# Northern California 9b zone Soil Test Results -- Any recommendations or tips for fixing so many low values?



## CoastalHumboldt (Oct 1, 2019)

https://i.imgur.com/BHPwCPj.png

I have 1,000 sq ft lawn. Just bought this place a few months ago and wanted to get serious in replacing my dandelion and few clumps of grass yard. I've since done a renovation of the lawn, planting seed a month ago of Fescue/Bluegrass. I got a soil test done and as you can see my soil is acidic while low in every macro and micro nutrient in the book.

Today I added 70 pounds of Dolomite lime to help raise the PH, and got a 16-16-16 NPK Fertilizer that I spread once at a rate of .5lb/ksqft. I've got some Milorganite thrown down since time of seed as well. I have also been adding aerated compost tea to the grass to help jumpstart some microbial activity.

Question is, what else should I be adding to the yard? How often can I add the 16-16-16 fertilizer? It's the synthetic kind, and I was thinking every 4 weeks. It doesn't really freeze here, aside from a few frosts a year in the mornings, and it never really gets above 75 degrees in the summer, so I was thinking I could try pushing my new grass through the winter and really try to fill out the yard and thicken up by summer time.

I really want to try to get all the macros and micros back to a healthy range once the ph gets fixed.

What do you think y'all? and hello I guess! This is my first post on here.


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

Unfortunately, it appears that you purchased a saturated paste test. A saturated paste test is a "snap shot" of what is available in the soil solution at the time that the sample was taken. It can and does vary from day to day and although it can provide useful information, it is not calibrated for calculating nutrient additions needed. Most labs keep your sample for 30 days. You could call them and ask them to run their "Total Plant Available Macronutrients" test for P, K, Ca and Mg.
It does not appear that the micro-nutrients were determined via saturated paste, but via DTPA. Sufficiency DTPA ranges are lower than what that lab states as optimal and all your micros with the exception of Boron would be sufficient.
You received a Buffer pH test. The lab should be able to determine the amount of lime you need to apply. Call them for that quantity, or get the name of the BpH they used and can you find the amount needed on-line by locating the appropriate BpH index.


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## CoastalHumboldt (Oct 1, 2019)

Ridgerunner said:


> Unfortunately, it appears that you purchased a saturated paste test. A saturated paste test is a "snap shot" of what is available in the soil solution at the time that the sample was taken. It can and does vary from day to day and although it can provide useful information, it is not calibrated for calculating nutrient additions needed. Most labs keep your sample for 30 days. You could call them and ask them to run their "Total Plant Available Macronutrients" test for P, K, Ca and Mg.
> It does not appear that the micro-nutrients were determined via saturated paste, but via DTPA. Sufficiency DTPA ranges are lower than what that lab states as optimal and all your micros with the exception of Boron would be sufficient.
> You received a Buffer pH test. The lab should be able to determine the amount of lime you need to apply. Call them for that quantity, or get the name of the BpH they used and can you find the amount needed on-line by locating the appropriate BpH index.


Really? I paid 100 hundred dollars for this test. Is there nothing I can do with this data? For the total plant macronutrients available test it would have been around 150 dollars. They are a certified ag lab. I wanted to try to support a local business, rather than mailing a sample out of area. For them to recommend anything, it would have been another 30 dollars. Sounds like I may have made the wrong decision.


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

Yep. Cali is a high cost of living state and consequently services like lab testing are extremely expensive. It's a dirty business.  As the protocols and procedures for soil testing extraction are the same (for whatever individual extraction method is used), it makes $ sense to use a quality lab that is cheaper although in another state.
I looked up Dirty Business Soil Analytics and these are their test methods:
https://www.dbsanalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Copy-of-DBS-Analytical-Methods.pdf
It does appear that you got a saturated paste test and DPTA-TEA for micros.
They use AA for "Total" Macros which is fine, although they spell it amminium acetate. As your pH is 5.2, their default use of Olsen for P wouldn't have been the most appropriate/useful method anyway.
They use Sikora for BpH, you can search the internet for a Sikora Lime Requirement Index chart to find the recommended amount of lime to raise your pH. Depending on how deep you want to calculate the pH change, it's going to take around 80-160 lbs/M of lime. Max app rates is 50#/M of reg pelleted 60 mesh every six months. I suggest you apply 50 this Fall and 50 next Spring (March) and retest next September and see where you are.


