# Got an F on my soil test



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

Looks like my soil is barley livable for my poor grass . I don't know how meaningful these numbers are in the real world but I want to give my grass the best environment possible (hopefully stop using chemicals one day)

Should I drop some P and K as they recommend ? Would dropping so much P , K and Lime have any negative effects on my 20 days old KBG ?

One image is for maintaining KBG/Fescue and one is for establishing . Not sure about the rules as far as having your address out there so I blanked them out .


----------



## Thick n Dense (May 7, 2019)

Well at least this is pretty straight forward.
I would just go with a balnced fert of 10-10-10, try to find one with sulfate of potash instead of muriate. You can put a pound k down a month or do baby apps.

The lime and epsom salt... not at same time.
Ive seen peeps mix epsom salt with milo and spread.


----------



## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

@Alias-Doe There are different recommendations for maintenance and establishment because one is for applications on top of the ground and the other is for applications tilled in. You're not tilling, so use the recommendations for maintenance. Delaware's fertilizer recommendations will give you a total (in two applications) of 2 lb/1000 sq ft of nitrogen, 1.4 lb/1000 sq ft of P2O5, and 1 lb/1000 sq ft of K2O. They are suggesting a starter fertilizer, which should be easy enough to find, followed by a nitrogen/potassium in a 3:1 ratio, which should be available too. I suggest following Delaware's recommendations, but doing four applications at half rate (two of starter at 2.7 lb/1000 sq ft, two of the 31-3-10 at 1.5 lb/1000 sq ft) because of your low CEC. You could do an application every two weeks. Your pH is not terrible so save the lime for later in the fall, like maybe November. Do not use epsom salt. A mostly calcitic lime would be best. If you don't find 31-3-10, get something similar and aim to use 0.5 lb/1000 sq ft of nitrogen in the last two applications.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Use the maintenance one unless you are planning to start a renovation.

I would use calcitic lime at the rate they recommended. You don't need more Mg. And no Epsom salt. BUT wait until you are at least 50days mature lawn. I don't like to mess with the soil during a reno.

You will need P and K and a balance fert will take care of it. I would suggest using a low rate of 2.5lb/ksqft of 10-10-10 (0.25lb of N/ksqft) weekly. This is mainly because you are in the middle of a renovation and need both N and P now.

Edit: vigininagal beat me to post.


----------



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

Virginiagal said:


> @Alias-Doe There are different recommendations for maintenance and establishment because one is for applications on top of the ground and the other is for applications tilled in. You're not tilling, so use the recommendations for maintenance. Delaware's fertilizer recommendations will give you a total (in two applications) of 2 lb/1000 sq ft of nitrogen, 1.4 lb/1000 sq ft of P2O5, and 1 lb/1000 sq ft of K2O. They are suggesting a starter fertilizer, which should be easy enough to find, followed by a nitrogen/potassium in a 3:1 ratio, which should be available too. I suggest following Delaware's recommendations, but doing four applications at half rate (two of starter at 2.7 lb/1000 sq ft, two of the 31-3-10 at 1.5 lb/1000 sq ft) because of your low CEC. You could do an application every two weeks. Your pH is not terrible so save the lime for later in the fall, like maybe November. Do not use epsom salt. A mostly calcitic lime would be best. If you don't find 31-3-10, get something similar and aim to use 0.5 lb/1000 sq ft of nitrogen in the last two applications.


Thank you very much for breaking it down . There's nothing I can do for the CEC correct ?


----------



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

g-man said:


> Use the maintenance one unless you are planning to start a renovation.
> 
> I would use calcitic lime at the rate they recommended. You don't need more Mg. And no Epsom salt. BUT wait until you are at least 50days mature lawn. I don't like to mess with the soil during a reno.
> 
> ...


