Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014

[HoosierLawnGnome]

27 day will be better - Ca will displace K - and we don't want to throw money away.

Yeah, you'd think the salt from winter would be leaching through too, particularly in a sandy soil. If it's not watering with softened water, maybe it's another source. At this point I'd just recommend a soil test early spring again and see where it's at and see if what we do this fall helps there.

One thing I'd recommend to combat the road salt is applying gypsum late winter / early spring where you it gets piled up.

[ken-n-nancy]

27 day will be better - Ca will displace K - and we don't want to throw money away.

Thanks for letting me know; I would have botched that up!

Yeah, you'd think the salt from winter would be leaching through too, particularly in a sandy soil. If it's not watering with softened water, maybe it's another source. At this point I'd just recommend a soil test early spring again and see where it's at and see if what we do this fall helps there.

Sounds like a good plan.

One thing I'd recommend to combat the road salt is applying gypsum late winter / early spring where you it gets piled up.

Sounds like that could potentially help, although the grass (at least right now) seems to be doing well near the road (well, except for where the plow physically plows up the topsoil and tosses it into the center of the yard! Any downside to applying gypsum, with regard to it displacing other nutrients?

[ken-n-nancy]

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.

We got 90 pounds of calcitic lime down today on the 10K of the front and side! I (Ken) wasn't quite able to finish the job before having to tackle other chores, so Nancy got an introduction to running the drop spreader and finished the application.

We'll wait at least two weeks before putting the SOP down.

We presume there's no problem with applying Milorganite within that 2-week window? (Is there ever a time that one can't drop Milorganite?)

[andy10917]

Follow the only rule there is for Milorganite: only apply it on days that end in a "Y".

[ken-n-nancy]

Follow the only rule there is for Milorganite: only apply it on days that end in a "Y".

Great, thanks! Ended up putting Milorganite down the next morning (Aug 18) at 0.7#N/1Ksqft.

Can you advise on micros to accompany the next Milorganite app (probably in mid-Sept)? Which ones do I need to buy, with approximate quantities?

Thanks!

[andy10917]

The mocronutrients that you need are Boron, Copper and Zinc. Get a box of Twenty Mule Team Laundry Soap from the grocery, and one lb each of Zinc Sulfate and Copper Sulfate from EBAY/Amazon for each 10,000 sq ft of soil. Ping me for app rates when you have them all.

[ken-n-nancy]

The micronutrients that you need are Boron, Copper and Zinc. Get a box of Twenty Mule Team Laundry Soap from the grocery, and one lb each of Zinc Sulfate and Copper Sulfate from EBAY/Amazon for each 10,000 sq ft of soil. Ping me for app rates when you have them all.

Thanks, Andy! I'll be acquiring the goods this week, with a plan to apply them two weekends from now. I'll let you know when I have everything in hand.

[ken-n-nancy]

OK, I now have the Twenty Mule Team Laundry Soap (Borax), Zinc Sulfate, and Copper Sulfate. Please let me know the application rates for each, along with whether or not they should be the same (or different) for the "Front Yard" and the "Side Yard" and I'll get the micros down this week. Thanks!

[JustAGuy]

Ken, I stopped by Dodge Grain today (when I was on an errand for work) they still have Milorganite for $9.99.
I went in for urea, but they are out and wont have any until Friday. BTW $19.99 for 50#.

[ken-n-nancy]

JustAGuy, thanks for the pricing tip on the Milorganite and urea! I have Milorganite to finish out 2014, still need to buy some urea for winterization, and plan to make a trip down to Quincy for Bay State in the spring for 2015 needs...

[JustAGuy]

I call shot gun

[andy10917]

For the micro's, it's two tablespoons each per 1000 sq ft. The amounts (for now) are the same in both lawns.

Read the Micronutrient Application Guide for how to apply the micro's.

[ken-n-nancy]

For the micro's, it's two tablespoons each per 1000 sq ft. The amounts (for now) are the same in both lawns.

Thanks, Andy, for the timely info -- looking to get the micros down this weekend, so this is perfect! (The lawn looks a little hungry for iron, so hopefully the milorganite will help, too!)

[ken-n-nancy]

The micros went down today on the front and side lawns. Milorganite at bag rate (14.4# per K) with micros of boron, copper, and zinc at 2T/Ksqft.

This application of Milorganite will be the last fertilizer for "early fall" -- now officially starting "The Pause" until topgrowth stops and then it's the urea winterizer.


(Nancy spreading milorganite w/micros on the side (overseed) lawn.)

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I think it's great you two have something you enjoy doing together like that

My kids love to help me out - they are the official coffee ground spreaders and sprinkler function testers

I love that tree line!

[ken-n-nancy]

...

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.

I made the first calcitic lime applications mentioned above on 8/17. I am wondering if, given the warmer than usual fall we've had here in NH (still waiting for our actual first frost) instead of waiting until spring for the 2nd calcitic lime application on the front, if I should put it down now to let it overwinter and thus be able to see its effects via the early spring soil test I plan to do. Alternatively, I could stay with the baseline plan, which would have me getting the soil test in early spring, basically right when I would be adding that 2nd treatment of calcitic lime.

I realize that I want to keep 2 weeks between the upcoming winterizer urea treatment and the lime, and that both would need to get down before the ground freezes. However, right now it looks like I could get the lime down ASAP and still hold off a couple weeks for the winterizer. The grass growth is slowing down, but seems like it's probably still a couple of weeks away from being stopped.

What do you think?

[BoatDrinksQ5]

Sounds like a great plan to me. Fits right in with things i've read in other soil posts (usually regarding southern states) and ground freeze...etc.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

As long as it's 90 days after your previous application, and the ground is still workable (not frozen), then applying the lime now is a great idea.

And yes, just keep it 2 weeks away from the N/K treatments.

[ken-n-nancy]

Today, I put down 60# of Pennington calcitic lime down on 6700 sq feet in the front, for 9#/K of product. The lime was listed as 36% Ca, so that is 3.2#Ca/1Ksqft.

This is the last planned application of anything to the lawn this year. Snow in the forecast for tomorrow, but it's still just a forecast. These meteorologists always seem to over-estimate snow forecasts at this time of year...

PS: Note to self that the Pennington calcitic lime didn't spread half as well as the StaGreen calcitic lime I used in the spring. (Although even the Pennington calcitic lime was 100% better to spread than the "Soil Doctor" calcitic lime I also tried this spring.)

[andy10917]

Snow in the forecast for tomorrow, but it's still just a forecast. These meteorologists always seem to over-estimate snow forecasts at this time of year...

Nor'easters are wickedly tough to predict days in advance, as they have to predict them before they even exist. It can be as little as 6 hours from formation off of the DelMarVa peninsula to arrival in my area, and a 50-mile difference in where it forms/tracks can mean the difference between a foot of snow and just some flurries.