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## CoastalHumboldt (Oct 1, 2019)

Ridgerunner said:


> Yep. Cali is a high cost of living state and consequently services like lab testing are extremely expensive. It's a dirty business.  As the protocols and procedures for soil testing extraction are the same (for whatever individual extraction method is used), it makes $ sense to use a quality lab that is cheaper although in another state.
> I looked up Dirty Business Soil Analytics and these are their test methods:
> https://www.dbsanalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Copy-of-DBS-Analytical-Methods.pdf
> It does appear that you got a saturated paste test and DPTA-TEA for micros.
> ...


Thank you so very much about your insight into this. You obviously know a lot! I went ahead and added the lime and will reapply in six months. Do you think it's safe to keep adding 16-16-16 fertilizer every 4 to 6 weeks? I want to say this soil hasn't been amended very much over the 115 years this house has been here. I will get another soil test done eventually, but I might just mail mine to a lab somewhere that can do a better test for 35 bucks.


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

Thanks, but I'm just a hack. I know just enough to be dangerous. A saturated paste test is a good test for its intended purpose and there is no reason to believe that that lab doesn't do quality work, but you can get useful quality lab work using an appropriate extractant done for a third of the price (less than $30 not including postage costs) at a reputable out of state lab like Midwest or Waypoint, etc. Mehlich III extraction testing is also appropriate for your situation and should be an additional cost saving.
With the paste test levels for P and K being so low, the 16-16-16 should pay dividends. Raising your pH to 6-7 will also help make nutrients more available. Particularly P.
I would encourage you to retest next September before continuing the application of lime and the 16-16-16 indefinitely.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

I wonder if the local extension office could help with recommendations on fertilizer and when to fertilize.
https://humboldtgov.org/614/UC-Cooperative-Extension
They may be familiar with Dirty Business and how the information you have from them could be useful. My daughter and family lived in McKinleyville for a couple of years. Their big problem in the yard was blackberry bushes that kept popping up all over because of seeds from the birds. I expect most of Dirty Business's clients deal with Humboldt County's lucrative cash crop.


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## CoastalHumboldt (Oct 1, 2019)

Virginiagal said:


> I wonder if the local extension office could help with recommendations on fertilizer and when to fertilize.
> https://humboldtgov.org/614/UC-Cooperative-Extension
> They may be familiar with Dirty Business and how the information you have from them could be useful. My daughter and family lived in McKinleyville for a couple of years. Their big problem in the yard was blackberry bushes that kept popping up all over because of seeds from the birds. I expect most of Dirty Business's clients deal with Humboldt County's lucrative cash crop.


Thanks for the tid points. I'll check it out. 
And yeah, pretty much every yard has himalayan blackberries in their backyards. Invasive species but they are so hard to kill and like you said birds spread them everywhere that they are pretty much here to stay. They do have tasty berries... but I prefer to lop them whenever I see some coming into my yard. And yeah, I assume with Dirty Business they can get away with a high cost test because of the people who use them. If someone is grossing a 500k crop a season, a 100+ dollar test is a drop in the bucket. For just a home gamer those prices sting. That's what I get sometimes for trying to support local businesses I guess


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## CoastalHumboldt (Oct 1, 2019)

Ridgerunner said:


> Thanks, but I'm just a hack. I know just enough to be dangerous. A saturated paste test is a good test for its intended purpose and there is no reason to believe that that lab doesn't do quality work, but you can get useful quality lab work using an appropriate extractant done for a third of the price (less than $30 not including postage costs) at a reputable out of state lab like Midwest or Waypoint, etc. Mehlich III extraction testing is also appropriate for your situation and should be an additional cost saving.
> With the paste test levels for P and K being so low, the 16-16-16 should pay dividends. Raising your pH to 6-7 will also help make nutrients more available. Particularly P.
> I would encourage you to retest next September before continuing the application of lime and the 16-16-16 indefinitely.


Yeah, I really think I will try another company as much as that sucks. Thanks for your help and information about the fertilizing and ph. Hoping to get myself on track and into maintenance mode soon!


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