Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Learn how improving your soil can lead to a better looking lawn
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ken-n-nancy
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Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 4th, 2014, 12:05 am

First off, I want to apologize for having not used Logan Labs or UMASS for the soil test results in this posting. I found the "Steps to Overseeding. Steps to New Establishment." article and followed its steps. I have subsequently read further on this site (after having already sent in the soil to be tested) and found the "Posting a Soil Test for Interpretation" article that requests for soil tests to be done at either Logan Labs or UMASS. After seeing the test results I received from UNH as compared to those that I've seen in postings with Logan Labs or UMASS results, even a clueless newbie like myself can see that the UNH testing provides far less information.

However, even though I realize that the UNH test is second-rate compared to the Logan Labs or UMASS tests and that there may not be any soil test interpreters with time to make suggestions on a UNH soil test, I figured it was better to post what I have then just try to "wing it" on my own! I fully understand that I may not be able to receive any suggestions from the official interpreters.

The "side yard" soil sample is an area of 3300sqft that is planned for overseeding this fall. The current grass is mostly fine fescue (to my untrained eye), but with a fair bit of crabgrass and other weedy grasses here and there.

The "back yard" soil sample is an area of 2500sqft that has just been killed (glyphosate) and scalped in preparation for new seeding. I have a planned "seed down" date of August 23.

More details on my yard and planned renovation can be found in my first posting, Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed.

Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Last edited by ken-n-nancy on November 13th, 2015, 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 4th, 2014, 10:10 am

Ken & Nancy - first WELCOME to the site! So great to have another lawn enthusiast in our midst! I, for one, really appreciate your detailed postings! :)

Unfortunately, your premonition is correct - the official Soil Team 6 labs are Logan Labs (preferably) and UMASS. We're a volunteer group and just don't have the time to be familiar with the HUGE number of labs, their different testing methods and assumptions, and the data they present and HOW.

Were we to start making exceptions, that would exacerbate the problem of having to interpret multiple lab results. I hope you understand and that we really look forward to helping you as we're able :)

It's getting pretty late in the year to do amendments regardless. You'll get maybe half a season of recommendations, whereas if you test in the late winter / early fall when the ground has thawed you'll get more bang for your test buck.

If you do want to retest with Logan Labs this year anyways, we'll be quite happy to advise what we can for the remaining growing season :) :) :) It's $25. It's cool to see the same lab tests come back from the same lab year over year and see the changes.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 5th, 2014, 9:14 am

Thanks for the welcome! I fully understand about Soil Team 6 not being able to open the floodgates on interpreting results from other labs. I'm glad to help update the FAQ article for "Steps to Overseeding. Steps to New Establishment" so that other newbies like me don't send a soil test to the wrong place in the future. Any idea who I should ping about that if I write a new 1st paragraph for that FAQ article? (Maybe I should just post it in this thread?)

I'll collect a new soil sample (probably just one sample this time, since the UNH results were very similar for the two different areas) and get it sent off to Logan Labs ASAP.

Just for completeness, in case others are reading this thread, I figured I'd add that the UNH folks also provided some written recommendations with the test results, based upon the "lawn" checkbox on their soil test form. I was disappointed with the lack of helpfulness of their written recommendations (see image below), as they basically just said that we don't need to
add lime (the pH is good) and that we don't need to add phosphorus. Most of the lawn recommendations section described nitrogen fertilization, which isn't even part of the soil test!

So, I sent them an email asking if they had any recommendations for my potassium and calcium deficiencies. I received a nice reply with some additional advice, which I've included below just so that any lurkers have that info, too.

I'll try to get a new soil sample collected and sent off to Logan Labs today.

Here are the initial "boilerplate" recommendations from UNH:
Image

Below are the contents of their followup email to me:
UNH Extension wrote:I will give you my two cents.
Back Yard:
The calcium is a little low (not really deficient), or at least not in the optimum range. If you applied 20 lbs of lime per 1000 sq ft, you would increase the calcium content in the soil (over time) and not cause any issues with the pH getting too high.

