Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

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growingpains
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Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by growingpains » March 16th, 2021, 11:01 pm

Hi all! This is my first time doing a soil test (Sorry I missed the note that the sample should have only been at 3"-4" depth). Recently bought my first house and am looking forward to starting a lawn this year. The house is new construction so I am planning to lay Bermuda TifTuf for its drought tolerance.

Location: West Texas
Lawn Size: 8,000 sq. ft.
Grass Type (To Be): Bermuda TifTuf
Experience: Novice

Thank you in advance.

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andy10917
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by andy10917 » March 16th, 2021, 11:06 pm

Put a link pointing to this posting into the Soil Test Interpretation Queue

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andy10917
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by andy10917 » March 20th, 2021, 9:50 am

I see why Morph took a pass on this one.

I hate when this happens - the first-time soil test results come back showing a pretty bad calcareous soil situation, and I have to put the member into the situation of choosing between re-running the test (which costs more money and time) or living with me having to estimate and guess at what the correct results might be.

Garrett, unfortunately you're stuck with making the decision - I can do my best and hope I'm right, or you can ask Logan Labs to re-run your test with the "Ammonium Acetate extraction of cations". Calcareous soils require special testing, as there is so much Calcium in the soil that it distorts the Calcium and all of the other results. I'll get it read as soon as you make the call...

growingpains
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by growingpains » March 20th, 2021, 10:47 am

Hi Andy, I appreciate the transparency on the calcium issue. I will take your best estimate for this sample. But I have made a note for next year to include the additional test from Logan Labs. Thank you very much for your help!

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andy10917
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by andy10917 » March 20th, 2021, 10:56 am

It's not an additional test, it's a instead-of thing.


growingpains
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by growingpains » March 20th, 2021, 12:28 pm

Ahh ok, sorry that took me a minute. I’m following you now for how to request the sample report next year.

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andy10917
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by andy10917 » March 23rd, 2021, 7:46 pm

Sorry, Growingpains - you were on-hold for a bit because we don't do brand spanking new members' soil test interpretations when long-established members have requests pending. We're caught up and here is your stuff:

With a TEC of 34 and a pH of 8.4, I didn't need the 6+ tons of Calcium information to tell me this is a calcareous soil. Many of the "minus numbers" on the test are false shortages caused by distortion.

These are shortages that are real and can be addressed:

The organic matter (OM%) at 2.2% is poor, and you should apply mulched leaves, peat moss and/or compost frequently and heavily.

Phosphorus is quite low. Any fertilization should be done with a Starter Fertilizer with the highest middle NPK number you can find.

The Iron number is one of the lowest I've seen in a long time, but even if it were higher, it wouldn't matter as soil-applied Iron is completely unavailable at a pH of 8.4. If color is poor, you should read about foliar Iron applications in the Articles/FAQ area. This will help, but requires frequent applications.

That's about all I'm comfortable about guessing - next year make sure to specify the "Ammonium Acetate" test be run.

growingpains
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by growingpains » March 23rd, 2021, 9:45 pm

Andy, thank you so much for your time and insight. I'm very grateful for it! (Especially being a newbie to the site)

Is there an OM percentage you recommend targeting? I'm planning to have compost delivered and will be tilling it into the soil prior to laying the sod. Hopefully the initial large application will kick things off strong on that front.

I'll make sure to find a starter that is high in phosphorous. Luckily, the soil color isn't bad (the least of worries at the moment haha).

As a novice, this is great to have some simple targets for the coming year. I'll be ready next year with the correct test to step up to the intermediate level :)

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andy10917
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by andy10917 » March 23rd, 2021, 10:02 pm

I'm planning to have compost delivered and will be tilling it into the soil prior to laying the sod. Hopefully the initial large application will kick things off strong on that front.
I have almost 30,000 posts, and if you read them all, you wouldn't find one that says that rototilling is a good idea.
Luckily, the soil color isn't bad (the least of worries at the moment haha).
That's the grass color, not the soil color.
As a novice, this is great to have some simple targets for the coming year.
Sure. I just finished an interpretation for someone who worked hard on his lawn to reach the "target". It took him a decade. Moving OM up by 0.5% per year is very good and takes work. The "target" is 5.0% percent.

Lawn care and soil remediation are a marathon, not a sprint.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by MorpheusPA » March 24th, 2021, 12:01 am

andy10917 wrote:
March 23rd, 2021, 10:02 pm
I have almost 30,000 posts, and if you read them all, you wouldn't find one that says that rototilling is a good idea.
I think I recommended it once. It involved heavy equipment repeatedly using the same path over and over again and they wanted a quicker fix. I still said that aeration would be better and letting time and nature do the work, but if they really wanted to, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Just expect bumpiness and a year or so of settling down before it returns to a normal soil.

