how bad is this soil!?

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flyingfish88
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Location: Southeastern PA
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how bad is this soil!?

Post by flyingfish88 » September 19th, 2019, 10:01 am

hey,

no specific remediation plan needed. This is soil test for 5 yards I purchased from a supplier. Wanted to use it for some leveling, but after trying to work with it found it nearly impossible. It was extremely hard and formed clumps of all sizes everywhere. I stopped using it and to give the company credit, they did come back and take the remainder and issued a partial refund.

I couldn't help myself and mostly curious, so had a soil test done as I do have this in certain parts of the yard now.

What are your high level thoughts on this? Is this some really bad stuff?




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andy10917
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Re: how bad is this soil!?

Post by andy10917 » September 19th, 2019, 7:01 pm

I have no idea what the hell they're selling or amending for sale, but those are some crazy numbers. I have real doubts about whether that could exist in the real world. I have never in my whole life seen a 51% Base Saturation for Magnesium, especially at a TEC of around 30. That look like a badly-hacked attempt at amending the soil.

flyingfish88
Posts: 101
Joined: August 19th, 2018, 12:39 pm
Location: Southeastern PA
Grass Type: TTTF/PRG/FF
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Some Experience

Re: how bad is this soil!?

Post by flyingfish88 » September 19th, 2019, 8:32 pm

It was really bad. When I first called and told them I couldn’t work with it due to the hard clumps, they asked if I tried breaking it up. While on the phone I started hitting one of the larger sized clumps with my shovel and said can you hear that? It was like hitting a rock it was so hard.

Felt bad for the crew that had to come out and shovel several yards back into the truck but there was no way I could do anything with this.

Lesson learned for next time!


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andy10917
Posts: 29739
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 10:48 pm
Location: NY (Lower Hudson Valley)
Grass Type: Emblem KBG (Front); Blueberry KBG Monostand (Back)
Lawn Size: 1 acre-2 acre
Level: Advanced

Re: how bad is this soil!?

Post by andy10917 » September 19th, 2019, 8:44 pm

You know how I'm always saying that the Ca:Mg ratio may show a very tight//hard soil below 6:1, and definitely will show it at below 4:1?? Well, that is a 1.5:1 soil. Chemically, the bonds are so tight, it's like concrete!! With a Base Saturation inverted and a pH of 8.6, the stuff is useless.

TimmyG
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Re: how bad is this soil!?

Post by TimmyG » September 19th, 2019, 9:09 pm

Yikes.

Impressive micros though! ;-)


flyingfish88
Posts: 101
Joined: August 19th, 2018, 12:39 pm
Location: Southeastern PA
Grass Type: TTTF/PRG/FF
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Some Experience

Re: how bad is this soil!?

Post by flyingfish88 » September 20th, 2019, 11:12 am

haha, my first though was 'eh, at least the OM isn't too bad' :)

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: how bad is this soil!?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » September 23rd, 2019, 8:23 am

It's literally like they mixed in something. Poorly.

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