# Need help with Waypoint results



## eric_s (Jul 14, 2021)

I recently decided to do the lawn care myself. Followed the advice from this forum, I sent samples to Waypoint. Now the results are back. As I'm new to lawn care, I definitely need some help with the report and the next steps.

Front


Back



What I gathered from the report is both the front and the back are low in P and K. The backyard also needs lime application. Is there anything else I need to pay attention to? Is it now a good time to apply lime?

Thanks for your thoughts and comments!!


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

That backyard P is really low (deficiency). Yes, you need a balanced fert approach since P and K are low. You will find it at your local home depot/Lowes.

Back does need lime. It needs 80lb/ksqft, but only do 50lb now and the other 30lb in 6 months. I think you should use calcitic lime and not the fast type. If you want to use the fast, then you need to do like 9lb/Ksqft over multiple months (not 50lb at once), per the bag rate. Keep the other fertilizers 2 weeks apart from your lime applications.

Other than that, your soil has a low cec. This means that it cant hold on to nutrients that long. I suggest doing more frequent applications (every 2 weeks) of half the monthly rates.

This is a marathon, not a sprint so don't rush. It will take a while to correct the soil. Check the soil remediation guide for products / rates you can use.


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## eric_s (Jul 14, 2021)

g-man said:


> That backyard P is really low (deficiency). Yes, you need a balanced fert approach since P and K are low. You will find it at your local home depot/Lowes.
> 
> Back does need lime. It needs 80lb/ksqft, but only do 50lb now and the other 30lb in 6 months. I think you should use calcitic lime and not the fast type. If you want to use the fast, then you need to do like 9lb/Ksqft over multiple months (not 50lb at once), per the bag rate. Keep the other fertilizers 2 weeks apart from your lime applications.
> 
> ...


This is very helpful. I will go with a balanced fertilizer and calcitic lime. Thank you g-man!!


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## eric_s (Jul 14, 2021)

I did a little research on lime. As the Magnesium level is low too, I think dolomitic lime probably fits better for my case. It adds both Calcium and Magnesium. Am I wrong?


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## LeeB (Jul 1, 2019)

Their lime recommendation seems a little excessive and suspect to me, you have a low CEC and when I run your saturation numbers I'm only getting about 30 lbs/1000 lime needed. That buffer pH of 7.8 also seems wrong, perhaps it was a typo and they meant 6.8 which would make way more sense. You may want to call them about that or get another test? I think I would personally only do the 30 lbs for now and see what happened to the pH in 6 months.

Otherwise you're pretty low across the board from your sandy soil, so you want to try to use a complete fertilizer. Try to find something locally, even all purpose 10-10-10 might be okay to start with.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

eric_s said:


> I did a little research on lime. As the Magnesium level is low too, I think dolomitic lime probably fits better for my case. It adds both Calcium and Magnesium. Am I wrong?


Your magnesium is not low. 47ppm is the low level per MLSN. Adding calcitic will mostly increase the calcium which gives you a better ca to mg ratio.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

LeeB said:


> Their lime recommendation seems a little excessive and suspect to me, you have a low CEC and when I run your saturation numbers I'm only getting about 30 lbs/1000 lime needed. That buffer pH of 7.8 also seems wrong, perhaps it was a typo and they meant 6.8 which would make way more sense. You may want to call them about that or get another test? I think I would personally only do the 30 lbs for now and see what happened to the pH in 6 months.
> 
> Otherwise you're pretty low across the board from your sandy soil, so you want to try to use a complete fertilizer. Try to find something locally, even all purpose 10-10-10 might be okay to start with.


The good labs (not MySoil), first test the pH using a 1:1 mineral water to determine the soil pH. If low, then they do a buffer pH test. The Buffer pH is not a calculation. It is a different test using a known pH mixture to test what happens to the soil sample pH. The higher the value, the less lime the soil actually needs.

https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/soilfertility/news/Buffer-pH.pdf

https://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/ff/soil_buffer_ph.htm


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## LeeB (Jul 1, 2019)

g-man said:


> The good labs (not MySoil), first test the pH using a 1:1 mineral water to determine the soil pH. If low, then they do a buffer pH test. The Buffer pH is not a calculation. It is a different test using a known pH mixture to test what happens to the soil sample pH. The higher the value, the less lime the soil actually needs.


Yes, that's why it's surprising how much lime they are recommending for such a high buffer pH. The buffer pH would have to be down around 6.6 to recommend 80 lbs but it's way up at 7.8. Above buffer 6.8 you're not supposed to add lime. Maybe they messed up the pH reading, who knows. I'd definitely recommend a pH retest on that back yard with those numbers not making sense, I would ask if the lab could retest the sample.


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## eric_s (Jul 14, 2021)

Great information. Thank you both!!


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