Logan lab soil test result
6 years ago
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Help with Logan Lab soil test results
Comments (2)This is interesting! Your soil has a bit of a split personality, so we have to treat the front and back differently. It happens sometimes, particularly on slopes, or where a lot of soil was brought in originally to create the grade. As to where the division lines are between the soils, that may or may not be clear. Just do the best you can. Where recommendations go on both the front and back, I've taken care to keep them together. Where they don't, the chips fall where they may. EC 14.5/21.1: Both are moderately heavy soils, and I'd expect a lot of silt in both. The back may include some clay, although I wouldn't expect a vast amount. Both soils hold a lot of resources (back more than front) and are more resistant to change than the average. pH: Always a symptom, never a cause. We'll deal with both individually under Ca, Mg, and K. Ultimately, your natural pH balance looks like it'll be a bit lower than what I tell most people--6.3 or so--but with an EC like that, I'm not terribly worked up about hitting it quickly because that won't happen. OM 3.4/5.0: Fair in the front, good in the back. Certainly mulch mow and consider organic feedings; although good is good, it isn't excellent. Higher levels of OM mean more water retention and less watering. Sulfur 6/11: Both are pretty normal, although the front is kind of trim. It doesn't matter as I've made recommendations below for a sulfate based potassium, which will boost sulfur levels a little bit. Neither is deficient. Phosphorus 111/279: The target for you is 200. The front is low, the back is great (the extra P simply gives you margin against usage and leaching). The recommendations are below. Calcium 71%/45%: A little high in the front (but nothing to worry about), but extremely low in the back. Recommendations below under the Back section. Magnesium 17%/12%: Both are fine and in the optimal range. No magnesium required or desired as it tightens soils (hence the calcitic lime recommendation below; cheap lime contains a lot of magnesium in addition to being slow, far less effective, and overall more expensive when you have to correct the problems). Potassium 0.7%/0.7%: Borderline deficient. Most garden stores or landscape shops will be glad to order potassium sulfate for you if you ask (or you can get it over the Internet but shipping is a killer). Recommendations below. Sodium 0.25%/0.25%: Perfect, Low sodium levels are desirable, even though this looks like it's off the normal scale. Most Minor Elements: Fine, except for boron and copper. I'm not inclined to adjust copper this year with everything else going down. Normally, I'd ignore boron this year as well, but in this case we can't. I've included a few words about iron below as well. Boron 0.23/<0.2: Deficient. We use Milorganite to apply this as the amounts are very small (0.2 PPM is 200 parts per billion). Target is 0.7 PPM. In a wheelbarrow or something like, and adjusting for your 1600 square feet, dump a full bag of Milorganite. Add 4.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry section of your grocery store) to the Milo. Spray very lightly with water as from a hand-held spray bottle (the hose even on light spray will wet it too much). Mix. Spray occasionally to damp the Milorganite and make the 20 Mules stick. Keep mixing. Apply the entire bag to your 1,600 square feet by setting your spreader low and criss-crossing several times. The Milorganite will also give you a nice boost of iron--making the lawn greener--and a nice gentle feeding with organic nitrogen. Iron: 175/201: Both are fine, definitely not deficient, but may not produce the best color in the lawn--particularly in the back as the calcium and potassium hit. At any time you like, you can apply Milorganite at bag rate (your full lawn will use about 2/3 of a bag) to gently feed your lawn and apply iron for deeper color. Front Recommendations (fescue): May 1: Apply 3 pounds potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. May 15th: Apply any starter fertilizer (high second number like 18-24-6) at the bag rate. June 1: Follow the above prescription for boron. September 1: Apply any starter fertilizer at the bag rate. September 15: Apply 3 pounds potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. October 1: Apply any starter fertilizer at the bag rate. Follow the above prescription a second time for boron. Growth Stoppage: Apply any high nitrogen fertilizer at the bag rate (don't use starter at this time). The date on this varies, but is usually November 15 give or take a lot. Back Recommendations (Bermuda): General: Bermuda should be fed monthly throughout the growing season with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. That won't interact with anything except the calcium (plus potassium to a lesser extent, but I'm not worried about that). Try to leave at least 1 good rainfall (or irrigation) and 2 weeks between feeding and calcium. April 15: Apply Mag-I-Cal or Encap calcitic lime at 5 pounds per thousand square feet; don't buy cheap lime as it's ineffective and will mis-balance magnesium levels. May 1: Apply 3 pounds potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. June 1: Follow the above prescription for boron. September 15: Apply 3 pounds potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. October 1: Follow the above prescription a second time for boron. October 15: Apply Mag-I-Cal or Encap calcitic lime at 4 pounds per thousand....See MoreSoil 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 Soil Test Results // Ref. "Could Red Fescue be my Problem?"
