Logan Lab Results for 2016
8 years ago
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Soil test results from Logan Labs
Comments (23)1) Technically, after the third mow...which will be a while. That'll be too late for most pre-emergents to catch spring weeds. You could use Tupersan (Siduron) in spring when the forsythia bloom, however. It won't impact the grass, but it only lasts about a month and doesn't have an extremely wide umbrella of what it stops from sprouting. 2) March or April 2016 is great if you want. Done much later, any adjustments will generally have to wait for fall (I really dislike stressing summer lawns). 3) It depends on your locale. That's not completely unreasonable, but I would continue to look around to see if I can find it cheaper. See 4 and 5 below. 4) I paid $14.25 per 50 pounds this year...in eastern Pennsylvania, which is soybean and corn country (as in there's acres of soybean and corn within spitting distance of my house). I also use a grain mill way out in the boondocks, so prices tend to be a little cheaper just because of that. 5) Not necessarily. While corn once a year is a help in terms of a gentle fungus protection (and to diversify the microbes a bit), sticking with Milo isn't a problem if it's cheaper for you. My heavy hitter is soybean meal due to the low cost locally--it beats Milo's price by a mile. If it were the other way around, I'd use Milo instead. Rough app levels are as follows (#/K = pounds per thousand square feet because I'm lazy): Alfalfa: 10-20#/K (the limiter here is the growth hormones, not the nitrogen...this is a weak nitrogen feed, but a good addition in early September to encourage root growth). Corn: 10-65#/K. The lower end helps with fungal protection, the upper end actually provides a feeding for the lawn, and there's no problem using corn at this level--except for the expense, of course. 65#/K delivers about 1 pound of nitrogen. Cottonseed Meal: 15#/K. It's difficult to get up north, but the southerner's equivalent to soybean meal. Milorganite: 20#/K. This is higher than bag rate, but will provide 1#/K of N. This is also rich in iron and contains both fast and slow nitrogen, making it a great pick-me-up for the lawn in addition to feeding it over the long term. Oats, Rice Hulls, Most Other Random Grainy Stuff: 50#/K. Most grains will be around 2% nitrogen (about 14% protein) and are applied at 50#/K to feed at 1#/K of N. They can certainly be applied at lower rates to help organically condition a soil if you wish. Soybean Meal: 15#/K. My personal staple. This provides 1#/K of N....See MoreLogan Lab Results
Comments (5)Did I miss this on your other post? Sorry! Overall: This isn't bad. It could use a little adjustment, but you're not doing poorly at all. Priority-wise, boron is actually the most important, with calcium running second. There really isn't anything in third place. Is this causing your lawn problems? Not in any severe way. The suggestions below are to put you in the perfect groove and will probably improve your lawn somewhat, but this isn't extreme in any sense. ME 7.6: Probably sand with silt, but other balances are certainly possible. This holds modest amounts of resources and will drift at a moderate rate. pH 6.9: The upper end of normal, bordering a hair too high. Changes have to be made in a neutral or acidic manner, which isn't a problem. In your case, the calcium levels are a touch low, while magnesium is high, accounting for the raised pH. Potassium is of limited influence, so although high it's not really doing much to raise your pH. OM 3.9%: At the upper end of the Fair category. Certainly mulch mow, mow all your fall leaves, and (as I see you are) consider feeding organically. This isn't an emergency, but I wouldn't mind seeing it rise slowly over time. Sulfur 8: A normal answer and perfectly fine. It'll tend to rise a bit as you feed organically, which has more sulfur in it. You have absolutely enormous amounts of margin. Phosphorus 246: Target is 200, this answer is essentially perfect. No phosphorus is required or desired, but you also don't have to avoid minor phosphorus sources. P's window is extremely large and you're parked at a great spot in it. I'd stop using balanced (your 12-12-12) fertilizer on it, however as that's not minor and you don't need it. Calcium 59.7%: A touch low, but absolutely nothing to worry about. Still, I wouldn't mind kicking this up. Given your pH, I'd like to do so without raising your pH any higher since you're on the border of neutral right now. So we use gypsum (available at most big box stores, landscape stores, and garden shops). This will kick your Ca without raising pH, and also dispel some sodium (which you really don't need, but I never object to doing). Magnesium 25.1%: Very high. This isn't a problem, but it can make soils tighter and impenetrable. Avoid magnesium sources as much as possible, which is quite easy--don't use cheap lime, and don't sprinkle Epsom salts on anything. Potassium 8.2%: Although very high, this is no problem at all and not going to cause you any issues. I'm a fan of a little extra potassium, but in this case I'd advise avoiding potassium sources. Again, this is easy--discontinue use of the 12-12-12 and don't add things like potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash). Sodium 1.1%: Not a problem, the only reason I note this is because the gypsum will kick some out of the soil. Sodium is only used in tiny amounts and 0.5% would be more than adequate. Sodium raises your pH without offering any advantage to the plants. Minor Elements: Boron is mentioned below, along with iron. All others are well within normal range, although manganese is rather high. That's not a problem. Boron <0.2: Deficient. Boron is used in photosynthesis and cell differentiation, so deficiency isn't a great place to be... 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 12.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax. This will take several years--and several tests as applying B without a soil test is a really bad idea. Iron 127: No deficiency, but this won't produce the best color at a pH of 6.9. Whenever you like, you can use Milorganite to very slowly raise this. Recommendations: September 1: Apply 5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax per thousand square feet. September 15: Apply 10 pounds per thousand square feet of gypsum. April 15, 2016: Apply 10 pounds per thousand square feet of gypsum....See MoreLogan Lab test results help
