MfanIN 2021 Soil Test Results

[MfanIN]

Hi all,

It has been 3 years since my last confession. A summary of that discussion is here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24080&p=324255&hil ... in#p324255 . That year I followed guidance (correcting sodium, putting down starter, and added the micros to the soil mixed with Milo.

Nutrition and water background:

I've followed the fall fertilization program (urea), use a starter fertilizer each spring (1 lb/k), a dose of scotts greenmax (1lb/k) in june, a couple doses of Milo (or equivalent, at roughly 0.25 lb/k Nitrogen) through the summer. I water using the smart feature of the Rachio controller- set up for the type of soil and sun exposure that I have. (All watering occurs between midnight to 6AM, typically ends up watering 45min - 1hr 20 min per zone 1-3 times per week, depending on local rainfall).

Fungal Issues:

I've continued to struggle with fungal issues. For pat 3 years I used Serenade every 2-4 weeks at 2-4 oz/k (until this year where I've only put down twice). Last year I started using scotts Disease Ex in April/may to try to head off summer patch. Had to apply again last year in July for an outbreak of fungus- which seemed to help. This year I put down two preventative doses Disease Ex April 15 and May 15. At start of July I started seeing frog eye patches in sunny parts of the yard. Put down more Disease Ex. By end of July, 3-4" rain dropped all at once and lawn looked like a leopard with brown patches of grass all over. Put down Bayer lawn fungus. Two weeks later put down propiconazole 14.3 in sprayer at 2 oz/k. Also checked for white grubs several times throughout this time and couldn't find any. However the brown areas pull out of the ground rather easily.


It's been a fungal nightmare which I had hoped to ward off selection of grass varietals that I selected in the reno in 2017 (see details below)

2021 Soil Test

I've used Logan Labs again to generate the following soil test report



Details of the yard: 15,000 sq ft; Mow 1-2 times per week using a simplicity Broadmoor mower and maintain ~3-3.5" mowing height. Grass was planted (after destroying old lawn) in 2017 and consists of Award, Prosperity and Bewitched (33% each).

Appreciate any feedback you can provide!

Thanks

[andy10917]

I've got bad news - your issues are not likely related to soil deficiencies. I know that Summer Patch can be a real b!tch Inot from personal experience).

There are some minor adjustments, but they are unlikely to make any changes that will affect the likelihood of Summer Patch recurrence.

The soil is just short of a Loam soil, and just a bit on the sandy side. The pH is just a bit on the high side, but nothing problem-causing for Indiana.

The Potassium is just a tad low, but again not enough to cause issues - more like "it could be tweaked".

Everything else on the test looks OK.

Now, beyond the test...

I'd seriously consider changing your watering regimen, which isn't a good one for a fungal-nightmare lawn. With a TEC of almost 8, that soil should be able to handle Deep-and-Infrequent watering. Get out the tuna fish cans or cat food cans, and find out how long it takes to put down an inch of water - my guess is it will be around 2 hours per zone. 20 minutes per zone 3X a week is shallow and frequent, and will not encourage the grass to develop deep roots. Do the D&I watering starting at once a week. If the grass shows signs of stress earlier than a week, go to five days apart, but get away from the shallow/frequent stuff -it causes the Summer sun to fry the shallow zone grass and ups the odds of fungal disease. Get the water deeper where the sun doesn't bake it off.

I know I didn't give you much that you can do with your soil - that's because there isn't much needed. I would do the Fall Nitrogen Regimen (aggressive version) and recover the damage done, and get to changing the irrigation regimen for next year - let' see what happens when we get the roots deeper and only water deeper next year...

If you'd like to respond and tweak the Potassium, etc let me know, but I'd spend my time doing the Fall program this Fall.

[MfanIN]

Thanks so much for your feedback, Andy! I appreciate how helpful you've been since I've started poking around this forum in 2016.

I thought I left a return message a week ago- but somehow a posting error must have occurred. My mistake!

I would appreciate any small tweaks that could be made to my soil- as I'm a bit of a perfectionist. If the soil pH can be brought down in any way, and the potassium tweaked- I'm on board! In any case, I will follow the fall Urea program. Do you see any red flags with how much fertilizing I'm doing in the spring and early summer months?

With regards to watering- I'll work on that next year. I do want to clarify that my zones run from 40 mins to 1:20 mins- never as short as 20 minutes. The Rachio controller determines the watering length based on the inputs I've put in (sprinkler head rate, soil type, etc..). I think I need to do a deep dive to tweak those settings and make sure they are correct- regardless. It may be worth a search on here to see if anyone else uses smart watering, and which settings are critical. Certainly the tuna can method would help me dial in the zone deposition rate better- however it gets tricky when the rachio doesnt understand which sections of which zones overlap.. I'm sure I'm putting down too much water in some areas.

Thanks-