# Legz's Soil Results



## Legz (Feb 9, 2019)

Results have arrived quicker than I expected!







First time completing a soil test. After doing some research, here is how I have interpreted the results:

Soil type is Sandy Loam
HM%, W/V and CEC are basically 3 different ways of telling me my soil type so not much else to derive from these values.
No OM values, am I missing anything of great importance without it?
Front right and Back of house show similar results, which makes sense because they are the closest together
pH could use some lime. But without Mg levels listed, are there any other indicators to help determine whether I should use calcitic or dolomitic lime? I found a website that says high levels of Mn can produce low levels of Mg. I'll discuss further below but my micro levels are difficult to determine what is "high"
P needs some love, mostly in the front right and back. But sounds like this can also be slow to improve. 
The nutrient values are difficult to determine their levels as they are index and not displayed as ppm. I found a document that explains my report in a bit more detail, but from what I could see, it didn't provide any ranges for the values. If the values are as high as they look, from some reading online it does seem like raising the pH and P will lower levels of Mn, Zn, Cu. So I'll address pH and P first and see how the values change in a year. I did find another user with the same report and my values were in line or lower than his so I don't think there is any major concern. 
Action plan moving forward: Since this my first year with this lawn I plan to focus on improving pH and P in 2019 and then test results this time next year.

Couple closing questions

Anything of concern in my results that I missed?
 should I got with a 5-10-10 everywhere but the "Left" to address the low P levels?
In a video by the Grass Factor he mentions P can be prone to leeching. Is it best to apply during periods of low rainfall?
Can I apply P at the same time as my lime application
Any recommendations on calcitic vs dolomitic lime?

Appreciate any input!


----------



## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Now I'm no expert but I've not seen anyone with results yet indicating too much magnesium. I'd say go with the dolomitic lime.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Yes you do need calcium. This is the second report I've seen from NC that doesn't has OM, Calcium, Mg or Iron. It is a bit hard to get a complete picture as you noticed.

I would follow their recommendations for NPK for each area. P doesn't really leach, K does.

I would use calcitic lime since you don't know the Mg. Once you add Mg, there is no way to take it out. See if you could get them to test Ca and Mg in the future or use a different lab.


----------



## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

g-man said:


> Yes you do need calcium. This is the second report I've seen from NC that doesn't has OM, Calcium, Mg or Iron. It is a bit hard to get a complete picture as you noticed.
> 
> I would follow their recommendations for NPK for each area. P doesn't really leach, K does.
> 
> I would use calcitic lime since you don't know the Mg. Once you add Mg, there is no way to take it out. See if you could get them to test Ca and Mg in the future or use a different lab.


 :thumbup: 
Indexes (a system of rating test results against a 0-100 scale) without the actual tested ppm results make independent analysis/review pretty much impossible.


----------



## Legz (Feb 9, 2019)

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll inquire getting about a more detailed report for next year or look into using another testing site.

Here is a plan of attack that I have put together, I welcome any additional insight:

*Lime:* Could only seem to find dolmitic lime at HD and Lowe's. After some research I found Encap fast acting calcitic lime at Ace Hardware.

Sanity check: Just want to make sure I am OK to apply this lime at the rate's listed in my soil report? It is a 30lbs bag that says it cover 5k. Is that rate of 6lbs/k just because it is their standard blanket recommended amount? I should plan on needing ~100lbs of lime to cover the 3 areas in the report? FRTRT is ~1k (40lbs), Back is ~1.8k (45lb) and FRTLT is ~.6k (18lb)

*Fertilizer:* Finding the recommended 5-10-10 or 5-10-5 analysis has proven to be a bit difficult. Using the FRTRT sample as an example of 5-10-10 at 20lbs, are they ultimately just recommending to get 1LB of N and 2LB of P/K on the ground? I found this 10-18-10 Greenview Starter Fert, can I apply it at rate of 10lbs/k to get close to the same NPK recommended in the test? Then with applications of PreM and potentially SOP to make up for the shortfall of 1lbs K from the Greenview application? And a round of Milo for the shortfall of P?

The plan would look something like this:



FRTRT would be short ~.5lbs of K (just top it off with some SOP?) and unfortunately the other two sites would be over ~.5lbs K since it is only recommended to be at 1lbs, will that be OK?


----------



## Legz (Feb 9, 2019)

Just wanted to give a little bump to see if there were any thoughts out there? I saw in another recent post that since the lime I am looking at is 'fast acting' I should stick with the bag rate. So that answered my lime question.

In regards to fertilizing, is that the right train of thought? Or am I way off base and over thinking it?


----------



## drudd (Jul 14, 2018)

I just received my soil test results from N.C. today too. First time for me and trying to interpret them now.

Legz, I wanted to let you know that if you go to N.C. Soil Test website (https://www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/pals/) and search your name, you can find your report, but there's also another "Download Data" link in the "spreadsheet" column that has some additional information including magnesium and calcium. You may have already found this, but thought I'd share. Hope it helps!


----------



## Legz (Feb 9, 2019)

Nice find @drudd! I hadn't seen that, I just assumed the online version was the same.

I had found this PDF along my research which explains each section of the report in much more detail. I'm sure it makes a lot more sense to the more scholarly members among us, but it just seems to create more questions for me :lol:

https://www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/pdffiles/obook.pdf

At first glance, it seemed my Mg is possibly low and dolomitic lime would be worth it when compared to the other figures in the report. But looking at the document it says Mg is given as a % of CEC and page 39 (of the PDF, not within the document itself) it says that if CEC x Mg is >.5 then no Mg is needed. So in my case it would be 11.5 x .19 = 2.185, which is well above, so I suppose I'll stick with calcitic for now.


----------

