Now is the time to have a good soil test done so you can start making the corrections you may need to this fall so your soil will be ready next spring. If corrections to soil pH need to be done fall is the time to do that since that takes time and adding what is necessary in the spring is not going to make the necessary corrections by the time plants are up and growing. In addition to that soil test form your states ag school, (Cooperative Extension Service) these simple soil tests may be of some help, 1) Structure. 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. 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. 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.

I'm using the recommendations for the Orchard just as I did last year. Fruit trees are, as you noted, pretty forgiving things, but do prefer similar soil to lawns. ME 9, 6, 2.5: The soil has a split personality and should probably see a shrink. :-) Certainly the Orchard section is very sandy and will drift fast. The other two are better and can probably be tested every other year to every third year once balanced. pH 6.7, 6.3, 5.1: Great, Mostly Great, and Needs Some Help. Again, we correct this in the Ca, Mg, and K sections. OM 4.5%, 4%, 2.5%: I'd divert fall leaves to the Orchard section and mulch them there to raise the OM in that area. The front and back are fine and don't require any special effort, although the higher you can lift the OM the higher your ME will go. Again, keep the trees mulched to retain water and slowly lift the OM over time. Sulfur 16-27: All normal answers and all fine. Phosphorus 250, 200, 160: Front and Back are perfect, although if you used starter when renovating the back I wouldn't criticize you. I also wouldn't say a word if you didn't as both are valid responses in this particular case. Orchard is a tad low (target is 200), but nothing severe and certainly there are no deficiency symptoms. Recommendations below, but they're not very important as fruit trees aren't particularly demanding of phosphorus. Calcium 79, 70, 36: Still high in front and back, which is not a problem, although back is now pretty much optimal. The orchard area actually fell, probably from the growing trees removing calcium for cell structure. Let's hit this harder, again with Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. I'm very likely to overshoot, which the trees won't favor, but the overshoot won't last long. Magnesium 7.7, 9.4, 7.3: Low on all three, although nothing severe. Things got a touch better, which is all I wanted, although I'd like to continue. We use Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) to correct this. Potassium 2.5, 2.9, 5.1: It looks high in the Orchard because there's little calcium and only modest amounts of potassium, it's really rather low using the flat numbers. It's technically OK on the front and back, but for a perfect balance I'd like to see you continue onward with apps similar to last year. Again, potassium sulfate, garden shops, or online. You know the drill. Sodium: Levels dropped off nicely from leaching in all areas (the sulfate applications also helped). Although the Orchard looks a bit high, it really isn't given the low calcium and low ME of the area. Minor Elements: Boron is still deficient in the Orchard but, again, growing trees in the Orchard area. It's a tad low otherwise. Iron is mentioned, and everything else is fine. Iron 218, 142, 76: OK in the front and back, but again, if color disappoints, use Milorganite whenever you want. Really, OK in the Orchard section, but the trees will want a little more, so definitely try to hit this with Milo three times a year or so at the bag rate. Boron 0.43, 0.33, <0.2: A little low, fairly low, deficient. You've followed the discussions, suffice to say I'd fix this. There's a different prescription for the Orchard than the front and back...but I'm going to roll it all together this year as it won't do any harm and boron deficiency, as noted, is not a severe issue on most plants. We use Milorganite as a carrier and 20 Mule Team Borax as the boron source. You can purchase 20 Mules at the grocery store in the laundry section. 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 20 Mule Team Borax 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 10 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax. Recommendations: Now-ish: (Orchard) Apply 6 pounds per thousand square feet of Encap, Pennington, or Mag-I-Cal. Go wider than you think you should; the trees are going to throw roots wider than normal in this very sandy soil. August 1: (All three areas) Apply 4 tablespoons per thousand square feet of 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite carrier. August 15 (All three areas) Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. September 1: (Orchard) Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate to the Orchard section only. September 15: (All three areas) Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate). October 1: (All three areas) Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. October 15: (Orchard) Apply 6 pounds per thousand square feet of Encap, Pennington, or Mag-I-Cal. Go wider than you think you should; the trees are going to throw roots wider than normal in this very sandy soil. April 15, 2017: (All three areas) Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate). May 30, 2017: (Orchard) Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate to the Orchard section only.

