Matt's Soil Test

[Mattsbay18]

Here is my soil test. Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,
Matt

[kg70041]

Make sure to post a link to this thread in the Soil Test Interpretation Queue

[andy10917]

I can't wait to get to this one - that is one crazy soil

[g-man]

^ high pH and it seems to need calcium.

[andy10917]

Nope - far more complex. I don't even know if there is a specific word for it.

[g-man]

Ok. No need to wait. Lets break the rules and jump it to the top of the line. :-) I was curious when I saw it this afternoon.

[andy10917]

No, I never jump the line.

On top of that, this was so quick a response that I wrecked the queue thread. Now I need to move these non-queue postings out of the queue. I have to kick my own a$$...

[Mattsbay18]

I can't wait to get to this one - that is one crazy soil

I have a bad feeling you might be referencing my test.

[andy10917]

Ummmmmm. Yeah.

[g-man]

Matt, could you share some background of your yard? Info like what fertilizer have you applied this year?

[andy10917]

G-Man, you're sending him to chase something that couldn't have come from 1, 2 or 3 apps of any fertilizer. That's a strange soil that makes a crazy kind of sense, but it's natural sense.

[Mattsbay18]

Good morning

Matt, could you share some background of your yard? Info like what fertilizer have you applied this year?

G-man, I haven't done much in the sense of fertilizer. A little Milorganite was applied at the beginning of the year but that's it. Our lot is in a new subdivision that sits on top of an old dairy farm. The sub base is littered with fieldstone and the root zone appears to be field run topsoil (not screened).

The calcium magnesium ratio was a bit of a shocker to me (3.2:1). I knew that I had barrier in my soil that was hurting my root development but didn't know it was that bad. Explains why it takes me a bit more water to see results.

My original thought is to apply some type of sulfate to help filter out the magnesium which would yield Magnesium Sulfate aka Epson Salt.

Any who, I look forward to hearing what the experts have to say.

Cheers,
Matt

[andy10917]

Matt, I've done thousands of soil tests - but I don't know if I've ever seen one like your's. I don't even know if there is a name for a soil so dominated by Magnesium. And it isn't going to be fixed by a bit of Sulfates - especially Magnesium Sulfate. The last thing you need is more Magnesium. With years of Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum), you might tilt the ratio a little -- but real change isn't in the cards.

You're going to live with a pH of 8.0. That's OK - it's workable if you use foliar Iron (too bad - there is lots of Iron hanging out!).

The OM is somewhat OK and the TEC is to dream about.

Phosphorus and Potassium are great, too.

Matt, the following is a real recommendation, not an "I give up". I'd use Milorganite heavily (every 2-4 weeks) and that will give you available Iron and Nitrogen -- I personally think this might be a big positive surprise.

Boron is a little short in the micronutrients - do you want to work on that at this point?

[Mattsbay18]

Andy thanks for taking the time out of your day to take a look at my soil test. I too was a little surprised by the amount of Mg in my soil. So surprised that I sent another test to logan labs and the results were the same. Definitely explains why it takes me a bit long to get the proper amount of water when irrigating and why I have spots in my yard with very shallow root depths.

Boron is a little short in the micronutrients - do you want to work on that at this point?

At this point, I want to focus on improving minor macronutrients and secondary nutrients. The lawn is very young. (Will be 1 year old next month) This fall I want to focus on strengthening its secondary root system. I'll tackle micronutrients next year or the following.

I bought a lot of Milorganite at the beginning of the year and will be using it moving forward as I make the switch to organics. I have also been using your BLSC recipe with great results.(Kudos)

On top of Milorganite and BLSC, do you think it would be beneficial for me to add Gypsum or should I focus on adding more OM or both or neither?

Thanks again for your time.