What's short is rather short, what's over the line tends to be well over. Or, a fairly typical Texas soil. We can work with this.

EC 22.8: This would normally be indicative of a very dense soil...except that I can see it's over-inflated by your excessive calcium. I'm actually using an EC of 15 below for adjustments, or the equivalent of a silt soil.

pH 7.6: Always the symptom, never the disease. In any case, although high, this isn't a barrier to a fantastic lawn. We just need to account for it. However, I won't do anything that risks sending this even higher.

OM 2.55: At the lower end of the Fair range. Certainly feed organically, mulch all fall leaves, import leaves, and so on.

Sulfur 11: This gives me a lot of margin to play with, which is good as I'm going to need to do considerable playing.

Phosphorus 43: Pretty low for your soil, where my target is 300. I've recommended starter fertilizer below, which means buy the cheapest fertilizer with a high second number (like 18-24-6 or 20-27-5 or whatever). This adjustment will probably take several years.

Calcium 89.7%: High, as reflected in the numbers. We ignore this as there's not much I can do about it, although the starter will throw away a little calcium. You have so much that I doubt this will matter. Fortunately, it's not causing problems with your lawn.

Magnesium 4.7%: Rather low, some of which is your soil being low on Mg, and some is the calcium dominating the soil profile. Let's raise this a bit. You'll need Epsom salt from your local drug store, usually in the First Aid or bath section. Although the shortage looks rather bad on the soil profile, this is an aspect of your over-inflated EC. It's not that bad.

Potassium 1.4%: Rather low, for the same reasons and with the same considerations as magnesium. Most local garden or landscape stores will order potassium sulfate for you, or you can get it online. Recommendations below.

Minor Elements: Although I would want to do some fiddling, most notably with copper, it's not severe and there are other things that need doing this year. We'll let it ride. I did mention iron below.

Iron 50: Rather low, particularly for your pH. This will tend to produce a paler color on the lawn. Whenever you like, apply Milorganite at bag rate to slowly--very slowly--raise this.

Recommendations:

Early May: Feed at bag rate with starter fertilizer.

May 15: Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet.

June 1: Feed at bag rate with starter fertilizer.

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

July/August: Feed normally.

September 1: Feed at bag rate with starter fertilizer.

September 15: Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet.

October 1: Feed at bag rate with starter fertilizer.

October 15: Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

Sulfate of potash, potassium sulfate, and (old usage) flowers of potash are all identical!

For July and August, just feed normally with a high-nitrogen fertilizer like in the Bermuda guide. While I could slip in more starter, I'd rather give the lawn a bit of a break during the hottest part of the year, and give the starter some time to perk down before slapping the soil again in September. Your phosphorus levels aren't so bad that I feel the need to stress the lawn.

Thanks Morpheus! I laid down the starter fertilizer and some Milorganite last night. I wanted to beat the rain we're supposed to be having here in the Dallas area this week.

I'd like to start including feedings of soy bean and alfalfa meal. What would be the best timing and frequency in relation to the recommendation schedule you worked up for me to put these down?

Arguments vary on feeding Bermuda with organics, but I've seen some absolutely lovely Bermuda lawns done organically.

You can apply as often as once a month, or just fill in the July and August feeings with soy/cottonseed meal if you want to. All are acceptable, only the latter would be necessary as the starter is feeding the lawn very well during the other months.

The major advantage here is that the organics won't interact with the synthetics in the slightest, so there are no limits. Although it's wise to start slow and let the bacteria in your soil come up to speed as the numbers now aren't anywhere what they will be once they start seeing regular organic feedings.

I drop both together in the gardens very regularly all the time--planting started Saturday, and as plants go in they get a full feeding with Miracle Gro. I also dropped 9 pounds per thousand of Milorganite and 12 pounds per thousand of soybean meal, for a total of an additional 1.3 pounds of nitrogen just from the organics.

Do that synthetically and you just killed the garden (or lawn). Organically? Growth will accelerate through May and be incredibly rapid by May 25th, about the time they start blooming in earnest.

Morpheus, the next step (June 15) on the schedule you provided me is to drop the SOP. Since I haven't had much luck finding it, I checked with a local supplier that sells to golf courses. They've agreed to sell the SOP they have to me. They've actually got two different products. One is the regular SOP and one is a sustained release SOP. Both are 0-0-50 with no more than 1% Cl.

The coated (slow release) version seems interesting to me although it's a bit pricier ($60 for a 50lb. bag). Can you think of any cons for this version of the product? Is it better to get the standard version with no slow release for faster uptake? The way I think about it, the slow release form would provide continuous feeding through what I'm sure will be a hot Texas summer.

Here's the link if it helps any.

http://www.harrells.com/products/item/200327/0-0-50-micro-polyon-sop

By the way, the lawn is looking great this year and at this point probably looks as good as it has in the 7 years I've been at this house. I went a little overboard with the Weed B Gon trying to kill a major clover issue and have some pretty bad yellowing. Other than that, I am very pleased. I'll post some photos once the spots begin to green up a bit.

With the large amount of time to work, either the fast or slow release is just fine. If you like the thought of the slow release, go for it. Personally, I'd get whichever is cheaper.

And yes, we want photos. :-)

I am leaning towards cheaper as well and that's definitely not the slow release version! I just found a Lesco version but see that it has 17% sulfur in it. Is that ok or do I need to stay away from that?

If it's 0-0-50, it's potassium sulfate--which does have sulfur in it. Seventeen percent sounds just about right, winging the molecular weights in my head.

(Post some research) 17% to 18% is right in range for reasonably-pure potassium sulfate!

Thanks Morpheus. Now that I think about it, I guess that was sort of a 'duh' question. I'm going to give this lawn shampooing a try. I've never used a hose sprayer before. Is there any particular type I need?

