Spring 2020 SE Mass. Soil Test (logan Labs)...

[northeastlawn]

Thanks for the soil report review. This year I only sampled only the backyard and not the hell strips, so it may change a few values.

The lawn is a KBG lawn with 1,500 sf. Last year I follow last years guidelines I applied 2#/k of SOP monthly and Twenty Mule Team laundry soap and Manganese Sulfate at 3 tablespoons/K, every 60 days. I typically apply Bay State Fertilizer at 1/2 bag rate every two weeks from May until July.

[url=https://postimg.cc/zyMt4437][img]https://i.postimg.cc/zyMt4437/2020-Loga ... l-Test.jpg[/img][/url]

Last years 2019 soil test thread....
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24800&hilit=s.e.mass+test

Here is 2018's Soil test thread....
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=23672&hilit=logan

I'll add this too the queue when the post is approved....

[andy10917]

Ummm, I hope you don't feel blown-off by this short interpretation, but last year's regimen is exactly the right thing to do. The overall report is very good (and excellent for Massachusetts!).

Keep it up! A medium Loam in SE MA is rare...

[northeastlawn]

Thanks Andy; I had already planned on buying more SOP this year, my instincts were right :-)

Not sure if this question is getting to advanced, but just curious, is there anything specific that causes a Potassium shortage?

The test results say 253 lbs/acre is good and I have 90, I know they used to use the yard for a vegetable garden for many years. Would that deplete the Potassium in it?

[andy10917]

As I wrote, your soil with a TEC of 12+ and a OM% of 5+ is quite rare in SE MA. Why that is will probably remain unknown. To research it, you'd have to google the appropriate "Soil survey" for your town or survey area - this can take many hours of reading to gather up details - and if the topsoil in your lawn's soil was imported from elsewhere the survey results would be meaningless.

Potassium attaches to clay particles (mineral) or organic material ("OM") and isn't overly prone to leaching if there is adequate clay/OM to hold it. Your 12+ TEC soil shouldn't leach badly. But the native soil of Massachusetts is very old (many millions of years since it was created from mostly granite), and quite acidic due to the lack of cations. Many of the SE MA soils I see in soil tests are so low that they border on "collapse".

As circular as this might seem, the primary reason for a "Potassium Shortage" is that it either never was in the parent material of the soil, or it has been very slowly leaching out of the soil - "old soil" is millions of years old. In soils with clay and good water-retention, hardwood trees pull Potassium from deeper soil and deposit it in the upper soil when they die or shed branches/leaves. Massachusetts soils don't support large hardwood trees that well, so recycling is limited.

There is no way that I could find the time to deep-dive the specifics of your soil, but I know that by doing soil test interpretations for many years that Massachusetts soils are sandy, acidic, and low in cations in general. YMMV.

[northeastlawn]

Interesting, Thanks!!!