# Advice on Soil Test Results



## crussell (Mar 12, 2018)

Fresh off the press from Soil Savvy - Hoping for some help understanding, and advise for a gameplan moving forward.

Thanks!


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## crussell (Mar 12, 2018)

Sorry someone can move this to the new Soil Fertility section.

Should I go with the recommended N-P-K?


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

I'll tag @Ware for you so he can move it.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Yes, follow their recommendations


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## MarkAguglia (Jul 13, 2017)

My pH was higher than yours (5.9) and I still added lime. Might be worth doing. 40-80 lb per 1000 sq ft.


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## Suburban Jungle Life (Mar 1, 2018)

I think adding lime is a good idea. It will allow more nutrients to be available. The drawback with soil savvy is this is a picture in time of available nutrients at this ph. Once you lime and raise it to 6.5-6.8, more nutrients will be available so you will need to retest. Lime takes time to work and core aerating can help get the lime lower into the soil. Lime doesn't move quickly through the soil. It can take 6-12 months to move down through the soil. This can be a drawback to using soil savvy since you don't know the whole amount of nutrients in the soil, only what is currently plant available. Also, since soil savvy doesn't give a CEC number, I wouldn't know what to recommend for the quantity of lime. If you have an idea of your soil composition, ie more clay, more silt, more sand, you can ball park the amount of lime and retest in a year to see the difference. Sand maybe 10 lbs/M, silt maybe 50 lbs/M, clay maybe 100 lbs/M. As a note, it is easier to raise than lower the ph so, perhaps, be conservative on the quantity. Also, if you don't core aerate before and you get a heavy downpour, you may lose a lot of your lime through runoff.

In the meantime, I agree with g-man. A balanced fert looks fine or even go low on P and use something like a 20-10-20. If that isn't available, you can use regular 29-0-10 and add SOP or MOP to it. If you don't get much rain, go with SOP due to the lower salt index.


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## crussell (Mar 12, 2018)

Awesome thanks guys!

I pickup some some Dolomite Lime which I will put down at the bag rate of 20#/K. This seems conservative, so I don't think I'll risk over application.

Also picked up Lilly Miller 16-16-16 that I will put down at 3#/K.

I'll blend these together and broadcast later today, followed by a light watering.

Soil Savvy was good for my first ever Soil Sample. Moving forward I'm open to a more thorough test at a different lab.


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## Anthony Drexler (Apr 23, 2018)

I Like using the Jonathan Green Mag-I-Cal & Love Your Soil. This will raise the PH, and will also help with some of the nutrient deficiencies. :thumbup:


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Yes, use another lab. You get a lot more info for a lower price

These are pretty good:
Waypoint
A&L
Midwest Labs


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## crussell (Mar 12, 2018)

Holy crap how do you broadcast Dolomite Lime? We have the slightest breeze and I made it about 10 feet before stopping because I'm sure 90% of the material was gone with the wind. The stuff is like dust.


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

crussell said:


> Holy crap how do you broadcast Dolomite Lime? We have the slightest breeze and I made it about 10 feet before stopping because I'm sure 90% of the material was gone with the wind. The stuff is like dust.


You want pelleted/prilled, not pulverized/ground dust.

Or use a drop spreader.


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## MarkAguglia (Jul 13, 2017)

Pelletized was the way to go for certain! No idea how people can use the pulverized stuff.


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