Logan Lab Results - Can You Help Explain Results?
Happy Saturday -
Just got my results back from Logan Labs and I can't interpret the results. I live in San Diego County just west of the 15 FWY. I have also attached a photo of the fertilizer I am using monthly for my 2 year old Potocarpus plants and the 55 new ficus nitda I just planted.
I have been applying CLARUS Screaming Green fertilizer to my lawn every 6 weeks. Great results on my front yard fescue but not nearly as effective on my back yard which is St Augustine.
I really could use some advice on what product would be best for my plants and for my lawn.
Thank-you!!!!!!
And here is a photo of my back yard (much greener right now with winter rye over-seeded).
Comments (8)
dchall_san_antonio
5 years ago
Sigrid
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Logan Lab Results - with Logan Recommendations
Comments (6)Mind you, I always think Logan's evaluations are a little too aggressive for the average lawn, but I completely agree with them on what to add (I just differ on how much and how quickly this should be added). Let's rewrite this for stuff you can get at the Home Depot (or whatever your local big box store is there). At least as far as the P goes. For K, I'd contact a local landscape or smaller garden shop and see if they'll order potassium sulfate (0-0-50) for you. It's the gentlest way of adding potassium, but even so we're not going to push it. They're really not kidding about the gypsum due to the sodium discussed below. Also, they didn't mention iron and should have. Sodium 3.2%/3.8%: This is incredibly high and going to be toxic to sodium-sensitive plants. Fortunately, most grasses are comparatively sodium tolerant, but this is cutting into your lawn quality. Given your high EC and the pounds per acre total (200 range), fairly large amounts of gypsum will be needed to dispel this. Gypsum turns bound sodium ions into sodium sulfate, a salt that washes away easily, and re-binds calcium to the soil. On average, this will tend to lower your pH a little bit. Iron 80-ish: With your pH and grass type, this isn't deficient but isn't going to produce very good color. Whenever you like, regardless of anything else going down, you can apply Milorganite at bag rate to slowly raise your iron and gently feed the lawn (organically, which won't over-amplify your starter or nitrogen applications). While this'll slowly raise your organic matter percentage, you don't really need much help in that department. Your OM levels are fine, but higher is always better within reason. Recommendations: July 1: Starter fertilizer at bag rate on both tested areas. 10 pounds per thousand square feet of gypsum in both areas. July 15: Potassium sulfate at 2 pounds per thousand on both tested areas. August 1: Starter fertilizer at bag rate on both tested areas. 10 pounds per thousand square feet of gypsum in both areas. August 15: Potassium sulfate at 2 pounds per thousand on both tested areas. September 1: Starter fertilizer at bag rate on Outside Lawn only (nitrogen fert on the rest). September 15: Potassium sulfate at 2 pounds per thousand on both tested areas. October 1: 10 pounds per thousand square feet of gypsum in both areas. October 15: Potassium sulfate at 2 pounds per thousand on Center Lawn only. April 15, 2016: Potassium sulfate at 2 pounds per thousand on Center Lawn only. May 15, 2016: Potassium sulfate at 2 pounds per thousand on Center Lawn only....See MoreNeed some help with Logan Labs soil test results
Comments (11)Overall, this isn't a bad test at all. There are some things that require fixing, some that should be adjusted, and many that are just fine. It's good you used the starter on her lawn; she needed it! I'll account for the usage in my calculations and recommendations, assuming you went at bag rate (1 pound of P2O5 equivalent). Sample Depth 3: Four is the normal sampling depth, but that's no big deal. I'll adjust your answers to match a 4" horizon. Exchange Capacity 7.5: Silty sand, probably. The soil holds a tolerable level of resources and testing every other year will be sufficient to make sure nothing's going awry once it's adjusted. pH 6.4: Right where it should be, which is because most of the resources that generate pH are right where they should be. I'll want to adjust a few of them a little bit, but will do so in a relatively pH neutral manner. Organic Matter 4.8%: Nicely in the Good