Chris's 2024 Soil Test

[detrotirocker99]

Good evening!

This is my 9th consecutive year with a soil test. A few notes:

I am located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of North Texas. Our residence is a single-family construction built in 2018. My lawn is approximately 1,500 and of two varieties. 1,100 sq ft is Emerald Zoysia grass. I maintained it at 0.50" HOC with my Baroness LM56 in 2022, and plan on keeping it around the same for this growing season. The other is approximately 425 sq ft of Zeon Zoysia grass. Typically mowed at .75" HOC.

I will be scalping this weekend at 0.30" HOC. I water between 0.5-1.0" per week, spray Ferrous Ammonium Sulfate every two-three weeks, and Milorganite at the recommended amount every four weeks for the growing season (April 1 - October 1). I also added The Andersons Humic DG last year and applied twice at the heavy bag rate. Last year, I really had trouble keeping it green in the doldrums of summer. Not sure if I need to leave it longer this year when it gets 100+.

Depth of the sample was between 3 - 4" and done with the AA method as instructed. I am used to micros, so please feel free to suggest if those are needed as well.

I've also included a reference to last year's results and recommendation. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27313

As always, thank you for your help!

[MorpheusPA]

I'm late this year and had to work today to recert another system. It's been hectic. Sorry.

I always read soil tests like they're your first (I do the same with mine; literally, what would I do if I were seeing this soil for the first time?)

In your case, the answer is, "Develop a slight migraine and find a place for a lie-down." Did I mention I assembled an easel today as well? I'm very proud of that because I'm not mechanical in the slightest...

These calcium levels are, as noted, high enough to push all numbers out of whack, so after the mental adjustments, magnesium is really fine. I'm less pleased with potassium and completely displeased by phosphorus. Copper, boron, and iron all make me itch a little, too, although for iron, we're not going to worry about it too much because no matter what we do, it's going to stay heavily bound at that pH.

So. I'm going to do this the easy way. Find some balanced fertilizer--10-10-10 or 20-20-20 or something where all the numbers are very close to each other.

Copper can ride. Boron is a bit low, but again, the pH means we're going to chase this and we have bigger fish to fry this year. I'm just going to ignore it, but if you slip in a few organic feedings of some type, copper and boron will come along with them.

Recommendations.

Memorial Day: Feed the lawn with balanced fertilizer at the 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet rate.

Labor Day: Feed the lawn with balanced fertilizer at the 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet rate.

October 1: Feed the lawn with balanced fertilizer at the 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet rate.

November, if there's time: Feed the lawn with a high-nitrogen fertilizer and low everything else before winter.

[detrotirocker99]

Thank you, MorpheusPA! I literally laughed out loud with your opening comments, and greatly appreciate the guidance here.

Noted on the balanced fertilizer. Should I introduce micros back into the fold? Or wait until next year?

Also, should I supplement with Milo (or something with low N) for April, May, July, August? Or truly "leave it alone".

[MorpheusPA]

Always skip April and don't force the grass. If you fed well last fall, it doesn't need it and it just forces growth you don't want or need to be forcing, particularly on Zoysia. You'll just end up with more thatch to deal with. If you'd rather use Milo, I'm fine with that, just add in an additional 3 pounds per thousand square feet of potassium sulfate in May, July, and September.

As I kind of missed the Zoysia thing the first time, you can also move the October feeding to July instead. Zoysia would rather feed in summer than fall anyway. It likes the heat.