# Soil Test - high pH, low P and Boron



## ChaseinTX (Oct 22, 2019)

I purchased a new home in November, and just received my soil test back. A little surprised at the high levels of most nutrients, being out in Midland, TX. It appears my pH is too high (expected) and phosphorus and boron are low.

The lawn is Bermuda, not sure exactly which type though. Any recommendations on what to use this growing season?


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## Jbird95 (Jun 24, 2020)

@ChaseinTX 
Hey Chase- I'd consider something balanced, like a 20-20-20. TAMU has a website where you can plug in your results and the program will spit out a recommended fert.


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## Lawn Whisperer (Feb 15, 2021)

I personally wouldn't use a balanced fertilizer, your lawn doesn't need anymore K.

You can use AMS nitrogen for the high pH soil. It can slightly/temporarily lower pH to make other nutrients available.

Your lab results shows that you need 0.9 lb of P. It's rare to find synthetic fertilizers with P and no K, you can apply Triple Super Phosphate (TSP 0-46-0) in the beginning of the growing season.

Use foliar iron to get a greener result since the high pH will make the iron unavailable in the soil.

In regards to boron, unless your lawn is showing signs of boron deficiency, I wouldn't worry about it. Lawns doesn't require much boron, unlike other plants. Boron applications can be difficult to calculate since over application can be toxic to plant/lawns.

Edit: Triple Super Phosphate 0-46-0
@Mightyquinn :thumbup:


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Looks like you really just need to maintain what you have so just go to one of the big box stores and get some regular fertilizer that has a high Nitrogen number and a little bit of of Potassium(K) won't hurt anything as the grass will use up Potassium throughout the season. If you are mulch mowing it will use even less. If you want to address the Phosphorus in the lawn use a starter fertilizer for the first one or two applications of the year and then you should be good. I would shoot for around .5-.75lbs of Nitrogen/M per month depending on the condition of your lawn and plan on mowing at least once a week and if you can mow twice a week even better.

There isn't a whole lot you can do to lower your pH but I know some people here have been spraying Citric Acid to help combat their high pH soils. Just do a search for "Citric Acid" or "Lowering your soil pH".

@Lawn Whisperer Be careful recommending TSP as some people may get it confused with TriSodium Phosphate which is a cleaner you can buy at the hardware store instead of Triple Super Phosphate which is usually 0-46-0. :thumbup:


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## ChaseinTX (Oct 22, 2019)

Thanks!

With my last lawn I'd alternate between AMS and Milorganite (which can be a good source of phosphorus without the potassium). Perhaps I should just continue that here at the new home.


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## ChaseinTX (Oct 22, 2019)

Mightyquinn said:


> @Lawn Whisperer Be careful recommending TSP as some people may get it confused with TriSodium Phosphate which is a cleaner you can buy at the hardware store instead of Triple Super Phosphate which is usually 0-46-0. :thumbup:


Lol, when he said TSP the first thing that came to mind is that cleaner, as I have some in the garage, but I knew that wasn't what he meant.


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## Lawn Whisperer (Feb 15, 2021)

ChaseinTX said:


> Thanks!
> 
> With my last lawn I'd alternate between AMS and Milorganite (which can be a good source of phosphorus without the potassium). Perhaps I should just continue that here at the new home.


Milogranite 6-4-0 contains 66% of P for every lb of nitrogen. You can get ~1lb of P in two bag rate applications of Milo. P is very immobile in soil and the grass will uptake very little 1/4-1/3 for every nitrogen uptake. If your mulching clippings most of the P will remain in the soil.


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

For some reason TAMU uses M3 for soil testing. M3 doesn't give useful P (nor Mg or Ca, but that usually isn't important) readings for soils with a pH greater than 7.3ish. Before you address P applications, I suggest you have the soil P tested using the Olsen test method.


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