An excellent analysis and I'm very impressed. As an engineer, I live in the world of assumptions. As long as they’re understood, all is well. However here, I’m making a LOT of assumptions that I don’t understand very well at all, so I’m not too comfortable with my conclusions. That is compounded by the inability to really check the change from last year because of my lack of consistency (I know, I know). After going through the numbers in detail, I now see just how helpful a truly consistent measurement would have been. I'd say that's a pretty accurate description for soil analysis: a bunch of assumptions. This isn't a controlled lab situation and each year's soil sampling and test results can/will very sometimes significantly, so any variable we can control when sampling helps reduce those fluctuations. To try to stay grounded in expertise, I’ve generally just taken morpheuspa’s plan from 2016 and based on RidgeRunner’s ranges and comments, tried to convince myself of whether I could justify using the same 2016 recommendations. So, my thoughts: Why not? It's as good a place to start as any and better than starting from scratch. Assuming M III Phosphorus is what I’m adding with starter fert, bag rate of scotts starter fert (24-25-4) is 0.75 lb/k Phosphorous, or 32.67 lb/ac. I added that 4 times in 2016 for a total of 131 lb/ac of P. Not all of that hung around apparently, and since the B1 section increased by 47lb/ac and the F1 section only increased by 14lb/ac, it appears that the F1 section uses/loses P faster than the B1 section. A couple of clarifications: 1) M III (M3) is the test that was used. It is a cocktail of chemicals that is used to extract nutrients for measurement. In this case the Phosphorous is reported as lbs per acre of P2O5. (Other labs may report it as ppm of elemental Phosphorous). The nice thing about reporting it as P2O5, is that P2O5 is the form of Phosphorous contained in fertilizers. So your assumption is right. 2) Phosphorous moves very slowly (down or otherwise) through the soil and phosphorous binds within days of application and can become unavailable to the plant. In acidic soils it binds to Aluminum and Iron. In high pH soils, it binds with calcium. An assumption: the difference between F1 and B1 may be due in part to the difference in pH between your two soils as reflected in the initial test. If the target is 200, seems like another season of about 4 starter fert applications would make sense, although in the B1 section it seems like I’m cutting it close. Maybe I’ll apply a couple of the apps in that section at 0.5 bag rate? I concur. As an alternative (based on your budget) Milorganite has reconfigured their formula to 5-4-0 from 5-2-0. Now only 10-20% might be organic P, but organic P is "slow" release and would help supply P to your turf better over time. (All of P2O5 is inorganic and although inorganic P is readily available to the turf plant, it also readily binds up. I gave you the 200 range, because you had mentioned that you didn't know what target you had been given last year, 200 is his/a common target for a high maintenance lawn. Some general points of clarification: 1) for every pound of N that a plant uses (not every pound of N that is applied--but USED) the plant needs and uses 1/2 pound of Potassium and 1/4 pound of of Phosphorous. whichever is missing, is the limiting factor. 2)The ranges I gave you are the ones that soil scientist have found within which plants "appear" to do well. They are quantities averaged for soil types and plants. Research has shown that values below the range result in poor performance. That as you approach the low end, additions of that nutrient are more likely to show a visible improvement in the plant and as you approach the high end, additions of the nutrient are much less likely to result in any improvement. Values above the high end are very unlikely to show any improvement and at some point can be detrimental to the plant. (did I say this before?) Bottom line, as you progress with balancing your soil, if you reach a point within the range where you no longer see improvement, you've reached your optimum in regard to any nutrient. My Ca/Mg ratios are roughly in range (F1/B1 5.1/13.1) and slightly up from 2016 (4.7/10.6), so that’s fine, but the Calcium saturation is fairly far off. I’m assuming that this is what is causing my low pH values, but not sure how that’s calculated. Also not sure how to calculate what