# A Question for the Baggers



## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

I expect this is a long shot, but I know many are refugees from another site, so there is a chance.
For those who have been removing clippings for at least 2 years (cool or warm season turf) AND have done regular soil test over that same period AND either haven't added micros or have kept meticulous records of yearly micro additions:
What changes have you seen in your test levels of Iron, Copper, Zinc, Boron, Manganese and Sulfur?
Thanks in advance to any who can and do respond.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

You lost me at regular soil tests and meticulous records.


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

Ware said:


> You lost me at regular soil tests and meticulous records.


Yea, I knew it was a long shot, but without that, we couldn't see any patterns or draw conclusions.
Funny that you just responded as I was thinking of deleting the topic todnight. Would you mind doing the honors?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Well, I'm an affirmative on all the requirements except for the biggest one about bagging -- I have the regular soil tests and the records of micros and additions.

One thing that I've observed is that I'm getting a fair bit of increase in copper and zinc, even without specific micronutrient additions. I believe this copper and zinc is coming primarily from heavy use of Bay State Fertilizer. Alas, Bay State doesn't provide significant boron or manganese.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

It's a good topic, and maybe someone will read it and start doing it. I was just browsing through the unanswered topics. &#128077;&#127996;


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## Delmarva Keith (May 12, 2018)

I don't bag but you ask a good question. There are some farm websites and apps around that will calculate exactly what you're looking for based on various crops and stover removal. If you poke around enough on the web you'll likely find one for pasture grass which may be close enough, or at least give you a rough idea of what you're removing in order to replace it.

If you really want to get into it, you can have tissue tests done of your clippings and then do the calculations based on the weight of the clippings (subtracting percentage of water weight) from an "average" mowing. This would also get you pretty close.

Now for the real question - why do you bag the clippings? :mrgreen:


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## Ridgerunner (May 16, 2017)

Delmarva Keith said:


> I don't bag but you ask a good question. There are some farm websites and apps around that will calculate exactly what you're looking for based on various crops and stover removal. If you poke around enough on the web you'll likely find one for pasture grass which may be close enough, or at least give you a rough idea of what you're removing in order to replace it.
> 
> If you really want to get into it, you can have tissue tests done of your clippings and then do the calculations based on the weight of the clippings (subtracting percentage of water weight) from an "average" mowing. This would also get you pretty close.
> 
> Now for the real question - why do you bag the clippings? :mrgreen:





Delmarva Keith said:


> I don't bag but you ask a good question. There are some farm websites and apps around that will calculate exactly what you're looking for based on various crops and stover removal. If you poke around enough on the web you'll likely find one for pasture grass which may be close enough, or at least give you a rough idea of what you're removing in order to replace it.
> 
> If you really want to get into it, you can have tissue tests done of your clippings and then do the calculations based on the weight of the clippings (subtracting percentage of water weight) from an "average" mowing. This would also get you pretty close.
> 
> Now for the real question - why do you bag the clippings? :mrgreen:


I've got the charts for the different turf grasses (I think I posted it in my soil test thread) from which I could calculate expect nutrient removal. I was interested in what people were actually experiencing. :mrgreen:



ken-n-nancy said:


> Well, I'm an affirmative on all the requirements except for the biggest one about bagging -- I have the regular soil tests and the records of micros and additions.
> 
> One thing that I've observed is that I'm getting a fair bit of increase in copper and zinc, even without specific micronutrient additions. I believe this copper and zinc is coming primarily from heavy use of Bay State Fertilizer. Alas, Bay State doesn't provide significant boron or manganese.


Any chance you have a soil test with a starting micro nutrient base line to measure from? If so, any idea what quantity of micro nutrients you've applied (like from the bay state, etc.) between two tests? Is the amount you've applied reflected in your recent test results? How well correlated? Thanks.


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