Your soil is very low in potassium and this is fairly common in NH soils due to their nature. To help improve this over time, you could apply either sul-po-mag (sulfate of potash-magnesia or 0-0-22) or the potassium sulfate (0-0-50) that is being recommended for some of the trees and shrubs. I would apply the equivalent of 1-2 lbs of potash per 1000 sq ft by using either 4.5-9 lbs of the 0-0-22 per 1000 sq ft or 2-4 lbs of 0-0-50 per 1000 sq ft. The disadvantage of the 0-0-22 is that it will add some magnesium. However, I do not think that your magnesium levels are in any range to cause issues. I would apply either of these as a supplemental application in addition to the .9 lbs of N per 1000 sq ft using a fertilizer with a 1-0-1 ratio.
I would stay away from muriate of potash (0-0-60) simply because it has a high salt index and could cause injury to the turf.

As to your comment on nitrogen, yes, typically nutrient recommendations for turf grasses are based on applying a certain amount of nitrogen since the plants need that to grow. But when you use a fertilizer with a ratio (N-P-K) of 1:0:1, such as 10-0-10, you would be applying both nitrogen and potassium. You are correct that you don't need any phosphorus because you are already in the "high" range and that is why the 0 is in the ratio.

I would suggest the same approach for the Side Yard.

The one thing I did notice is that the organic matter content on both samples are quite low. Another common occurrence with NH soils. Organic matter buildup is a long term project, so if you can find some organic fertilizers with a 1:0:1 ratio or similar, these may be a better approach than the 10-0-10 which will have no effect on organic matter buildup.

I hope my few cents haven't been too confusing. Let me know if you have any other questions.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by andy10917 » August 5th, 2014, 9:52 am

You got lucky - you found someone (your question was probably responded to by a Master Gardener) that understands a believable amount about soils for turf.

Their ideas are not bad, but we go farther. The person that answered you understands Calcium levels, but we go beyond that and try to move soils toward a balanced ratio of Calcium/Magnesium/Potassium/Sodium, so that the soil structure "opens up" and is naturally more workable. This is based on the work of Albrecht and Reams from years ago. Their work was poohed-poohed during the period of a rather industrial approach to soils, but has returned in the past decade or so. We don't believe that Calcium and Magnesium are interchangeable or that "pH is pH". While we can't be positive because we don't know the lab's tests, I can see that you are showing a 4:1 ratio of Ca:Mg, which is probably close to having symptoms of a "hard, more difficult to work" soil. Did you do the screwdriver tests yet?

When we see the Logan tests (which align very well with our approach), we'll dig in and come up with a plan....

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 6th, 2014, 9:14 am

andy10917 wrote:While we can't be positive because we don't know the lab's tests, I can see that you are showing a 4:1 ratio of Ca:Mg, which is probably close to having symptoms of a "hard, more difficult to work" soil. Did you do the screwdriver tests yet?
I had not yet done an official "screwdriver test" yet, although from my collection of soil samples for the first pair of soil tests I did, I never had any trouble getting the soil sampler (1/2"d) into the soil, unless I hit a rock. (More on that in a moment...)

So, upon your recommendation, I just got back in the house from doing the "screwdriver test." Actually, I couldn't find a clear definition of the "screwdriver test" in the Articles or FAQs like there are for the Soil Structure Test or the Soil Percolation Test.

Searching around on the site, I found plenty of other newbies like me asking for a description of the screwdriver test. I ended up doing what is described in these two responses: Re: Newbie needs grass help! and Re: Grass tearing off like carpet.

What did I find?