my expected increase in Mg saturation should be based on the fast acting lime. But since my calcium is clearly low, at a minimum I can add the same calcium (lime) app I did last year (F1: 3lb/k, B1: 1lb/k, spring and fall). The question would be can I increase that app, particularly in the B1 section, and what should the corresponding Mg app be? Since the Ca/Mg ratio is on the low side in F1 maybe I should add less Epsom Salt than I did last year? Say, 1lb/k instead of 2lb/k? Add the same or more in the B1 section to keep that ratio from becoming too large. Say, 2lb/k again. This is when a buffer pH test would help- a lot IMO. If they still have your sample (30 days?) they could run that for about $10 per sample. You are correct that base saturation reflects low pH readings and if you fill up all but 10 to 15% of the cation sites with Ca, Mg. and Potassium and leave the 10-15% to Hydrogen, you should end up with a pH in the 6's. But none of those nutrients neutralize the acidity. For soils, an addition of carbonate will do that. It's better to know how much carbonate/lime (an amount derived from buffer pH testing) is needed to raise pH than to estimate based on total base saturations. BSCR, CEC, lime and differences in lime products, etc. is a bit involved, but I'm happy to clarify any questions you have on them. As it stands now, without a buffer test, as your pH is not really moving and/or dropping and as you want to avoid freeing up any more Aluminum (which can be toxic to the turf in addition to the P issue), you want to raise your pH using lime additions. Your Mg is near sufficient levels, so it shouldn't be an impediment to your turf, however, if you wish to address the base saturation ratio, yes, 1#/k for B1 only of Epsom (considering the difference in sampling and to avoid over shooting) and mixed with the lime. Yes, I'd increase the lime app. As both areas are near the same pH, fast acting lime at 9lbs/k (B1 and F1) would be indicated and even that may not make for much movement in pH on a future test. It should help the available P values to raise. Potassium values seem to be low, and the saturation fell significantly, which, based on morpheuspa’s statements, probably has to do with the Calcium. Common lawn wisdom makes me think I should add in a potassium-rich “winterizer” app in the fall to bump that number. But it again seems like I need to add at least what I added of Potassium Sulfate in 2016 (F1: 3lb/k). However, this time it looks as though adding 3lb/k to the B1 section also might be a good idea. Agree, in fact, I'd suggest increasing to three apps of 3#/k this year. Avoid applying within 2-3 weeks of any lime app. I’ve been sufficiently warned about playing with boron in my lawn to try to improve the number without very specific advice, so I’ll probably just leave that alone this round. That's up to you, based on the soil tests and your previous app,, you could apply 2 tablespoons of Borax per k again to raise values into the optimal range. Your decision. I would have done the jar test, but I came home to a light dusting of snow. Winter isn’t done with us yet, even in S. Carolina. Hope that makes sense. Feel free to ask for any clarifications. Once again, nice job.

Ridgerunner, I'm glad you weren't taking me to the woodshed! I do have some lingering guilt that the grass died, even though there wasn't much I could do about it. I guess that's where the Serenity Prayer comes in! I think germination in those areas has been very low, and I do feel like water penetration is an issue, even after shampoo. The area is not crowned but does slope down slightly towards the street. I'm attaching a couple of pics below to give an idea of what I'm dealing with, including some ant hills. The pics were taken at about 10:30 am, so still in shade but the area will be in sun from about 11 am onwards. I will also try the screwdriver test and the bucket of water and report back. Becky, thanks so much for all your help. I was confused by what mycorrhizae.com was saying, too. I guess the upshot is not to use starter fertilizer (or other P) unless your levels are really low? Maybe I will try with all fescue next time, if the KBG isn't going to make it anyway. I was using an oscillating sprinkler but I think it's possible it was missing a band in the middle. The timer is a great suggestion and would help a lot. I'm also hoping to be able to put in an irrigation system, maybe next year. Thanks so much!