# Help needed, soil test results



## tx aug dude (Jun 15, 2021)

I'm in Hou TX. Lawn size is 4K sq ft, grass type St Aug. This is my first full season maintaining this lawn, when I bought the house (just built) last June i thought I had measured my square footage correctly but upon review a week ago I came to the conclusion is was off by a decent amount. So I'm assuming my P & K are low due to my under fertilizing due to poor measurements. I really am just looking for some advice on where to go from here. The lawn doesn't look terrible but it's not as thick as I would like. I don't have issues with shade and also don't have irrigation system yet just sprinklers getting moved around. Is it even worth the time and money to try to lower PH or am I just better off using products that work for high PH and living with it?


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

Since you need P and K, the easiest product to use is a balanced fertilizer (same percentages of N, P, and K) when you fertilize. The amounts the soil test is giving are for a year. General rule is to not apply more than one pound of a particular nutrient a month in an appropriate time to fertilize.
Have you read this article here on soil remediation?
https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=15165
It has some info on lowering pH and whether it's worth trying to do.

Here's an article from Texas A&M on St Augustine maintenance:
https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/landscaping/maintaining-st-augustinegrass-lawns/


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## JLavoe (Jun 8, 2020)

@tx aug dude Find yourself a good 1-1-1 fertilizer, prefferably AMS as the N source.. and a solid chelated micronutrient package in foliar applications.

8.0 pH is quite high. Unless you're willing to bring in a bulldozer and sand cap this thing.. start banging it with citric acid and prilled sulfur. I have a thread on applying citric acid that may help as well.
https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=29159

No irrigation certainly poses a challenge, but can be done. Don't expect a significant drop in pH for a while.


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## tx aug dude (Jun 15, 2021)

@JLavoe Ive been doing some research on here and reading @Greendoc posts about St Aug. My current plan of action is to spray 20-20-20 bi weekly due to my CEC and also spray some chelated micros monthly. I will also throw down some sulfur and if I can find an economical way to spray citric I'll do that as well. Does this seem like a decent course of action? Thanks for your input I appreciate it.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

This is a soil test, so you should address the soil with granular products instead of foliar. Your P is very deficient. That would be my priority. Potassium is also low, so you need a balanced fert.

I would try the elemental sulfur, but dont be too hopeful. Adjust your practices to the high pH.


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## tx aug dude (Jun 15, 2021)

@g-man Wouldnt my high PH make P availability from soil an issue?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

That's why you need to do soil P applications. You can add a few oz via foliar, but i would not ignore the soil application.


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## tx aug dude (Jun 15, 2021)

@g-man ok that makes sense so maybe go with something like AMS bi weekly and monthly apps of TSP and SOP for my NPK needs?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

If you can find those, then yes. Other product options in the soil remediation guide.


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