# First Soil Test on Troublesome Colorado Lawn



## GregFromCos (Sep 26, 2020)

I'd put up a post in the Cool Season Lawns forum last fall and got some recommendations. That post is here if you want to see some pictures.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23743&p=376450#p376450

Tl/DR I have major issues getting any growth out of the grass in the front yard. Whereas my backyard will grow 1 to 2 inches a week with less water and the same basic fertilizer, my front yard will frequently stop growing altogether. I can't even get it up to my mower blades at 3 inches in places.

So one of the recommendations was a soil sample, so I sent one off to Midwest labs, I'm hoping it was the right tests. I ordered these: S3C, S3M, and Biocarbanate Phosphorus. If I should have picked differently, I'd be curious there also.

So what do you see wrong? And what would you recommend to fix it?

Here are the results


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I dont see anything super wrong with your soil. The only value of somewhat concern is the Mn but I dont think it will explain the difference in growth rate.

Overall, pH is good at 6.8, P is on the high side, K is ok but I recommend to bump up the levels. I think you should use SOP and AMS to also increase your soil sulfur.


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## GregFromCos (Sep 26, 2020)

Was playing around on midwest labs more and do see these recommendations for Ky Bluegrass and Fescue.

Seems odd to me that the Potash and Nitrogen were so low when I took the sample a week after the initial fertilizing.


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## Lawn Whisperer (Feb 15, 2021)

Edit: Duplicate, corrected copy below.


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## Lawn Whisperer (Feb 15, 2021)

GregFromCos said:


> Seems odd to me that the Potash and Nitrogen were so low when I took the sample a week after the initial fertilizing.


Nitrogen is commonly in forms of nitrate or ammonium. The lab only tested nitrates, which is cation; ammonium is an anion and is very mobile, which will leach easily. Nitrogen will always be on the recomendations.

But you're correct that taking soil samples a week after fertilizing will likely skew test results, therefore your soil nutients might be lower than whats on paper.


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## GregFromCos (Sep 26, 2020)

So I've purchased a few things. First I purchased some liquid Boron and Manganese. This is it.



The patch I'm working with is 550 sq feet, so I applied 1/2 oz of each of these evenly. How much more should I put on of these over time based on the soil sample.

I also purchased this SOP.



I purchased a dry sprayer, but am not sure how much of it I should apply and how frequently. Again this is for a 550 sq foot piece of lawn. So how much SOP should I apply?


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

A


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

Your soil test is reporting lb for an acre. So you need to convert acres to thousand sq ft and lb to oz and see what the recommendation for boron and manganese are in oz per 1000 sq ft. Then you need to calculate how much of the nutrient is supplied by an application of the product and see how many applications it would take to meet the recommendation. However, if it were me, I would not do anything but monitor the level year by year. Ridgerunner strongly recommends doing a tissue test before applying micronutrients.

For the SOP, you can apply two pounds per 1000 sq ft per application. It is spread with a spreader, not a sprayer.


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