Whatever you like. I tend to recommend using something other than an Ortho just because I haven't been impressed by their durability. I like my Chapin 6005, but really, anything including the Ortho is just fine.

Morpheus,

This is a question related to what I was posting under Leo's post about greening the lawn. The first link below is what I'd asked you about using. Well, it turns out the vendor actually does not carry that one. In its place, they recommended what is shown in the second link. Would this be alright to use? It looks pretty good actually in that it gets some good iron as well as some other micros that you'd mentioned above might need some work anyway.

https://www.harrells.com/resources/exports/file?n=290000&t=label

https://www.harrells.com/resources/exports/file?n=300010&t=label

By the way, I sure do appreciate your input. Your advice/recommendations are definitely something I haven't been able to get at the local big box store or even highly rated gardening store.

Skip that stuff, please. While the manganese levels are far too high, it's actually the boron and copper that concern me. It's possible to meter this in to target the boron (the limiting measurement), but that will toss the Mn off.

I'm not a fan of combined materials for this reason, except in some extremely specific circumstances. Targeting one element means you miss all the others. It's bad if you're low. It's worse if you're high on the amount added...

Thanks Morpheus. I'll stick with the plan then and just go with plain old Milo for slowly boosting the Iron.

When would be the best time to put down a pre-emergent to carry me through the fall and what would be a good one to use? Is there something available that would last until next spring or would I need to redo it at that time?

Morpheus, I seem to remember you mentioning that organics are fine to put down anytime but particularly so in May (generally skipped between the hotter months of June and July) and then again between August and October. Is that true and if so what is the reason?

Prodiamine (Barricade) is a good general pre-M that can last a very long time--up to about eight months at a shot. But check what the limit is on Bermuda as I'm not sure and I'm not familiar with Bermuda's requirements on pre-emergents.

Actually, organics are always OK (except when the ground is frozen, where they'll just sit and wait for spring). On southern grasses, synthetics are also OK during summer. On Bermuda, some type of feeding is actually required; Bermuda is a nitrogen hog.

For northern lawns, I recommend skipping synthetics and being very gentle to skipping organics during summer. Bluegrass, fescue, and rye don't eat during summer in any significant amount. Sometimes there are other reasons to add them, like fungal control from corn meal or soil conditioning of a very poor soil using cracked corn.

Is September or October a good rule of thumb for putting down a pre-emergent to prevent fall/winter weeds? I will check into Prodiamine. If it does work well for Bermuda then that sounds like a great option to put enough down twice a year (6 months coverage per application).

Do you prefer to start your soil recommendations in April? If so I will make sure next year to get my test done a little earlier.

Post another thread with "Bermuda Pre-Emergent" as the title. Once we get down to brass tacks, I'm not at all sure. For me, the best moment is just as temperatures begin to fall and get comfortable again. Or, early to mid-September. For you, I'm not sure.

>>Do you prefer to start your soil recommendations in April? If so I will make sure next year to get my test done a little earlier.

It doesn't really matter, I'll start the clock whenever and usually do the rest of the year (and into next year when warranted).

April's great, but really, so is any other month.

Morpheus, I'm a little late on my October 15th application of SOP. I was planning on putting that down tonight when I get home but believe we're getting rain right now. Will it hurt to put this down on damp/wet grass or do I need to wait until it's dry? We are forecasted to get rain tomorrow and over the weekend. I'd hate to have to wait until next week.

I also have two 50 lb bags of soybean meal to put down. My grass is still growing but not much. At this point in the season, will the soybean meal do any greening at all or will it simply act to increase my OM soil level?

My last question (directed at anyone) is about winterizing Bermuda. Is it really beneficial?

SOP's fine to go down on damp grass, and you can do it now if you want. Really, you're barely off-cycle for an app I scheduled for October 15th. Always read my dates as "somewhere kind of around this date if that's convenient for you." We can always revise the schedule if things really get off-track.

Bermuda doesn't require heavy synthetic winterization and the process can actually cause damage the following spring and summer.

Greening's unlikely at this point if growth has slowed significantly. However, I don't recommend keeping soybean meal (or any grain) around over the winter as the stuff is a beacon to mice and other less-pleasant rodents.

Lighter organic winterization practices won't harm Bermuda, so I'd put it down. If you have shrubs, gardens, or trees, this stuff would also be very good for them at this point in the season as well. I dropped my last organics on October first (in Pennsylvania), being very certain to strike the Thuja, lilacs, trees, and other shrubs with the stuff pretty heavily.

Thanks Morpheus. I went ahead and put everything down last night at the same time. I just found out that through Sunday the Dallas area might get upwards of 12" of rain. What's the likelihood of all this (SOP in particular) just washing away before it has a chance to soak in and do any good?

You're in Patricia's path? Here's hoping the winds blunt considerably before reaching you, which they should. Parts of Mexico may see 200 MPH sustained wind this evening!

The SOP will be fine, even in extreme rain. The first inch or three will dissolve it and send it in, and after that the only thing you need to worry about is soil erosion.

We're in Patricia's path but there shouldn't be much left except lots of rain by the time it gets as far North as the Dallas/Forth Worth area. Yes, it's crazy. I heard as high as 205 mph at one point.

Regarding soil erosion, I have lost several inches overall to my front yard since being in the home (moved in 2008). What is the best material to use for building that back up? Soil or sand?

Soil, by preference an exact match for the soil you're replacing (both in terms of structure and chemistry). Which won't be possible in terms of chemistry, so just try to use a matching silt soil.

Changing soil types tends to discourage root penetration as they really don't like moving from one type to another.

Sand would also have a very low EC and won't hold a lot of resources.