Nick’s New Lawn Soil Test

Learn how improving your soil can lead to a better looking lawn
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This is me
Posts: 77
Joined: July 17th, 2018, 10:13 am
Location: Northen MA
Grass Type: Front-SS Sunny Mix. Back-SS KGB Mix
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
Level: Novice

Nick’s New Lawn Soil Test

Post by This is me » October 1st, 2019, 3:18 pm

The soil at our last house was so bad that Andy suggested we move. I heeded the advice and just moved to a new construction house last week. The lawn is about 20k and I seeded last week with a mixture of Blueberry, Bewitched, and Moonlight from Valley Green blur tag. I’m seeing strips of sprout probably due to my piss [banned word] job spreading it due to timing.
It’s probably too late in the year to do anything but your advice will get me prepared for Spring.
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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: Nick’s New Lawn Soil Test

Post by andy10917 » October 3rd, 2019, 7:32 pm

OK, it's an upgrade, but there's work to do...

The TEC of < 5 means it's a sandy soil, prone to leaching. It would be even more so if it weren't for the OM, which is between mediocre and OK. Work on that to keep what you apply.

In the cations, Calcium is OK, Magnesium is low and Potassium is low. But remember - the bar is very low at a TEC like your's. So, low to start-off and prone to leaching makes life tough. Your pH is the product of this combo, and at 6.3 is not overly troublesome. I'd apply additional Calcium and Magnesium to use up your pad space to fight the lurking challenges - 5 lbs/K of good calcitic lime, mixed with 2 lbs/K of Epsom Salts will buy you some headroom. Apply it at 7 lbs/K.

When Phosphorus is OK (your's is fine) and Potassium weak, I have to send you on a trek to fins Sulfate of Potash ("SOP", 0-0-50) -- not so easy. Apply it at 2 lbs/K, monthly starting in April.

Iron is fine.

In the micro's, only Boron is short. Want to deal with that?

Do you need a Nitrogen plan?

This is me
Posts: 77
Joined: July 17th, 2018, 10:13 am
Location: Northen MA
Grass Type: Front-SS Sunny Mix. Back-SS KGB Mix
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
Level: Novice

Re: Nick’s New Lawn Soil Test

Post by This is me » October 4th, 2019, 9:40 am

Thanks Andy
I have 15 bags of BSF from my last house and 2 50lbs of Urea. Please recommend the amount of Borax I need to mix with the BSF.

Also, I'm getting sprouts from the KBG seeding. Do you think it's okay to winterize or skip it this year when the time comes?

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