JPack's Soil Test Results - 2020

[JPack]

Hi ST6!

My 2020 soil test results are below. I followed your soil remediation plans in 2016 – 2018 at my old house. Late 2018, I took a new job and was in transition between old and new locations until end of summer 2019 when I bought my current house. Due to that situation, I had to take 2019 off of lawn and soil work. So, this will be my first year working on the soil at my current property, which has a 1 acre lawn of NoMix.

Although these are for my old lawn, just in case for reference, here is the link to my 2018 post, which in turn links to my 2017 and 2016 posts:
2018 – viewtopic.php?f=11&t=23740&p=321385&hilit=JPack#p321385.
My old lawn was significantly thicker and darker end of 2018 compared to beginning of 2016, and I didn’t like saying goodbye to it when I moved….

Here at the new house, I again have no irrigation system, so irrigation will primarily (or exclusively) come from Mother Nature. Summer dormancy will be the plan for the backyard, but I may irrigate the front yard given it is significantly smaller than the backyard. Hopefully I can install an irrigation system in the future. My goal is to begin improving my soil using “best” approaches so that, like my old lawn, the lawn will gradually improve over time. Looking at the soil test results, I was disappointed to see the pH so high. I’m interested in addressing micros. I need to think about how to address OM, as there are only a few trees on the property (for now), so not even leaves are really a potential source.

Regarding status of the current lawn, including disease: When we went under contract on the house in early summer, the lawn was in decent shape. My neighbors say the previous owners had been using a lawn care service. There were some weeds here and there, but relatively weed-free. The color was OK, but not great. There was room for improved thickness, but it wasn’t terrible. However, at time of final inspection day before closing end of summer, there were some areas of significant damage in the front and back lawn, i.e., completely brown and matted patches. The one patch in the front had some riding mower wheel-sized damage areas leading from the patch area. The previous owners left a note apologizing and saying that their lawn had suddenly become diseased. Their lawn care company had diagnosed it as Pythium, treated it, and told them that the disease was eradicated. I kept a close eye on it during the fall and never saw any signs of disease come back - Pythium or otherwise. Most of the areas ended up having a little bit of grass regrow throughout each area. Based on my reading here on Pythium, I’m going to get stocked with appropriate fungicide in the next couple of weeks and will be keeping a close eye for any signs of return this year (and subsequent years) in the (likely?) event that it does come back. If something other than Pythium comes back, I'll adjust accordingly. I’m going to see how those areas recover during this spring and summer, and then if necessary (probably?), seed those areas in the fall.

As always, thank you so much for taking time to help me improve my soil and lawn. I really appreciate it!

[andy10917]

I read your posting twice - I like it. Between the lines, I think I see a man who's up for a project.

You found it.

The soil is slightly on the "heavy" soil side. That's not terrible if it drains OK. But there are complications...

The Magnesium number is very high - and the Ca:Mg ratio is only < 3:1. Typically, that's a hard-to-work "tight" soil - is it?

Magnesium lifts pH more then Calcium, so trying to replace Mg with Ca is a noble target to lower the pH a bit. Sometimes it works - sometimes not. Apply Gypsum at the heavy bag rate with Fast-Acting Gypsum every 60 days - we'll see in a year whether or not to continue. The numbers will tell us.

Your Phosphorus and Potassium are both low. This actually makes things easier - use a balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10 or 19-19-19. Pick one and post the NPK.. They are near the "regular" fertilizer, but often sold as "garden" or "all-purpose" fertilizer. The application also applies the right amount of

Iron is low, and bioavailability very limited - if you want to get top color, consider read the FAS foliar treatments. Not fun, but it works.

In the micro's, Boron and Zinc are short - are those on the plate for 2020?

I've got a feeling you'll win this!

[JPack]

Hi Andy,

First, as always, thanks so much for your time to help with my soil test interpretation, especially right now with everything that’s going on and the situation you described in your “Running a Little Behind on Soil Test Interpretations” post. I hope your wife and household are continuing to trend in the right direction!

Second, I’m sorry it took me a few days to respond. Work has been both unusual and very busy these days, and also the email notifying me of a response to my soil test post ended up in my junk folder…. It always went right to my inbox in past years, so not sure why my email treated it differently this year. I adjusted so that it shouldn’t happen again.

Yes, I’m up for the challenge! And yes, I think my soil would qualify as “tight” and “hard-to-work,” although I have only limited experience with it so far. Late last fall, I planted a good number of trees along the back property line. Digging the holes wasn’t too bad. But when dumping the soil off of the shovel and onto the tarp, the soil would stay together in the shovel-sized chunks. It wasn’t wet at all – it just remained stuck together in the chunks. Then it was a huge PIA to backfill my holes with my native soil because it took so long to break apart all of the chunks into “loose” enough soil to properly backfill my holes around the tree root balls. I tried using various tools to help me break up the chunks of soil, but none of them worked that well. In the end, I found that breaking up the soil by hand was the most effective way to get the soil the way I needed it to be for backfilling, although it was a painstakingly long process for how many trees I planted. As to the soil’s drainage, I thankfully haven’t noticed a problem with it since moving in. For example, when watering the trees with the hose, the water always seems to soak in well and does not pond up. After heavy rains, the yard is not too soft or inundated. In fact, it’s usually pretty solid even when I suspected that it would be soft due to the amount of rain received (suspected based on my experience with my old yard). As I get more experience with this yard this year, I’ll be watching and learning of any drainage issues. And I’ll be planting more trees this fall, so I’ll see how that goes with the soil again (note to self: stock beer fridge before beginning fall plantings….).

I’ll get Sta-Green Rapid Gypsum. I looked at the back of the bag on Lowe’s website, and I want to make sure I’m understanding which rate you’re suggesting by your “heavy” bag rate recommendation. Although the bag rate for lawns (existing turf, new seed, and/or sod) is 6 lbs/K, the bag does list a heavier rate for vegetable and flower gardens of 12 lbs/K. So when you say the “heavy” bag rate, should I follow the lawn bag rate of 6 lbs/K or the heavier vegetable and flower garden bag rate of 12 lbs/K? I’m assuming that I should follow the 6 lbs/K for lawns, but I want to make sure that I’m correct.

I’ll go with 19-19-19 for the balanced fertilizer. Will the application rate be 5 lbs/K? Is 2 weeks separation between gypsum and balanced fertilizer apps the best practice? Also, in your post above, your paragraph about using a balanced fertilizer got cut off at the end. I’m assuming you were saying that the balanced fertilizer applications will also apply the right amount of nitrogen – is that correct?

I’ll read up on FAS foliar treatments and give that some thought. Curious – with my soil, do you think it’s possible in the future for the pH to get low enough where iron would start becoming more bioavailable?

Yes, boron and zinc are on the plate for 2020.

And thanks for the vote of confidence! I’ll do my best to win this. Of course, I couldn’t do it without your help!

[andy10917]

For the Gypsum, go with the 6 lbs/K.

For the 19-19-19 go with 5 lbs/K.

do you think it’s possible in the future for the pH to get low enough where iron would start becoming more bioavailable?

No.