range. Certainly mulch mow, mow all fall leaves, and feed organically if you want, but this is not an emergency. The EC of the soil is high enough that there's no reason to specifically work on organic matter to raise the EC. Sulfur 11: A nice answer, with plenty of margin for adding sulfate-based chemistry to adjust things. I don't need much margin. Phosphorus 77 (103 adjusted): Low, and definitely impacting lawn quality. Target here will be 200. To adjust this, we use starter fertilizer, and my recommendations are below. Calcium 64.6%: Right in optimal range, although with a lower EC soil I'd like to adjust this a tiny bit (that 50 pound [67 pound adjusted] shortage is minor, but...) For this, we use gypsum, which is available at many big box stores, landscape shops, and garden stores. Get the pelletized, it's much easier to handle, if available (and it usually is). My goal here is to nudge the calcium levels closer to 70%. Magnesium 15.4%: Perfect. No magnesium is required or desired. Potassium 5.0%: Perfect (the previous test was wrong on this, I think). No potassium is required or desired, and this is absolutely optimal. Sodium 1.0%: Perfect. Sodium does nothing for a lawn, so very low levels are desirable. The gypsum might reduce this a tiny bit and, if so, great. If not, no problem. Minor Elements: Boron is deficient. The rest are fine, although if you wish to use Milorganite (high iron), that would probably improve the lawn color a little bit over time. Boron <0.2: Deficient. 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. Recommendations: Seeding Time: Starter fertilizer at bag rate (you already did this). October 15: Starter fertilizer at bag rate. November 1: Apply 5 tablespoons (not a misprint) of 20 Mule Team Borax per thousand square feet. April 1, 2016: Apply 5 to 10 pounds of gypsum per thousand square feet (I'd prefer 7, actually, but anything in that range is just fine). Memorial Day 2016: Starter fertilizer at bag rate. Labor Day 2016: Starter fertilizer at bag rate....See MoreNeed help interpreting Logan Lab results
Comments (4)The fastest way to get rid of St Aug is to never water it and mow it as low as possible. Your mowing height looks good. You have considerable shade, but not too much for St Aug. It will be much more dense in full sun, but it will survive in that. The second fastest way to get rid of it is to get a fungal disease started. When you get a disease then adding more sod just contributes to the amount of dead grass you have. The only way I've been successful getting rid of disease in my St Aug was to use corn meal at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Corn meal, as it decomposes, attracts a predatory fungus that feeds on the disease fungus. It takes 3 weeks to see improvement and another 3 to see recovery. Corn meal is also an organic fertilizer, so it's not going to hurt anything if you want to put some of that down. A close up of any St Augustine you have left might be enlightening. Close up means 3 inches away. Most people water improperly. Watering should be deep and infrequent. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Infrequent means no more than once a week in the hottest heat of summer. With temps in the 80s you can back off to once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s no more than once every 3 weeks. The rest of the year you can water once a month. Watering like this should make it very hard for a fungus disease to get started. It should also minimize weed pressure. Mow at the mower's highest setting. I think you've got this one figured out....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
Escondido Gardener
5 years agoEscondido Gardener
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agodchall_san_antonio -
I have been told it's a coastal oak. Here are some photos. Thank you very much for any advice!
Here are 2 photos from underneath the canopy and close to the trunk of the tree. You can see how sparse the grass is in these areas. It looks much worse once the rye dies off.
This area gets the most shade
This is a good example of what the worst 30% of my lawn looks like
dchall_san_antonio
5 years agodchall_san_antonio
5 years agoI'm not sure why my earlier post vanished, but it happened after I attached a second picture. It could be I started typing too soon before the pic had loaded. This time I'm posting the pictures first and I'll comment below.