And sometimes for a garden it's not completely a bad thing to do, I guess, if you're old school and insist that you have to and your doctor says you need exercise. It's better than watching reruns on TV.

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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by bpgreen » March 24th, 2021, 1:12 am

Neither Andy nor morpheus answered your question about a targeted om%. I'm not sure whether that was intentional or not.

2.2% is low. But you're not going to change it quickly.

Mulch mow always. If you have trees, mulch now the leaves. If you brew beer, spread your diluent grains in the lawn. If you have access to a Starbucks, ask them for their grounds. If you're on good terms with the local gas station, offer to swap a bucket of grounds.

All of these things will add up. But slowly. Like decades.

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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by bpgreen » March 24th, 2021, 1:12 am

Neither Andy nor morpheus answered your question about a targeted om%. I'm not sure whether that was intentional or not.

2.2% is low. But you're not going to change it quickly.

Mulch mow always. If you have trees, mulch now the leaves. If you brew beer, spread your diluent grains in the lawn. If you have access to a Starbucks, ask them for their grounds. If you're on good terms with the local gas station, offer to swap a bucket of grounds.

All of these things will add up. But slowly. Like decades.

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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by MorpheusPA » March 24th, 2021, 1:21 am

It's mostly because there's no real target. 2.2% for me on a read is "fair." It's not terrible. It's not bad. It's fair to middlin'.

It's hard to tell what a really reasonable target would be without the AA test. I can make a guess that 5% is probably going to be a pretty good spot--it's a generally good guess. Most soils are good at 5%. You're not going to sustain them too much higher without effort, and there are some arguments for not doing so.

I didn't say I agreed with those arguments, per se. My gardens, heavily mulched at all times, are closer to 10%. But that's hard to achieve in a lawn. Five can be done in many soils, but not generally in a sandy soil. I don't think that's a hurdle here, though.

bpgreen
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by bpgreen » March 24th, 2021, 1:33 am

Learn to proofread.

"diluent" should be "spent"

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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by bpgreen » March 24th, 2021, 1:43 am

What I was trying to stress is that you shouldn't necessarily think about what your om % is and how it compares with what's best.

There's no upper bound. Increase your organic content any way you can.

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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by MorpheusPA » March 24th, 2021, 1:50 am

Most soils will actually find their own upper bound, as will most humans, in terms of money and effort. :-) But yes, we get what you mean.

There was a year where I dumped 1,300 pounds per thousand square feet of organic material. It was back-breaking, but the grass looked amazing. So did the gardens. But it was an entirely enjoyable experiment in terms of trying to find a top number of apps. The answer was simple...once a soil is used to organics, there isn't one.

If you can get it cheap or free, get it. If you're not sure if it's decent, ask.

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andy10917
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by andy10917 » March 24th, 2021, 7:43 am

If you're not sure if it's decent, ask.
I can neither confirm nor deny whether the tow truck driver that drove on my lawn was made of organic matter or not, but the wood chipper needed an extra rinse that day...

(if the above makes no sense to you, search the site for the keyword "TTDM")

growingpains
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Re: Soil Test - Garrett - 2021

Post by growingpains » March 24th, 2021, 8:59 pm

Thanks all for the input.

I've since read some into the arguments for and against roto-tilling. From what I've gathered the biggest downsides are: disturbing the soil's natural structure, causing bumpy terrain, and increasing weed germination. In my case, this is a new construction home (with a septic system) so a large portion of the yard was dug up and disturbed quite recently. Also, the ground is heavily littered with rocks. I've spent evenings raking them out and I'm slowly making a dent, but am thinking that tilling will give me a chance to remove as many of the rocks as I can that hiding in the first few inches of soil (while I have the opportunity prior to having grass covering them). And then I can also use the opportunity to till in organic material.

Again, I'm a novice and tilling showed up in several of my preliminary "sod prep tutorials" google searches, so I know I have bias purely from it being a step in the first tutorials I came across. Maybe I'm over concerned about the rocks and a cleaning up those I can turn up with a heavy raking followed by a layer of compost would be good enough before I put sod down?

All the points on OM make sense. I'll be looking for all the "decent" organic content I can find.

Also, I hope no one thought I was downplaying the role of constant and diligent lawn care with my "simple target" reference. I meant it only in terms of what I needed to target applying to the yard. Spread compost and spread high phosphorous are two things I can easily remember over the next year.

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