Preventer" for use on lawns and landscape areas, which is 7% Sulfate of potash (0-0-7)'. From what I found on their website that also has dimension in it, and I don't want that either.

So, are there any alternatives?

In other news, I picked up 600 lbs of Oceangro this morning. :)
User
9 years ago
That. Is a lot. Of poo. :-) I wish they'd expand their production and start selling it in surrounding states. It'd be good to give Milorganite some competition.

Many garden shops and landscape places will order potassium sulfate for you. Also, the stuff is on eBay.

If the price is really outrageous, and given the fact that you're doing a reno, I could revise the schedule to account for using potassium chloride (muriate of potash). It's harsh, but we're not that concerned about sparing the grass this year and I'll arrange the schedule to have the K apps done long before the reno.

I can't say I'm a hundred percent thrilled by the idea, but I can work with it. The chloride binds with calcium, mostly, and you can't afford to lose terribly much. I'd adjust the lime levels upward somewhat to account for that.
Chris
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks! I'll keep on looking for the potassium sulfate. I have a few more emails out and I'll try my local JDL also.

All of the dates have been added to the calendar. Looking forward to getting started!

Soil Test Results - Bridgewater, NJ

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