Comments (28)80 lbs / 5 k sq ft = 16 pounds per thousand square feet. That's a totally normal level of application, so I very strongly doubt there's any problem with that! (And we already know I always take the safest route, so you know I'm not being cavalier about it). Even going heavy by hand broadcast (something I do myself) shouldn't be an issue at all, but as you noted it can mat down the grass a bit. Where that happens, you can usually scratch it up a little bit to get the grass to stand and the alfalfa (or whatever you're using) to settle. Overapps of an organic are possible, but difficult. I mostly use soybean meal. In bad sections, I run over it with the spreader at 15 pounds per thousand, then usually take handfuls or double handfuls and spread them around in the area as well. Thirty per K? That's probably about right. Very tiny but very blank bits might get a whole lot more than that. Then if there's any left in the spreader at the end, I often run over the really bad sections again...and now we're up to 45 per K of soybean meal in some spots. They're too small to generate any real scent and I never notice it, but it does help the bluegrass fill back in at jig speed. The decay colors can be interesting, though!...See MoreLogan Labs results - seeking advice
Comments (11)+1 DCHall. While the law actually allows far more OM, compost is unnecessary in your case. Nor is tilling a good idea at any time...and your problems don't stem from bad OM levels. More below. The numbers are organized as follows: Front Some Grass / Front Bare / Back Some Grass / Back Bare. Seeding in Raleigh is getting extremely questionable. I suppose you could try, but I wouldn't count on much. The optimal date for you is around September 10th-20th. EC 4.4/6.7/4.0/5.8: Sandy soils, but none of these are pure sand. Still, they'll drift fairly fast so monitoring is required. All four answers are essentially the same. pH 5.6/5.7/6.1/5.8: Given the variance on this test naturally, these are all within the same general range. For practical purposes, I'm just calling the whole lawn a pH of 5.8. We'll fix this under calcium, magnesium, and potassium below. OM 4.2 to 10-ish: Highly variable, which is not a problem. All values range from Good to Extraordinary, so OM is not a problem. Of course, I'd still always mulch mow (particularly in the areas with OM values under 6), mow your fall leaves, and consider organic feeding. Sulfur 16-21: All normal values and all where they should be. Phosphorus 260/71/180/226: The back is pretty close to perfect, although the Back Some Grass area could use a tap. Front Some Grass is perfect. The Front Bare area is quite low, helping to explain why it's bare! We use starter fertilizer to fix this--just get the cheapest. Recommendations below. Calcium 46.6/47.8/51.4/48.3%: All in the same range, and all low (explaining your pH). Target will be around 65-70% in your soil. We use calcitic lime to correct this--which means Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. Other limes will require far too much material, work too slowly, or deliver other elements I don't want to add this way. Recommendations below. Magnesium 12.8/12.7/14.8/16.3%: These are all technically in range but I wouldn't mind tapping a few areas a bit. While optional, I'd recommend doing this. We use Epsom salt for this task, which you can get at your local drugstore (scented is fine) in the First Aid or bath sections. Potassium 3.6/6.1/9.1/5.0: My target is usually 5-6% in a sandy soil (it does vary). The back is fine and should stay that way. The Fron Some Grass section is in technically OK territory, but it really should be increased--adding calcium will drive this number down quite a bit and into poor territory. We use potassium sulfate for this, which you can often get at garden shops or landscape stores, or they'll order it for you. Or it's available online. Recommendations below. Minor Elements: Everything except boron is close enough to ignore this year--and with this much going down, I'm rather disinclined to fiddle with anything but the boron! Boron's below. Boron 0.25 to 0.37: All low, and all should be fixed. This is done slowly enough that we can combine all four. 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: November 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate to Front Bare and Back Some Grass areas. November 15: Apply Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime at 5 pounds per thousand square feet to all areas. April 1, 2016: (Optional) Apply 2 pounds per thousand square feet of Epsom salt to Front Some Grass and Back Some Grass. April 1, 2016 (Not Optional) Apply 4 tablespoons per thousand square feet of 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite carrier. April 15, 2016: Apply Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime at 5 pounds per thousand square feet to all areas. May 1, 2016: (Optional) Apply 2 pounds per thousand square feet of Epsom salt to Front Some Grass and Back Some Grass. May 15, 2016: Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate to the Front Some Grass section. Memorial Day 2016: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate to Front Bare. Labor Day: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate to Front Bare. September 15: Apply Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime at 4 pounds per thousand square feet to the entire front and Back Bare (Back Some Grass doesn't need this application). October 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate to Front Bare....See MoreRelated Professionals
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