On the side yard (planned for overseeding only) I probed about 90 locations with a 6" flat-bladed screwdriver (1/4" blade). In the vast majority of those locations (probably around 70), it went down smoothly into the soil right to the hilt with little to medium effort. In about 10 locations, it would go down smoothly about 4-5 inches and then sound/feel like it hit a gravelly section (some of these were probably encountering the gravel of the septic field, some were probably other rocky bits). In about 5 locations, the screwdriver went down into the soil very easily (like it would in recently tilled soil in a vegetable garden) -- in these spots, a toddler could have pushed the screwdriver in to the hilt. Then, there were about 5 locations (in my roughly random sampling) under a fully mature shallow-rooted maple tree (trunk of over 2 feet diameter) at the edge of my lawn, where the screwdriver was more difficult to get into the first 2-3 inches of soil than any of the other locations I've already mentioned and then would go a variable distance before hitting what sounded/felt like small rocks. I probed more around the maple tree, and found that pattern pretty much everywhere within about 6 to 8 feet of the trunk of the tree, in amongst the big (2-3" dia.) surface roots.

In the back yard, (see photo below for reference) the area in the foreground up to the far side of the deck was like the side yard. However, near the far side of the photo, extending all the way over to the far back left corner (hard to see in the photo) the screwdriver would go in anywhere from 1 to 3 inches and then encounter gravelly soil. I think the gravelly section is my native soil (if one can call it soil). Having dug over there before, it's kind of like what one would find in a gravel pit. Random aggregate of all different sizes, from ball bearing sizes, to marbles, to golf balls, to small fist-sized rocks, to medium bowling-ball sized ones, to bigger ones that you can't move at all. Welcome to New Hampshire, the granite state!

In any case, I suspect the side yard and adjacent portion of the back yard are almost entirely fill that was brought in when the house was built (this section is also clearly above the natural grade, well above the flare of the trunks of trees near the edge of the lawn), while the far back corner of the yard is native soil (that area also seems to be natural "ground level" for the old trees). I suspect this "native soil" is also what I was encountering amongst the roots of the big maple at the edge of my side yard.

Not sure what this tells you, but that's the report of my findings!

Now to head back out to collect soil samples for Logan Labs...

Reference photo for back yard:
Image


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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by andy10917 » August 6th, 2014, 9:23 am

I don't see why that NoMix lawn couldn't be improved with a Triangle Approach weeding and some soil work - we'll see the Logan results soon.

How much sun gets into that back yard? The house and tree line would seem to limit that opportunity.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 6th, 2014, 10:55 am

Your screwdriver test indicates a looser soil - so that's good :) Subsoil is normally very tight and unforgiving.

You very well could have pea gravel a few inches down in those spots obviously. If so, those spots will yellow faster as the root structure will suffer. It's as simple as using a spade to see what's down there. Then you can either remove it or build up more soil over it if you need to leave the pea gravel in place for the septic system.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 6th, 2014, 11:36 am

andy10917 wrote:How much sun gets into that back yard? The house and tree line would seem to limit that opportunity.
Earlier today, I had answered the above question in this post, but when I thought about it further on my drive in to work, my answer was more talking about the renovation and less about the soil management. Accordingly, I've moved my reply over to the Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed thread.

The soil samples went in the mail to Logan Labs today. I ended up compiling two different samples -- one from the side yard, and one from the front yard.

I decided to save some money and not test the back yard via Logan Labs, as the side yard and back yard soil test results from UNH were very similar. Plus, with the new topsoil/compost mix being brought in to the back yard in association with the leveling and renovation, the new top two inches of soil in the back yard will be slightly different anyway. I plan to test the back yard in the spring, hopefully after the new grass is thriving!

The front yard soil could be a bit different than the back yard / side yard soil, as the top few inches are mostly new soil that was brought in by the landscapers in Oct 2013. It definitely looks different than the old side yard / back yard soil -- the front yard soil is darker and maybe a little less sandy than the older soils in my yard. Accordingly, we're getting the front yard soil tested to see what to do with the front yard -- that's the part we want to look the best, too -- how can we realistically do that without a soil test? :-)

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by Lawngone » August 7th, 2014, 9:00 pm

andy10917 wrote: I can see that you are showing a 4:1 ratio of Ca:Mg, which is probably close to having symptoms of a "hard, more difficult to work" soil. Did you do the screwdriver tests yet?
I will be quite interested to see my soil results. My soil definitely seems to be the "hard, more difficult to work" type. Interesting how ca:mg can have that type of impact, if that is indeed the case.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by andy10917 » August 8th, 2014, 8:08 am

Calcium tends to loosen the bonds within the soil, while Magnesium tends to tighten them. Both are needed in the soil, but soils are best when the Ca:Mg ratios are between 7:1 and 10:1...

