Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Learn how improving your soil can lead to a better looking lawn
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PSU4ME
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Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 2nd, 2022, 9:59 am

Lawn is about 24k on the main property and about 7k on the dogleg - separate samples as the dogleg was native and i've worked it differently over the years but glancing at the samples, it looks like they are coming closer together.

Main Property:

Image


Dogleg:


Image


I feed organically with baystate fertilizer and run the fall regimen with urea. Mostly been following the advice of this forum for 4-5 years. Lawn is in good shape as we speak, just fighting Triv and annua like most others.

Thank you

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by MorpheusPA » May 2nd, 2022, 8:51 pm

I'm kind of tempted to call that magnesium "shortage" fake and call that a day; your resultant pH is fine, it's not like there's a magnesium shortage or anything, but you do have a very sandy soil and there's space in the ME for loading in some stuff. Let's do a little. And yes, the samples at this point are starting to look very similar--only potassium really differs.

You have Epsom salt, or can get some. I know this. :-)

If you have potassium sulfate around, we can use it. I'd also like to soak up some of the remaining ME with K, but only on the main property.

That boron level is undetectable. That is...not good. If you're comfortable applying using the Micronutrient Application Guide and 20 Mule Team Borax, instructions are below.

Recommendations

May: Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet to all areas. Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate to the main property area only. Apply 5 tbsp 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite carrier to all areas.

June: Apply 5 tbsp 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite carrier to all areas.

September: Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet to all areas. Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate to the main property area only. Apply 5 tbsp 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite carrier to all areas.

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 2nd, 2022, 9:33 pm

Thanks morph, I can get the sop from kelp4less and the epsom from salt works. As for the 20 mule, is that 5 T per bag of Baystate applied? If you, one application of BSF is about 15 bags for me. Just want to make sure I’m dosing right.

Thanks!

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by MorpheusPA » May 3rd, 2022, 11:43 am

For the 20 Mules, 5 tablespoons per thousand square feet, in Bay State as carrier. How you apply that is up to you; the Micronutrient Application Guide suggests using 12.5 tablespoons per "bag" of Bay State to cover 2,500 square feet (the Guide uses Milorganite, so...equivalencies).

I actually use a very low spread rate and cover the whole lawn and gardens with about 1.5 bags of Milorganite over 12,000 square feet. If you're comfortable doing that, it's fine, and it's great for applications during periods when you really shouldn't feed (I did my adjustments in April; my molybdenum levels were undetectable and boron was lousy with copper merely low).

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 7th, 2022, 8:36 am

Morph,
Will these work? Trying to find cheaper places to buy bulk but shopping is still a killer:
https://www.7springsfarm.com/products/p ... 6613383373

https://www.7springsfarm.com/products/m ... 6614300877


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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by ken-n-nancy » May 9th, 2022, 9:28 pm

PSU4ME wrote:
May 7th, 2022, 8:36 am
Will these work? Trying to find cheaper places to buy bulk but shopping is still a killer:
https://www.7springsfarm.com/products/p ... 6613383373
PSU4ME, I can't recall exactly where you are located in MA. You're going to want to find a local supplier for 0-0-50 sulfate of potash (SOP), aka potassium sulfate or the shipping costs will be excessive. If you only had 1000sqft, it would be a different story, but with over 20ksqft, you need to find a local supplier for 50-pound bags.

I get my SOP at Achille Agway in Milford, NH. I convinced them to start stocking a pallet every year, and they have been selling it each year. I only use about 2 bags each year. There must be a similar garden center in your area that can order it by the pallet.

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 9th, 2022, 10:12 pm

Thanks KNN, I ordered from Home Depot at a reasonable price. I’ve looked for an option locally to buy stuff from (grains, bulk fert etc) but I’ve struck out every time. I’d expect to find cracked corn in 50# sacks cheap from a farm but my best price has been tractor supply, go figure.

Def not looking in the right places

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 11th, 2022, 3:29 pm

Hey Morph, you still on houzz? Have some sidebar stuff I wanna ask you but I can’t PM on here!