Thanks again g-man . I actually have a bag of 10-10-10 that's barley used . Idk if it has anything to do with it but one of my side yards I used 10-10-10 at seed down is growing so much better than everywhere else . That yard was my dumping ground for summer stuff and never been fertilizer or seeded in 10+ years . I've been amazed at how that area is growing better than the areas I usually try to fertilize and maintain .


----------



## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

Yes, nothing much to do about CEC. Raising pH to target pH will raise it a little. Organic matter helps. But it likely will be always be low. G-man's fertilizer suggestion is fine too. Depends on whether you want to do weekly applications or not. Be sure to water in applications whatever you use.


----------



## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

> Looks like my soil is barley livable for my poor grass .


That's pretty much your case.

Pace Turf Minimum Nutrient Levels for M3 testing.
Defined as levels above which turf does not poorly perform. Safe to assume that the converse is true? That is, at levels below these values, turf is expected to perform poorly.
All soils tested were low nutrient holding capacity soils with CEC <6.

pH: >5.5 to <8.5
P: 21 ppm
Ca: 331 ppm
Mg: 47 ppm
K: 37 ppm
S: 7

Your M3 soil results converted from Index to ppm:
https://cdn.extension.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/02042319/Appendix-5.pdf

P: 21 ppm
Ca: 340 ppm
Mg: 60 ppm
K: 62 ppm
S: 10

Studies and analysis have shown that Bermuda grass will use .13 units of P and between .75 an 1 unit of K for every 1 unit of N used.
Field studies, albeit much of it anecdotal, have reflected these ratios of use. That is for every one pound of N applied to Burmuda, the turf uses/removes .13 lbs of P (resulting in about a 2.8 ppm reduction in total ppm of P levels) and .75 to 1 lbs of K (resulting in about a 16 to 22 ppm reduction in total ppm of K levels) from the soil.

The practical result of all of this is that although your current tested levels are at or above minimum levels and should not result in poor performing turf:

P: + 0 ppm
Ca: + 9 ppm
Mg: + 13 ppm
K: + 25 ppm
S: + 3 ppm

Every addition of 1#/M of N is going to remove/reduce P by about 3 ppm (e.g. 31 -3 = 18 ppm) and K by 16-22 ppm (e.g. 62 - 16 = 46 ppm) etc. By the time you apply a second 1# of N, your P levels could fall to 15 ppm and K levels to 30 ppm. Values at which your turf would very likely poorly perform.
At CEC higher than 6, the soil can hold enough extra nutrients to supply the grass for a full growing season or longer before nutrients need to be replenished, but at your low CEC, there just isn't enough capacity to hold a whole season of nutrients. They will need to be replaced on a regular basis (spoon feeding).
Studies (again, many anecdotal) have shown promising results in improved turf performance in low CEC sandy soils with the addition of granular humic acid and the same should hold true with the use of a biochar based fertilizer (advise against applying a raw biochar that has not been charged with nutrients).


----------



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

Ridgerunner said:


> > Looks like my soil is barley livable for my poor grass .
> 
> 
> That's pretty much your case.
> ...


Wow !! I had to read this a couple times to fully understand everything you explained. Thank you for all these details. Do you think the spoon feeding of 10-10-10 or something similar would be my best option ? Would adding more P and K to the 10-10-10 be a waste ?


----------



## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

I tend to get verbose.
Either the U of Del plan as explained by @Virginiagal or the 10-10-10 spoon feeding plan suggested by @g-man should work fine for you for the next year. Retest next year and adjust.
Adding more P or K would be wasteful as the plant can only effectively use so much of each (on the downside, it could create soil imbalances and cause other nutrients to become less available) and with your low CEC , there is little room for any excess to be stored.
With a CEC<3, If it's in the budget, I'd be tempted to apply a granular HA like Anderson DG or similar and see if that helped with nutrient availability and helped reduce the number of feedings from say every 2 weeks to something like every 3 weeks.


----------



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

@Ridgerunner Okay I'll stick to the 10-10-10 spoon feeding . I can try the granular Humic since there's not much else I can do . How often should I apply it ? I see it's a 40lb bag at 1-2 lb per 1000 .