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 14th, 2014, 1:18 pm

Just received the soil test results from Logan Labs at noontime!

It seems like both the front yard soil and the side yard soil are reasonable, but each needs a fair bit of improvement in various areas. I'm glad I got the front yard tested separately from the side, as it tested significantly different than the side yard, which makes sense, as it is different soil than the side & back yards. I'm looking forward to seeing what the BL/ATY Soil Test Interpreters suggest I do for soil amendments and fertilization.

Plans for each area are described in more detail in my Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed thread. The quick summary is below:

1 - Front Yard - 6700sqft, Northern Mix, renovated fall 2013 on new topsoil, fall 2014 plan is maintenance.

2 - Side Yard - 3300 sqft, mostly Fine Fescue, patchy with weeds (ongoing Triangle Approach plan is about midway through step 2 via CCO application), fall 2014 plan is to overseed with Lesco Shady Select (FF with 10% KBG) with special attention to numerous bare patches (some as big as 3' square) and the area that was our former garden (but is now just bare seedbed)

3 - Back Yard (assume soil test same as side yard) - 2500 sqft, fall 2014 plan is renovation with same seed as side yard. (Reno is in progress, current step is fixing grade then short fallow; striving for seed-down by 23 August.)

I'm not sure whether or not I want to tackle micros. If you feel a micro is particularly deficient, I'll do it. However, if any given micro level is mediocre or better, I'm inclined to let it ride for the fall and then address it in the spring after a new soil test.

Below are the test results. Thanks (in advance) to the BL/ATY Soil Test "Crazies" -- the experience you provide to forum members here is priceless!

Image

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 14th, 2014, 9:55 pm

ken-n-nancy wrote:I'm not sure whether or not I want to tackle micros. If you feel a micro is particularly deficient, I'll do it. However, if any given micro level is mediocre or better, I'm inclined to let it ride for the fall and then address it in the spring after a new soil test.
I've thought about the micros a bit more this afternoon and it seems like spreading micros isn't a whole lot of extra work compared to just doing a Milorganite application. I'm planning to do at least a couple more Milorganite applications still this year, so please provide recommendations on micros, too, if possible. Thanks!

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 14th, 2014, 10:48 pm

Got it, Ken n Nancy! I'll get this going in ST6 HQ STAT!!!! :)

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 14th, 2014, 10:52 pm

And - by the way - it is interesting in that - where they brought in new topsoil for the front yard to improve it - your test indicates it is not as good as the side yard where they didn't...

Anyways - writeup forthcoming.... :)

We'll ask Andy to run the micros to identify major deficiencies. It's pretty simple to modify these anyways and not a huge budget modifier if you're doing a renovation anyways.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 15th, 2014, 7:19 am

HoosierLawnGnome wrote:And - by the way - it is interesting in that - where they brought in new topsoil for the front yard to improve it - your test indicates it is not as good as the side yard where they didn't...
I agree it's definitely interesting to see that my "old soil" is better in some ways than the "new soil" that was brought in for last fall's "professional" lawn renovation!

It really begs the question, for my ongoing back yard renovation, as to whether or not I'd have been better off with keeping just the existing shallow two inches of topsoil, or whether or not it's better to bring in two additional inches of new topsoil to increase the topsoil depth to four inches, yet run the risk of getting a poorer soil? ...water under the bridge...

