Spectrum's 2021 Soil test

Learn how improving your soil can lead to a better looking lawn
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spectrum1c
Posts: 105
Joined: June 1st, 2018, 9:51 pm
Location: Cape Cod Massachusetts
Grass Type: KBG front yard, Tall Fescue backyard
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Some Experience

Spectrum's 2021 Soil test

Post by spectrum1c » April 12th, 2021, 10:23 am

Thanks so much for the fantastic help and guidance throughout these past 4 years

Location is Cape Cod Massachusetts
Total lawn size is approx 10,000 sq ft, made up of 5,00 KBG and 10,000 TTF

For some reason I've experienced snow mold for the first time this year, even though it was a pretty mild winter with little snow. Fortunately it seems to be recovering.

Always mulch mow, including mulching any leaves I can leaf blow into the lawn.

Typically use Bay State fertilizer (Massachusetts version of milorganite)

Have irrigation with a fertigator.

Currently have some weed pressure I attribute to attempting to level the lawn last early year with dirt from the back yard that was clearly full of weed seeds. Planning to fertilize with Baystate ASAP to encourage weed growth and then start attack with triangle approach 2 weeks later.

Link to 2019 soil test
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24765
Link to 2018 soil test
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24203&p=325108#p325108
Link to 2020 soil test
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=25677&p=339412&hil ... um#p339412


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spectrum1c
Posts: 105
Joined: June 1st, 2018, 9:51 pm
Location: Cape Cod Massachusetts
Grass Type: KBG front yard, Tall Fescue backyard
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Spectrum's 2021 Soil test

Post by spectrum1c » April 12th, 2021, 2:34 pm

As an addendum to above: I had quite a bit of moss in the beginning of 2020 for some reason. This year almost none, except on the periphery of a portion of the lawn that tends to live in the shade

User avatar
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: Spectrum's 2021 Soil test

Post by andy10917 » April 14th, 2021, 9:48 pm

OK, so Cape Cod is sandy, and the test agrees. But you've got a OM% number just short of 7% -- fabulous!! You could try adding Humic DG, but short of that, I don't think you'll get much more progress in the TEC.

In the cations, things look stable. Little issues, but not worth chasing right now. The pH resulting from the cations is acceptable at 6.4.

Phosphorus is OK. So is Iron, and it's available to the grass at your current pH.

In the micro's, only Boron needs work - want to deal with that this year?

For Nitrogen, you could use Bay State solely, or aliternate BS and Urea.

Simple year, eh?

spectrum1c
Posts: 105
Joined: June 1st, 2018, 9:51 pm
Location: Cape Cod Massachusetts
Grass Type: KBG front yard, Tall Fescue backyard
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Spectrum's 2021 Soil test

Post by spectrum1c » April 23rd, 2021, 3:17 am

Thanks so much for your help Andy.

I forgot to mention in the original post that I had been working on my potassium, manganese, boron levels last year. Happy to see success with the potassium and manganese. I will carefully step up the boron for this year to see if I can get it a bit higher.

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