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by MorpheusPA » May 11th, 2022, 4:12 pm

No. I dumped Houzz after a major PITA poster pretty much made daily complaints about me "stalking" her around the site while simultaneously stalking me around the site and disagreeing mindlessly with anything I said. I dropped a very pointed e-mail to Customer Service "thanking" them for ignoring every one of my complaints while making me justify my own actions regularly when they were given examples of issues.

They responded by recommending I delete my account if I were displeased. I did so, and responded with a final e-mail that used a few even harsher and more pointed phrases advising what I thought of their service.

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 11th, 2022, 6:09 pm

Bahaha I was looking around and saw no signs of you so I figured you took your greatness elsewhere!!

Got a buddy with a soil test that shows it’s pretty poor but he’s not in here so I was wondering if you could help tell me how heavy he could go with the amendments.

bpgreen
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by bpgreen » May 12th, 2022, 12:51 am

Can you invite him over here? I know some forums block what they consider competition, but back when houzz was garden web. Pms were basically emails.

bpgreen
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by bpgreen » May 12th, 2022, 1:07 am

If they block references to competing forums, sometimes you can help them find a place by suggesting they search for a username that's somewhat unique and maybe a term or phrase that will likely get them here. Morpheuspa milorganite summed like a good combination, but many of the links are from houzz, although this site does appear in the first page odd results.

bpgreen and native or grama or wheatgrass might work also, although they might have to tell google that bpgreen is not a typo.

bpgreen
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by bpgreen » May 12th, 2022, 1:09 am

Side note: While trying to find good combinations, I discovered that I've been overseeding with native and naturalized grasses for at least 15 years.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by ken-n-nancy » May 12th, 2022, 9:13 am

bpgreen wrote:
May 12th, 2022, 1:09 am
Side note: While trying to find good combinations, I discovered that I've been overseeding with native and naturalized grasses for at least 15 years.
Amazing how time goes by, isn't it? I still think of "lawn care" being a comparatively new hobby, but I realized a couple days ago we're now in our 10th year since the renovation of our front lawn that got us started! (OK, I confess to having this bit of chat being a bit off-topic, but some of this conversationality is what makes this a nice place to hang out with lawn buddies...)

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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by MorpheusPA » May 12th, 2022, 1:54 pm

Or just black out his personal info, post it on the thread, and let me see it. Copy my answer back to him and viola. Done.

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 13th, 2022, 8:19 am

Morph, here is what I have:

Image

Image

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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by MorpheusPA » May 13th, 2022, 3:28 pm

It's 3 PM on a Friday the 13th, I'm waiting for stuff I know I won't get today, so I might as well work with this.

Let's sum up this soil in one word: Ow. Normal test depth is 4", I'll adjust numbers accordingly.

EC 1.23: Sand. The soil holds few resources, will adjust if you look at it funny, and will need regular testing. Use of organic feed, mowing in all fall leaves, and mulch mowing is definitely recommended here--we want as much organic matter to raise this EC as possible.

pH 5.5: Low. Many plants struggle at this pH, although most evergreen shrubs will actually do just fine. While pH follows and never leads, what this is telling us is that something's drastically wrong. Really, four things are drastically wrong, and one of them is actually working to lift this higher than it should be. We'll get there.

OM 1.9%: Low. While hard to maintain on a sandy soil, do your best. As noted above, mulch mow, mow all your fall leaves in, and feed organically. The higher this goes, the less that low ME matters.

Sulfur 11: Normal.

Phosphorus 423: High. About the one thing you do have in quantity. No additional phosphorus is required or desired, although this won't cause any problems (mine's actually higher). You don't require starter even when planting seed; the soil has more than sufficient phosphorus for any purpose.

Calcium 39%: Dreadfully low. We're going to pour on calcitic lime to correct this; I strongly recommend Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or the like. While expensive, you'll use a lot less of this than you will a less powerful lime. Our target is around 70% for an ME that low, or even a bit higher. You're going to need 14 pounds per thousand square feet.

Magnesium 12%: Dreadfully low, even though it actually looks almost OK on paper, it's because there's no calcium in the soil to fill space. We'll use Epsom salt for this (magnesium sulfate). You're going to need 6 pounds per thousand square feet.