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 16th, 2014, 9:47 am

Ken-N-Nancy,

It's good that you did a test and separated the front where they brought in new topsoil, from the side zone. I actually like the soil in the side better. This kind of goes along with you never know what they may bring in. I'm not saying they brought in bad soil per se - after all - it could have vastly improved on what it was and made it much better - I'm just saying we KNOW now.

Down to business.

Any idea why you have so much salt in the soil?? That's odd for there to be this much present this time of year.

Your TEC is low. Very low. You have a sandy soil, and sandy soils struggle to hold onto stuff. This is coming from a shortage of all three major cations in the front (Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium (K)), and a lesser deficiency of Calcium and Potassium in the side. The low organic matter is also contributing to this.

9 lbs / K of a good calcitic lime (encap, pennington, mag-i-cal) now and when the ground thaws this spring in the front.

Drop 9 lbs / K of a good calcitic lime now on the side.

Apply Sulfate of Potash (SOP) at 2 lbs / K in both zones two weeks after your lime drop this year.

Try to keep the SOP off of any young seedlings, and get the lime into the soil before you seed too.

The K and Ca will help bring up your pH a bit as well.

Organic matter (OM) is low in both areas, but the side is much lower than the front. This is a very long process of many seasons, but you are in a good position to work on it with your trees! Mulch mow those precious leaves, mulch mow your grass, and add free sources as you're able! This will boost your TEC!

Phosphorus is good in both zones, exceedingly good in the side zone.

Your iron is pretty good in the front. It still needs work in the side zone. Milorganite and spray iron applications are all on the table for you. I'd go the way of milorganite / bay state / etc if you can - that will also help a wee bit with your Organic Matter.

Andy will look at the micronutrients (copper, boron, etc) to see if anything is critical per your request.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 16th, 2014, 11:53 am

First off, I want to thank you and all of ST6 for your efforts interpreting soil tests. Your labors are a big factor in the success realized by members here!
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:It's good that you did a test and separated the front where they brought in new topsoil, from the side zone.
I'm glad I did that too. In the long run, I'd like to try to get down to just one test for everything, but that will need to wait until the separate tests balance out. With yet more different new topsoil in the back yard, I plan to do three separate tests in the spring and then assess how to get down to less tests in the future, so that I'm not paying for three tests every year.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote: I actually like the soil in the side better. This kind of goes along with you never know what they may bring in. I'm not saying they brought in bad soil per se - after all - it could have vastly improved on what it was and made it much better - I'm just saying we KNOW now.
Agreed. I'm quite sure the professionals never tested any of my soil - old or new!
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:Any idea why you have so much salt in the soil?? That's odd for there to be this much present this time of year.
For the front yard, I'm not surprised by the salt content. Our road receives a good bit of salt application each year. I don't use any salt on our driveway, but nonetheless, probably 15 of the 30 cores for the front lawn were in areas that salt would run off from the street, as our "front lawn" includes a lawn peninsula for a total of about 200 feet of street frontage. (See photo below, which was "day 24" of last year's new front lawn.)Image

Salt on roads is a fact of life here in NH with an average of 60 inches annual snowfall. Even though having no sidewalk means I don't need to deal with a hell strip, the salt runoff is a different curse. (See next photo below for a view of our house last winter to give you an idea of snow depth here.)Image

When the road is plowed, salt-laden snow slush gets tossed about 10-15 feet into the lawn. (See next photo below.)Image

Anyway, enough about winter, back to the lawn!!!

The salt runoff from the road can explain the sodium in the front lawn, but doesn't explain it on the side lawn. Until our irrigation system was added last fall, any watering we did of the lawn was softened well water, which contains a fair bit of salt. We probably hadn't watered the side lawn much since 2011, but used to water the side lawn pretty regularly back then as a side effect of watering the vegetable garden (which is currently being seeded for grass...)

I would have thought that any salt from three years ago would have leached out by now, but maybe there's still an elevated level remaining in the soil?

