oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

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oze
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oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by oze » November 25th, 2015, 4:06 pm

I can't believe that the 2015 season is over. This being my first full season as a member of this board, I have learned so much, and am thankful to all here for their help.

Attached are the results of my soil test for this year; I did not attach last year's results to avoid confusion, but have inserted a link to the discussion thread. Please let me know if it would be helpful to include the 2014 results snapshot in this thread, and I will do so. I hope to see how far I have come and also, realize how much farther I still need to go in order to make my soil the best it can be in the support of a healthy lawn.

In accordance with the recommendations of the experts here, in 2015, I have applied a total of 8 pounds per 1000 square feet of both MAP and SOP over four applications, and 4 tablespoons of Borax per 1000 over two applications. At seed-down time for my overseed project in August, I dumped 25 pounds per 1000 of Encap Pellitized compost. Also, 6 applications of both Best Lawn Kelp Help Plus Humates and Soil Conditioner were applied this year, and the improvement in drainage shows. I will continue to apply them next year. I also think that I will have a good source for spent coffee grounds next year, which I will apply when available--no more pellitized compost any more, I guess. :(

Nothing was applied on the lawn (except mulched leaves and grass clippings) after September 17th, about 8 weeks before the sample was taken. In addition to mulching, I have applied a total of 7.55 pounds of nitrogen per 1000 square feet this year, the majority of it being in the form of Milorganite, although the MAP and winterizing urea applications also contributed. I plan on cutting back on the Milo applications a bit next year, unless I keep finding sales I can't refuse.

Finally, here is a link to last year's analysis thread: http://aroundtheyard.com/soil/oze-soil- ... 15639.html

So, once again, can ST6 help me out with the plans for Year 2 (2016) for my soil? I greatly appreciate all you folks do, thank you very much!

2015 Results:
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ken-n-nancy
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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by ken-n-nancy » November 25th, 2015, 4:29 pm

Oze, I'm not an ST6 member, but those look like encouraging results to me! Most everything (well, at least the major things) seems to have moved in the right direction. You'll probably have a very similar plan for next year, though, as your high-TEC soil needs a lot of amendment to budge much. (I guess that's an advantage of my low-TEC soil in a sad sort of way.)

Keep up the good work! I presume you're pleased with how the grass has responded to the increased fertilizer?

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oze
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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by oze » November 25th, 2015, 6:03 pm

Thanks, K&N! No doubt that the grass looks better than it ever has, and did so even before the overseed (which has also responded better than I had hoped). The regression of the boron, and especially the iron (given all of the Milo) is puzzling, but most of the rest seems to have the arrow pointing in the right direction.

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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » November 26th, 2015, 11:07 am

Well, that shows some solid improvements! :good:

I don't see much reason to shake up the plan this year - we were able to bring up the P and K without increasing your pH. Your OM also shows an increase! :good:

The other thing I notice is that the major cations are evening out.

So, just repeat this year's plan next year in terms of applications. These things take time!

For the micronutrient plan, let's have Andy weigh in on how much is needed. That might be different from this past season's.

Nice work!

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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by andy10917 » November 26th, 2015, 11:22 am

The max amounts for 2016 will not be established until I analyze all the results (all soil tests) for 2015, which will be in January. Do you want 2015 rates, or should we wait?


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oze
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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by oze » November 26th, 2015, 4:50 pm

andy10917 wrote:The max amounts for 2016 will not be established until I analyze all the results (all soil tests) for 2015, which will be in January. Do you want 2015 rates, or should we wait?
Let's wait, by all means, Andy. Thanks!

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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by oze » November 26th, 2015, 4:53 pm

HoosierLawnGnome wrote:Well, that shows some solid improvements! :good:

I don't see much reason to shake up the plan this year - we were able to bring up the P and K without increasing your pH. Your OM also shows an increase! :good:

The other thing I notice is that the major cations are evening out.

So, just repeat this year's plan next year in terms of applications. These things take time!

