How long after applications should I Soil test?

[Yimmyb60]

I had a soil test done in March, it was not logan labs and the results weren't great in the sense that i had no idea what to add to my lawn to correct deficiencies other than that my PH was 5.94 and that K and minors were deficient. I applied 2 bags of solu cal plus lime in early april and 24-0-11 50%scu fertilizer. K4L aeration + yucca, and K4L green lawn and turf was applied bi-weekly since mid March and some left over N-EXT Microgreen was used in the front yard in april. I have also added 500lbs of cracked corn. The lawn looks better than it ever has. But I am just making guesses here and believe it's due to the aeration and iron mostly. I can now push a plastic tomato stake 3 feet into the lawn in some areas, where in the past it was like concrete.

The Green lawn and turf has humic, fulvic, iron sulfate, molasses and kelp in it.

Do different applications require different wait times before I should get another test done by logan labs? Should I wait until next year or should I test soon to correct the ph and micros?

[andy10917]

I generally say 5-6 weeks, but natural/organics can lengthen that out a bit - maybe 8 weeks. So can humic/fulvic acids.

should I test soon to correct the ph

This is probably the 500th time we've gone over this - pH by itself is meaningless. It's all about HOW YOU GET TO THE pH that matters. You can get to a pH by dumping just Magnesium on it (or Calcium or Potassium or Sodium), and have it all wrong. Getting them to the RIGHT pH, in the RIGHT WAY is what you need to do.

[Yimmyb60]

Thank you Andy,

While I agree with your statement now, I made the lime application based on the initial soil test before I found this site. The silver lining being, I found this site in search for answers to the original soil test and won't make that mistake again.

If you were me, would you test this year or would you wait until next spring? I spread 50lbs/k corn last week so a test would be mid august for 8 weeks.

[MorpheusPA]

Given that you just shot a gun in the dark, I might be inclined to retest this year, 8+ weeks after you applied anything that would change the soil appreciably (iron really won't, feeding the lawn with nitrogen is not a significant change, liming is significant).

We can still take a shot at doing it right. Some things we'll need to know when reading the test (exactly what's been applied this year and in what amounts, mostly) as some will be in play, some partially in play, and some not yet in play, but have to be accounted for (you don't really have much in the last category).

[Yimmyb60]

I included the original soil test so you can see what I was basing my best guesses on. Cal to mag ratio is about 7 to 1 in this test so I used calcitic solu cal. The fertilizers, corn, WBG and lime I have the application rates and dates applied. The minors, humic, fulvic and amino acids will not be accurate but were also applied low rates as a foliar spray. These dates I also have but the exact quantities I do not.

I think the only concern now is humic and kelp but those powder mixes are low quantity 2-4 oz concentrate powder per gallon, then 2-9 oz of the mix per 1k sqft. If only lime is a concern, that was done once on April 3rd at 10lb/k

[edslawn]

Thank you Andy,

While I agree with your statement now, I made the lime application based on the initial soil test before I found this site. The silver lining being, I found this site in search for answers to the original soil test and won't make that mistake again.

If you were me, would you test this year or would you wait until next spring? I spread 50lbs/k corn last week so a test would be mid august for 8 weeks.

You've been schooled ... no worries, the sting from the paddling only lasts a little while. Change your mindset to several years of focused effort. Get your soil tested at +8 weeks with NO treatments. Once you have a test and a plan, you can go to town.

[andy10917]

+1 -- no harm in doing the test the test this year