This picture shows how organic fertilizers work. Thank you to mrmumbles for posting this several years ago. He dropped a handful of alfalfa pellets on his zoysia lawn in mid May and took the picture in mid June. Organic fertilizers take 3 weeks to show improvement, so that was part of the reason for posting. Anyway you can see the improved color, growth, and density. I see the same effect using alfalfa pellets or with corn meal. These are plain grains out of a 50-pound sack from the feed store. This year corn costs me $10 and alfalfa pellets are $14. Your prices in Escondido will be different due to shipping. Call all the feed stores in the area to get availability and prices. If you don't have many feed stores the only one I know of even close is near Temecula on the road to Palm Desert, and that was 15 years ago, so it's probably a subdivision by now. The application rate for these grain type fertilizers is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You seem to be familiar with organics, but if you have more questions I can help with that. Surprisingly, wild animals are not usually attracted to these grains. My dog, on the other hand, loves this stuff. But he can't eat much.
This next picture shows the difference between daily watering (the norm in California and Florida) and deep and infrequent watering.
Thanks to morpheuspa for posting this pic several years ago. His is the green lawn. Photo was taken in July, so summer. All the lawns in the neighborhood are KBG in eastern PA. Everyone uses chemical fertilizers and waters daily in the summer. Morph uses only organic fertilizer and waters deeply and infrequently. In our terms, deeply means 1 inch every time you water. Infrequently means once per week in the hottest heat of summer (temps higher than 90). With temps between 80 and 90, then water once every 2 weeks. With temps between 70 and 80, water once every 3 weeks. With temps lower than 70, water once every 4 weeks. Usually you cannot change from your more frequent watering to infrequent watering cold turkey. You have to wean yourself off of shallow and frequent watering by going to deep watering first. So deep means 1 inch. You can time how long that is with your sprinklers by setting out several cat food or tuna cans. When all the cans are full, that is your watering time from now on. With my oscillator sprinkler, hose, and water pressure it take 8 full hours to get 1 inch. Your system will probably be much less than this, but 45 minutes seems a little short. This approach works in Phoenix (where I first got the info) and in Vermont, so it should work for you. Start with these temps and times and adjust (slightly), but in Escondido you should never be watering twice a week. It's April in Texas, and I have not watered my front lawn yet this year. If you have really mushy or really sandy soil, adjust. If you have half a day of morning fog every day, adjust. If you have dense shade, adjust. Deep and infrequent watering is the single most important thing you can do to help your lawn. It will help with nutrition, disease prevention/avoidance, weed pressure, and will cure arthritis. Well, but it really does those other things.
Hard soil is a sign that your soil biology needs a boost. A healthy soil becomes soft to walk on when it is moist and returns to firm when it is dried out. You should see that when it rains and sometimes when you water. Right after the rain or deep watering, the soil should become very soft to walk on - like walking on a sponge. The easy way to restore the health of the beneficial microbes is with shampoo. Professionals use a version of this which costs $70 per gallon, but you can do it with any clear shampoo. The application rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. For example if you have 2,000 square feet, then put 6 ounces of shampoo into a hose end sprayer and fill the bottle with water. If it has a dial, set the dial in the middle. Spray the entire lawn evenly until the bottle is empty. That will have put exactly 6 ounces on 2,000 square feet. Follow that up with 1/2 to 1 inch of water to get it down deeper into the soil. It takes 3 weeks before the microbes fully respond to this, but it will open your soil whether you feel it or not. You cannot overdo this. People have tried. You could spray 64 ounces per 1,000 square feet and it would not hurt the lawn.
In the shade of your oak tree you might have thinner St Augustine. My live oak was 70 years old with a canopy 30 feet high. It cast shade on the entire yard. The grass was not nearly as dense as it was in the back with half day of full sun, but it was not bad. It always gave full coverage of the soil.
Get the leaves out of the turf and find some herbicide with atrazine. Most of the major brands have a version. Now is the time to apply. Careful about overspray, because it is death to everything but St Aug. Then encourage the st Aug by fertilizing it frequently but not the weeds. Do this by hand for the stringers. Actually I do my entire yard by hand because alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow sized) don't go through my spreader evenly.Escondido Gardener thanked dchall_san_antonioEscondido Gardener
5 years ago
dchall_san_antonio