# First soil test ever



## Riverman85 (Apr 1, 2021)

Hi guys!

Received the results from my first soil test ever but I'm a noob so I would appreciate your advice. From what I seem to understand, my potassium and my phosphorous are too low, my calcium and sodium too high and my ph is ok (on the high limit?)...

Now what do I put down and when? I was planning to overseed with Champion GQ ryegrass and level the lawn a bit since it's quite bumpy. Should I level with a mix of sand and top soil or will that wack out my lab tests more?

I've got a sprayer and some granular urea, some tenacity with a surfactant and colouring agent, some humic acid in pellets that I could dissolve and spray and various granular ferts from the store that I bought over the years.

What plan do you suggest should I wait in fall to overseed? I don't have a big lawn and got a 50 pound bag of seed so I wouldn't cry too much if I don't have the best germination in spring I could always reseed in the fall?

I live in Trois-Rivières (Quebec)we've had 34F temps last week (even had some snow but it melted the next day) and now it's warmed up quite a bit and temps are like 40F during the night and around 55F during the day. Don't see much weeds yet except dandelions which I've removed by hand.

Lmk if you need any other information.


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## Riverman85 (Apr 1, 2021)

Here are pics of my lawn right now. It's greening up a bit but way patchy (still trying to recover from severe grub dmg). As you can see, I tried to overseed some miniature clover into the lawn because I've read it helps fix nitrogen in the soil and benefits the lawn but I don't like the look of it so it'll have to go (Tenacity will remove it I think?). Had lots of problems with crabgrass last year I plan on buying prodiamine eventually but since I wanted to overseed I only got Tenacity.

So far I've dethatched and removed weeds by hand. Mowed 2 times already lightly. Haven't put down any ferts yet and didn't start watering also was waiting for the lab results first so I wouldn't hurt things further if my results were bad (which they seem to be).

My soil is sand btw where I live so it drains quite easily.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

They made recommendations in lb per acre. Divide by 43.56 to get lb per 1000 sq ft. Can you get Sulphate of Potassium 0-0-50?

You are limited in how much Tenacity you can use per year. If you're planning to seed in the fall, it, might be good to save it for that. WeedBGon CCO (or other weed killers with triclopyr) kills clover. But why not live with the clover until time to seed? You're going to be living with crabgrass anyway and you will need to kill a bunch of stuff before you seed in the fall.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

I suggest calling the lab and asking why they are recommending so much potassium. Also ask what they recommend about the high sodium. Is high sodium normal for your area? I wonder if there is some kind of mistake somewhere.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

I am wondering if they are recommending so much potassium to try to displace sodium. As for why here is so much sodium, you are close to a road and driveways. Do they put down a lot of salt to deal with ice and snow? Would it have washed over to the grass? The usual approach to dealing with high sodium is to use gypsum and the calcium replaces the sodium on the cation sites, and then watering will get the sodium to leach away. I hope you are investigating further and talking to the lab. Here's an interesting article on potassium:
https://www.turfdietitian.com/2018-2-14-nutrient-of-the-month-the-diva-of-them-all-potassium/


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## Riverman85 (Apr 1, 2021)

Thanks for your input Virginiagal!

Haven't had time to talk to the lab but will try to do it next week. Your instincts are right my front yard is getting all the winter snow (a LOT) blown onto it during the winter, probably along with salts, sand and whatnot. I put down protective winter mats but it doesn't seem to do much for the salts. Helps with the rocks and sand though.

I couldn't find sulfate of potash, neither MAP or TSP. Only thing I found at the store was some 4-8-14 fertilizer which I bought since I figured it should help slowly correcting my P-K thats too low. Would it be ok you think if I put down 0.25 lb/1000 sq feet so I would get 1-2-3.5 or is it too much?


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

If you put down 7 lb of 4-8-14 per 1000 sq ft (10.5 lb for 1500 sq ft), it will provide .28 lb of N, .56 lb of P, and .98 lb of K per 1000 sq ft. The 4-8-14 are percentages of each nutrient in the product. It's ok to put down up to 1 lb of a nutrient per 1000 sq ft in an application.

Is KMag or SulPoMag available? That has potassium, magnesium, and sulfur in it.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

I mention the kMag or SulPoMag because they are recommending some magnesium too. One application would take care of the magnesium. The 4-8-14 is good because it's heavy on potassium. I just have never seen a recommendation for so much potassium in a year and I don't know how you'd put it all down. It seems to me it would create an imbalance.


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

Your potassium level is 31 ppm. Detrimentally low. It's not unusual for labs to target 200 ppm of potassium. 395 lbs/acre of K2O works out to be about 9 lbs/M (M= 1000 sq ft). Every pound of K2O applied per M of lawn will add about 18 ppm. 18 X 9 = 162 ppm. 162 + 31 = 193 or about 200 ppm. Studies (PACE Turf MLSN) have found that if soil levels of potassium are not maintained above 37 ppm, turf health and performance will suffer. You don't need to get to 200 all at once, you just need to get above 37 and keep it above that level. Another way to look at it is that cool season turf will use about 0.5 lbs (9 ppm) of potassium (K) for every 1 lb of N. Any amount above that 0.5 lbs of K will increase the reserves held in the soil and contribute to achieving the targeted 200 ppm. If you add 1lb of K2O/M every time you fertilized with N, you'd supply all the K the turf needs for that amount of N plus you'd add 9 ppm of K to your 31 ppm soil reserve K level. If you fertilize 4 times a year at the rate of one lb of N and 1 lb of K, at the end of the year your K levels should raise 36 ppm (4lbs/M of K2O X 18 ppm =72 ppm, less the amount of K used by the turf, 4lbsN X 9 ppm = 36, so 72 - 36 = 36 ppm of extra K, resulting in 31 + 36 = 67 ppm of K in soil reserves). As long as you apply the 0.5 lbs of K?M that the turf needs, your grass should perform fine, but it's a best practice to build up the soil reserves for insurance. You can build the reserves up faster by adding more K2O, (just don't exceed 1lb/M of K2O in any one month) just don't expect the excess K to result in better turf performance. It will just go into soil reserves.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

Thanks for chiming in, @Ridgerunner. With such a short growing season up there, I couldn't think how to fit in 8 applications. But if you make a two year project, that's doable and not such an overlaid in one year. Any thoughts on the sodium?


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

@Virginiagal Sodium can have two detrimental effects. One, excess Na can harm soil tilth. Damaging the bonds between clay platelets resulting in destruction of aggregates by replacing Ca and/or Mg in the bond. Two, the plant can begin substituting Na for K resulting in decreased plant health. Rather than a ppm level, literature suggest a Base Saturation % threshold be used for guidance. A sodic soil is commonly defined as 15% Na or greater; however, as detrimental effects are progressive, it is recommended that remediation should start when levels raise above 5%. This soil does not meet even the 5% threshold, BUT, due to the low K levels and a not insignificant amount of Na, there could be some substitution of Na for K. Raising the K should remedy that possibility.


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