For the micronutrient plan, let's have Andy weigh in on how much is needed. That might be different from this past season's.

Nice work!
Thank you, HLG! But alll I did was to follow yours and Andy's recipes. Heck, even I can do that! Going to work harder to find a cheaper source of SOP!

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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by andy10917 » November 28th, 2015, 10:39 am

One point that got by the others that looked at the test -- the Sodium number is pretty high, and that can affect the pH pretty strongly. Any ideas about where that comes from?

In the micro's, it's only Boron that needs work. I assume you still have plenty of that, yes? We'll wait for the rates once I do the winter analysis.

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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by oze » November 28th, 2015, 12:27 pm

andy10917 wrote:One point that got by the others that looked at the test -- the Sodium number is pretty high, and that can affect the pH pretty strongly. Any ideas about where that comes from?

In the micro's, it's only Boron that needs work. I assume you still have plenty of that, yes? We'll wait for the rates once I do the winter analysis.
Andy,

Yes, plenty of 20 Mule Team in the laundry room; it gets replenished every month or so there. :)

I noticed the increased sodium myself, but I don't know enough to question it. As to where it comes from, I have no idea--any thoughts? For completeness, here is a list of everything that I have applied to the lawn this year, ignoring (for now) amounts and timing. If there is anything I can do to reduce the sodium, I sure would appreciate any advice.

Benefin/Trifluralin
MAP
SOP
BL Kelp Help/Humates and Soil Conditioner
Grub-X
Milorganite
Propicanazole
Serenade
Actinovate
Daconil
Velocity
Encap Pellitized Compost
Primo Max
Tenacity
City Water

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oze
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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by oze » November 28th, 2015, 1:03 pm

I'm reading the 2015 Fort Wayne water quality report, and while it doesn't list everything, it does indicate that measured sodium levels ranged from 12 to 39 ppm. I am beginning to understand that high sodium level causes, effects and treatment are a lot more complicated than just the sodium levels in the irrigation water, but I wanted to include that in the list of what I have applied to my soil this year.

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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by LoneRanger » November 28th, 2015, 1:36 pm

I was going to point at water source. I don't see anything else, to my knowledge. I certainly hope it's not the compost. I cultivated over 10-bags/k(180-lbs/k). I'm pretty sure it's not, but I haven't had my soil re-tested either.

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oze
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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by oze » November 30th, 2015, 6:39 pm

I don't know if a discussion of soil sodium levels would be of interest to the rest of the members or not--if so, I should start a new thread.

Anyway, I have been doing some reading, and seem to have arrived at somewhat of a Catch-22. On one hand, applying gypsum seems to be mentioned often as a means to treat sodic soils, maybe even contributing to floculation in clayey soils like mine.

On the other hand, I already have an excess of calcium in my soil; I don't think that adding more is a good idea. There is hope, I guess, in that, having high levels of calcium and magnesium seems to ameliorate the effects of sodium on the turf(minimizing sodium adsorption ratio--SAR). But all of this chemistry, while fascinating, seems to be referring to levels of these elements in irrigation water. Does it hold true in general for what is present in the soil?

I was really hoping that I found a magic bullet-in-the-spreader with gypsum to amend my soil. *Sigh*.

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Re: oze's Soil Test: Fall, 2015

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » November 30th, 2015, 7:07 pm

Seems like a discussion on what is the lesser of two evils.

Yes, your calcium is high - but it's not like you would want to apply 30 lbs / K like we often recommend to bring those levels up. We'd be talking about a much lower rate of application. Personally, I found a light sprinkling of it on the edges where I got salt runoff from sidewalks to be sufficient in preventing it from yellowing out first thing in the spring.

Maybe a light application every now and then - or only when you have been irrigating a lot (if you believe your water is the source) - would be a good way to combat the sodium without pouring it on like you would to amend your soil's Ca level.

Frankly, I don't know the "magic rate" to apply there - but we're not talking about dropping levels to dramatically increase your Ca levels in short order.

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