Comments (25)@becky: Good point! I should just boilerplate a disclaimer up top. In some cases, I'm slamming the grass with N. In others, nothing... >>Because the soil was so hard; I thought it may be a heavy clay based soil. So I had the irrigation system programmed to water the lawn every third day applying a half inch of water at a time to eliminate run-off. (So much for what I know!! ) Is the half inch at a time schedule okay? Or do you think the lawn may require more than 1" of water per week? If so; what would you suggest as a watering schedule? I folded all this together. :-) Observation will show you what's required; during cooler weather, like spring and fall, very little watering may be required, or even none at all. I haven't used the sprinklers since September even though rainfall's been a bit low. Half an inch on very sandy soil is generally a good place to start, and figure you may need it twice a week in hot weather. Weekly in pleasant summer weather. I always play it by ear and water when my grass starts to wilt--which also sends the signal to the grass that more root mass might be a good idea. >>Based on the soil test results do you think my soil problem can be corrected On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being very bad, and 10 be very good. Where on the scale would you put my soil? All soils can be corrected and yours is certainly no exception to that. Mine started out more than ten times as acidic, with essentially no calcium, modest magnesium, and very low potassium. Not to mention a nearly complete lack of every other resource. These days, it can grow anything I throw into the soil (as long as the plant is compatible with my climate and the sunlight it gets, of course). The problem isn't getting plants to grow, it's getting them to stop taking over! There was a visible battle front between the ageratum and zinnia this year. Overall, I'd give your soil about a 5 at the present instant...it's almost exactly what I'd expect for your locale, without modifications. That can easily be turned up to the 7 to 9 range. 10 is possible but would take years of work....See MoreLogan Labs Soil Test Results & Recommendations Help
Comments (1)I really don't like their recommendations for a number of reasons. One, sulfur doesn't work. Surface applied, you'll lose three quarters to outgassing to the atmosphere as sulfur dioxide (smog), so thanks for the air pollution. :-) They also recommend some rather difficult or expensive sources (11-52-0, for example). I have monoammonium phosphate on hand. You almost certainly don't. And so on. The zinc and copper aren't necessary, both levels are perfectly reasonable in your soil. In the below, I've assumed you have a northern lawn. If that's incorrect, this will still work, but southern lawns would benefit from a slightly different schedule. ME 22.9: This is a little overinflated by your excess calcium, which results in an ME that's somewhat high. I'm using a standard of 15 for soil applications as it's safe to do so. pH 7.6: Kind of high, but get used to it. There's not terribly much you can do about it (as mentioned, surface applied sulfur does not work very well). Fortunately, lawns are extremely tolerant of a pH in this range, although color will suffer a bit. OM 5.5%: In the Good range, so no specific work needs to be done here. Sulfur 13: Well within normal range. Phosphorus 147: While a bit low, it's nothing extreme and unlikely to be causing much in the way of visible problems. Still, with your pH, I'd really prefer this to be in the 260 range (higher pH levels inhibit phosphorus release). We use good old-fashioned starter fertilizer to do this--just get the cheapest as they all work the same. Recommendations below. Calcium 80.8%: High, but not a problem, and almost impossible to dispel. Certainly avoid any calcium sources. Magnesium 12.9%: On paper, a tad low. In reality, it's just fine--your very high Ca levels are masking some of the Mg in your soil. Your plants have no trouble getting all the magnesium they need, and then some. Don't add more. Potassium 1.8%: This is short on paper, and looks shorter in the soil than it really is. It should be enhanced, but not quite to the levels their recommendations listed. We use potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash) for this, which some garden stores and landscape places carry--or they'll order it for you. Recommendations below. Minor Elements: Fine, but I do mention iron and boron below. Iron 110: Just fine and not a problem, but it won't produce the best color at a pH of 7.6. Whenever you like, you can apply Milorganite at the bag rate to very slowly raise this. Boron 0.55: A tad low. This won't be an issue, but I would like to correct it. 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 7.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax. Recommendations: May 10: Apply 3 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. Memorial Day: Feed the lawn with starter fertilizer at the bag rate. June 15: Apply 3 tablespoons per thousand square feet (not a misprint!) of 20 Mule Team Borax. Labor Day: Feed the lawn with starter fertilizer at the bag rate. October 1: Feed the lawn with starter fertilizer at the bag rate. October 15: Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet....See More- 6 years ago
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