Potassium 6%: Dreadfully low, even though it actually looks optimal on paper, it's because there's no calcium or magnesium in the soil to fill space. We're going to use potassium sulfate (SOP, sulfate of potash) to fix this. It's probably not a one-year fix, but let's start with 6 pounds per thousand square feet.

Sodium 6%: On paper, this looks horrifically high, and it's horrifically high, but with no Ca, Mg, or K in the soil, the soil just attracts a bad element (several of them; hydrogen and sodium, to be precise) to fill space. You don't want it there. Hydrogen is useless, sodium is toxic. The sodium is kicking your pH up, which is good because without it, the aluminum in your soil would be killing all the plants. On the down side, the sodium levels are high enough to be damaging plants and desiccating them at higher temperatures. Adding calcium via the lime, magnesium via the Epsom salt and (to a very slight extent) potassium will raise the pH to block the aluminum plus help dispel the sodium.

Minor Elements:

Boron is undetectable on the test, unsurprising on a sandy soil. You'll chase boron very frequently--even I do that. It washes out pretty easily. Copper and zinc are both low, but once in there, they don't wash out easily at all. You'll need copper sulfate and zinc sulfate from eBay or Alpha Chemicals or the like (you can get copper sulfate at pool stores as well). I'd go with a known very pure source that doesn't have lead as a contaminant...

In both cases, this year you'll need 9 tablespoons grand total per thousand square feet. For a ten thousand square foot lawn, I'd go with 2 pounds to assure you don't run out.

Boron is sourced via 20 Mule Team Borax at the grocery store, blue and white box, in the laundry aisle. One box will be fine, I'm pretty sure.

Iron is rather low for best color at 84 PPM, but it's certainly not low in terms of plant requirements and not a problem. Both Milorganite and Bay State contain iron in the form of ferrous sulfate, and that's what's used as a carrier for the copper, zinc, and boron. Feeding with Milo or Bay State will continue to add iron. There's no reasonable upper limit; my soil's pushing 250 after years of work.

The Micronutrient Application Guide


Shopping List:

Calcitic Lime: Encap, Mag-I-Cal. 14 pounds per thousand square feet.
Epsom Salt: 6 pounds per thousand square feet.
Potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash): 6 pounds per thousand square feet.
Copper sulfate: 2 pounds, probably, if the lawn is 10,000 square feet; 1 pound if under 5,000 square feet.
Zinc sulfate: 2 pounds, probably, if the lawn is 10,000 square feet; 1 pound if under 5,000 square feet.
20 Mule Team Borax: 1 Box

Recommendations:

May: Apply 9 pounds of Encap or Mag-I-Cal per thousand square feet. Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet. Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. Apply 3 tablespoons of copper sulfate, 3 tablespoons of zinc sulfate, and 5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite (or Bay State) as a carrier as per the Micronutrient Application Guide.

August: Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet. Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. Apply 3 tablespoons of copper sulfate, 3 tablespoons of zinc sulfate, and 5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite (or Bay State) as a carrier as per the Micronutrient Application Guide.

October: Apply 5 pounds of Encap or Mag-I-Cal per thousand square feet. Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet. Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. Apply 3 tablespoons of copper sulfate, 3 tablespoons of zinc sulfate, and 5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite (or Bay State) as a carrier as per the Micronutrient Application Guide.

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 16th, 2022, 10:44 pm

Thanks morph, we got the order in, transformation underway!

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PSU4ME
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by PSU4ME » May 23rd, 2022, 8:18 pm

Boy is it hard to only do 2# of epsom/SOP! Is that what you consider a yearly maintenance dose Morph?

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Psu4me Soil Sample '22

Post by MorpheusPA » May 24th, 2022, 11:12 am

It's actually a lower-level app, pushing about 0.2 pounds magnesium per pound of magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt), pr 0.4 pounds for the 2# per thousand I recommend (correcting a shortage, theoretically, of about 17 pounds per acre per app) . If you overapply about double, just skip the next app, it's not a huge problem. If you really overapply, irrigate very well afterward, this stuff is a salt.

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