Lime. How much and what kind??

[bigterp]

Just recently got interested in improving my lawn. I learned a lot from my first post on this site, and just this site in general. So THANKS for that. I'm not sure what grass my lawn is made of, but it looks to be a mix of various types of fescue with some bluegrass mixed in. I've lived in the home for 6 years with zero lawn maintenance other than mowing and to my knowledge nothing else was done prior since the home was built in 1999.

I'm now to the point where I'm ready to apply lime and to prepare for my first fall nitrogen regimen. I did not spring for a Logan's Lab soil test since my local extension office (West Virginia University) does them for free. But, based on that soil test they recommend 41.4#/1K sq ft of Aglime. My soil pH is 6.2. Seems like an awful lot of lime, but I'm no expert obviously. My soil test reports nutrients in lbs/acre. P205 came in at 107#/acre (very high), K20 was 367#/acre (very high), Ca was 2,937#/acre (high) and Mg was 230#/acre (medium). Based on the aforementioned numbers, my Ca to Mg ratio is about 12:1. I just finished reading Andy's article about lime here http://aroundtheyard.com/index.php?opti ... Itemid=117 He recommended if your ratio is above 10:1 to use dolomitic lime instaed of calcitic IF your calcium numbers are not excessive. Not sure if my calcium numbers are considered excessive or not? But the same soil test also reports in MEQ/100. Not even sure what that means, but it came in at 5% K, 70% Ca, 10% Mg and 18% H all in total saturation. Using those number my ratio is right at 7:1, which is recommended based on Andy's article. This has me even more confused.

With the above information, would you guys suggest I go with dolomitic or calcitic? Just want to make sure I don't go with the wrong type of lime and end up overshooting something like magnesium and making things worse then what I started off with. Also, should I be planning on applying the 40#/1K that my test recommends?

I attached my soil test results FWIW. I know the ST6 team only does Logan Labs soil test, but if anyone else is interested and willing to help feel free to take a look at mine. Thanks!!!

[STL]

Try posting in the soil management forum. ST6 doesn't interpret non logan tests, but member ken-n-Nancy may give some guidance.

[bigterp]

Will do. Thanks.

[ken-n-nancy]

Try posting in the soil management forum. ST6 doesn't interpret non logan tests, but member ken-n-Nancy may give some guidance.

We've been on vacation for a week without much in the way of Internet access, so our ATY reading fell off sharply. Just now catching up....

In any case, it looks like quite a few others jumped in on providing some suggestions on the non-Logan test. Very relieved to hear that you didn't apply 41.4#/K of Aglime to your turf!

[bigterp]

Thanks K-n-N. Yes, others were very helpful and I feel like I have a decent plan moving forward.

For now that includes following Andy's fall nitrogen regimen of 1#/K of nitrogen per month in the form of slow release urea. I can get coated urea for slightly more than regular urea so I'm going with that. Mostly because of the decreased risk of burning. I do plan to use regular urea late fall as a winterizer though as I've found out slow release isn't recommended as a winterizer. The urea will start going down around Labor Day which will hopefully give the areas I just seeded enough time to get through sprout and pout. If not, I'll avoid hitting these areas with urea. 2-3 weeks after first urea drop, I'll be blanket spraying 2,4-D to start combating my weed problem. I'll skip the aforementioned newly seeded areas with the herbicide. From here I'll continue the fall nitrogen regimen which will take me into winter. I should, at this point, have a decent idea of how my lawn is coming along and make a plan for spring. The biggest project I may have going into winter and spring is the need to seed bare spots from the weed kill in fall. Fingers will be crossed that the now nurtured grass with less competition from weeds will start filling those bare spots in. Time will tell. If not, I may consider dormant seeding since the task of irrigating large areas of my lawn after a spring seeding will be daunting!! Need to do some more research on dormant seeding still though.

I'll try and get some pictures before I get started and continue getting pictures to track my progress.