California shut down most of their county offices? WOW that is too bad. UC had one of the best multi-county extension services in the country. Many states pattern their programs after them. They still list individual county contact info and services on their website http://ucanr.org/County_Offices/ so they may be able to direct you to a soil test source. Maybe they have combined some of them during the state budget crunch and will be able to open them back up if the fiscal crunch ever ends. Meanwhile you can apparently get a soil test done via ANR Labs at UC linked site below with contact and how-to info. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: ANR Analytical Labs

Yep, it's entirely possible you got a flawed reading last year, with the better (but not what I'd call stellar) soil that came with the sod. I reproduced last year's recommendations below with some modifications. If it isn't inconvenient for you, do this again. It won't hurt, but might not help--we won't know until 2017. I stepped up the amount of calcium considerably and cut the boron. We'll ride that for a year. Don't bother to top dress. Peat moss contains no nutrients, cow manure contains far too much nitrogen. :-) Just keep tossing the organics around, it's easier, cheaper, and will do the same job. I didn't include most things like cracked corn below as they can be dropped whenever you wish, even on the same day something else goes if you want! Recommendations for 2016: May 1: Apply any starter fertilizer at bag rate. Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. May 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal calcitic lime at 4 pounds per thousand square feet. June 1: Apply 1 pound Epsom salt per thousand square feet. Apply Milorganite at the bag rate. June 15: Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. July 1: Apply Milorganite at the bag rate. August 1: Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.. Apply Milorganite at the bag rate. September 1: Apply any starter fertilizer at half the bag rate. October 1: Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. October 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal calcitic lime at 3 pounds per thousand square feet. November 1: Apply 1 pound Epsom salt per thousand square feet. November 15: Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

Logan Labs was picked by crowd sourcing. I believe morph was a part of that process where soil tests were sent to several labs to be checked, rechecked, and cross checked. Logan Labs and UMASS were distant winners in the test due to comprehensive testing at a low cost, proper testing procedures and chemistry, accuracy of results, test reliability, and retest repeatability. UMASS lost a close race due to inconsistent repeatability where they tested the same sample of soil and got marginally different answers. That's how I remember it. Can you add to that or clear things up Morph? The main problem with other labs is they don't provide a comprehensive test for all the micro nutrients, that Logan Labs and UMASS do for their most basic tests. If you want all the macros, micros, and organics tested at another lab, you'll have to pay for the basic plus micros plus organics. And then the cost goes up for several reasons and the repeatability goes down, because they're not doing their routine tests any more. They're doing something they haven't practiced a lot. Or it might be different people doing the test every time. Whatever, only two labs passed the high bar set by the lawn community.

Another little update and another question: Yard is greening up nicely. Section F1 is trailing far behind B1, but I'm not concerned at this point. Since I last checked in I've continued with the plan and added a 24-25-4 starter fertilizer. I supplemented that with Milorganite at 1/2 label rate. Next up in the soil plan is the epsom salt and potassium sulfate this weekend. I *could* put that down, but I'll be aerating in 2 weeks though,at the same time as my next starter fertilizer and Milo application. So if I wait and apply the epsom salt, the potassium sulfate, and the fertilizers at the same time, they'll have the benefit of deeper soil access. Should I worry about applying those at the same time though? Is there the potential to burn the grass?