The irrigation system uses unsoftened well water, so the salt content of the water is much less now.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:Your TEC is low. Very low. You have a sandy soil, and sandy soils struggle to hold onto stuff.
Definitely. This is giving me trouble with watering, too, as water flows through the soil very quickly. At least we get a lot of natural rain (annual average of 45 inches, with approx 130 days of precipitation).
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:9 lbs / K of a good calcitic lime (encap, pennington, mag-i-cal) now and when the ground thaws this spring in the front.

Drop 9 lbs / K of a good calcitic lime now on the side.

Apply Sulfate of Potash (SOP) at 2 lbs / K in both zones two weeks after your lime drop this year.
I'll get on the above right away. In order to match up with my availability, I may need to put the SOP down 10 days after the lime -- I hope that isn't pushing them too close together. If you had to choose between 10 days after the lime or 27 days after, which would you do?
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:Organic matter (OM) is low in both areas, but the side is much lower than the front. This is a very long process of many seasons, but you are in a good position to work on it with your trees! Mulch mow those precious leaves, mulch mow your grass, and add free sources as you're able! This will boost your TEC!
I think the reason the front lawn is higher in OM than the side is due to the new topsoil there having a higher OM to begin with. I've started mulch mowing this year, but had been bagging for about 5 years prior (used to side discharge before that). I've had trouble getting leaves mulched sufficiently fine in the past to get down into the lawn instead of smothering it. I'll try to mulch the leaves; maybe I need a better mulching blade for the mower?

As you mention, we have absolutely no shortage of leaves. If we really wanted to go crazy, we could use the leaf blower to blow the leaves out of the woods onto the lawn! (Then the neighbors will definitely think we're nuts!)
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:Your iron is pretty good in the front. It still needs work in the side zone. Milorganite and spray iron applications are all on the table for you. I'd go the way of milorganite / bay state / etc if you can - that will also help a wee bit with your Organic Matter.
Based upon what I've learned here, I put my first-ever application of Milorganite on the front lawn two weeks ago. (0.7#N/1Ksqft) Second-ever application is planned for this weekend at the same rate, with one more app planned for mid-September.

I'm planning on a trek to Quincy, MA in the spring to get Bay State, hopefully with JustAGuy to share gas costs and chat lawns for a couple hours during the round-trip drive to get a year's supply.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:Andy will look at the micronutrients (copper, boron, etc) to see if anything is critical per your request.
Great! The more I've thought about this, since I'm planning Milorganite apps anyway, it doesn't sound like a lot more work to do the micros at the same time, so recommend away!

Thanks again!

tlinden
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by tlinden » August 16th, 2014, 3:31 pm

Quick note on mulching.. if you have a push mower it might be better to upgrade to a more
powerful machine. I tried different blades on my old one, and no matter what it just couldn't
chop them up. I bought the Honda HRX and that thing mulches tall thick grass / leaves/ anything ;-)

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 16th, 2014, 3:54 pm

tlinden wrote:Quick note on mulching.. if you have a push mower it might be better to upgrade to a more
powerful machine. I tried different blades on my old one, and no matter what it just couldn't
chop them up. I bought the Honda HRX and that thing mulches tall thick grass / leaves/ anything ;-)
I do have an el-cheapo 3-in-1 rotary push mower. The issue I've had with mulching in the past hasn't been that the mower would bog down, but that if I just cut the grass with the fallen leaves on top of it, the leaves would only get cut into silver dollar-sized pieces when making a single pass with the mower, instead of getting shredded into small pieces. Maybe I just need to go over the leaves many more times?

tlinden
Posts: 2260
Joined: May 11th, 2014, 5:22 pm
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

Post by tlinden » August 16th, 2014, 4:08 pm

Yeah I had one of those cheap ones (craftsman, on sale, etc lol) and it said it was
a mulch mower but it really couldn't mulch anything. The HRX is a high end push mower,
it has dual blades to mulch it really good. They sit on top of each other so anything
it hits get chopped up finely.

I just put it out there because if you're gonna put a lot of effort into your lawn it
helps having a mower that works great.

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