----------



## KoopHawk (May 28, 2019)

Alias-Doe said:


> @Ridgerunner Okay I'll stick to the 10-10-10 spoon feeding . I can try the granular Humic since there's not much else I can do . How often should I apply it ? I see it's a 40lb bag at 1-2 lb per 1000 .


I've done a little research and Anderson Humic DG can be applied low (1lb/m), med (2lb/m), or high (4lb/m).


----------



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

g-man said:


> Use the maintenance one unless you are planning to start a renovation.
> 
> I would use calcitic lime at the rate they recommended. You don't need more Mg. And no Epsom salt. BUT wait until you are at least 50days mature lawn. I don't like to mess with the soil during a reno.
> 
> ...


One last question . The 10-10-10 that I have ( half a bag ) has 6% sulphur , would that be a problem with my 6.0 pH ?


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Not a problem. It is a different sulfur than elemental sulfur.


----------



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

@g-man @Ridgerunner I've been going by the plan of 2.5LB of 10-10-10 per 1000 sqft per week and I've also dropped a high rate of Anderson Humic granular a couple weeks ago . Besides the crabgrass and broadleaf weeks the Soil/grass seems to be looking more healthy the last week or so . My question is when should I drop the lime and is fast acting lime okay ? Should I stop the 10-10-10 before I use the lime ?


----------



## uts (Jul 8, 2019)

Generally give a 1-2 week gap between lime snd a fertilizer


----------



## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

You can drop the lime anytime now. Your turf should be heading into Winter dormancy or at least the late Fall growth slow down. Yes? If so, you can reduce the weekly TNPK (every other week until Nov 1 ish) and then lime. The lime/N fertilization interaction isn't a big issue. Lime will just cause an increased loss of N to volatilization. You get less N bang for your buck, some estimates are as much as 30%ish loss depending on the N source. To help avoid this, you can apply N a week or two prior to liming. 
I'm not familiar with that lime product. Suggest you play safe and use the max bag rate as long as it isn't more than the test rec of 25#/M and the product's CCE isn't >100.


----------



## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

Ridgerunner said:


> You can drop the lime anytime now. Your turf should be heading into Winter dormancy or at least the late Fall growth slow down. Yes? If so, you can reduce the weekly TNPK (every other week until Nov 1 ish) and then lime. The lime/N fertilization interaction isn't a big issue. Lime will just cause an increased loss of N to volatilization. You get less N bang for your buck, some estimates are as much as 30%ish loss depending on the N source. To help avoid this, you can apply N a week or two prior to liming.
> I'm not familiar with that lime product. Suggest you play safe and use the max bag rate as long as it isn't more than the test rec of 25#/M and the product's CCE isn't >100.


Thanks for the reply . Weather is anywhere from 50-75 the next couple weeks .Our first frost is usually the beginning of November . I dropped 10-10-10 yesterday so maybe I can do one more in 7-10 days then do the lime a week after ? The bag is 30# and covers 5k so I'll be applying 6#/M . Bag CCE is 97.7% .


----------



## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

I was thinking you were in Canada, you're in Del. You should have another month or more of growth left in the season. Keep doing the weekly until Nov, then go to every other week and put down lime around Dec 1. 30#/5M is about a quarter of the recommended lime needed for adjustment. You're not likely to see much pH change, but at pH6, that's ok.


----------



## LawnOrder (Sep 29, 2019)

@Alias-Doe - Your soil's cation exchange capacity can actually be improved dramatically with amendments. Simply adding peat humus - or more effectively, adding Calcium Montmorillonite or Sodium Bentonite - will all add moisture retention and improve capillary action. Sodium Bentonite is the clay used by kitty litter manufacturers for "clumping" cat litter, and will retain 15 to 20 times it weight in moisture. There's a very brief summary here:

https://www.natureswayresources.com/nl/44Bentonite.pdf
.


----------

