# Treatment help



## njx (Sep 20, 2019)

I am having my lawn aerated and over-seeded soon. I have not applied any treatments this year, so the lawn needs some help. I just had my soil tested, and here are the results and the recommendation. The results showed very low levels of potassium, iron, and manganese, and borderline pH.

My questions are (1) can both recommended treatments be applied at the same time? and (2) how long after over-seeding should I apply them? I am in New Jersey and my lawn is tall fescue.


----------



## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

This looks like a Soil Savvy test. You probably won't get much response because of the reasons discussed in this thread:
https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=8530

Their recommendation of 10.25 lb of 0-0-60 per 1000 sq ft in a single application is irresponsible. That would be 6.15 lb of K2O per 1000 sq ft. You should not apply more than 1 lb/1000 sq ft of a nutrient in an application and that would be six times the maximum!

I suggest you get another soil test from a reliable lab. You might need lime and if so you need a lime recommendation. Soil Savvy's measurement of pH is not necessarily accurate and they do not do a buffer index which is necessary to make a lime recommendation. In the meantime you can probably surmise you need a fertilizer with nitrogen and potassium but not phosphorus. Try to find one that has about the same percentage of nitrogen and potassium. For an overseeding, it's best to hold off on fertilizer until the new grass is up. TTTF should germinate in 1-2 weeks.


----------



## njx (Sep 20, 2019)

Thank you. The Rutgers lab soil test is available so I will try them. And thank you for the Soil Savvy info - I guess I came upon this forum just in time.


----------



## njx (Sep 20, 2019)

Update: I had the Rutgers lab do a test, and the results were quite different.

pH: 6.05. Within acceptable range, and they recommended no lime:

_*Lime Requirement Index: 7.72*
The Lime Requirement Index (LRI) is a measure of the buffering capacity of the soil, its resistance to pH change, and
is used to determine the appropriate amount of limestone, when necessary. LRI value near 8.0 indicates low
buffering capacity of soil and a lower rate of limestone amendment compared to soil with high buffering capacity
(LRI near 7.0)._

Potassium low, other items high. They recommended a 1:0:1 treatment 2-3 times yearly. Target for initial application is .75 pounts nitrogen per 1000 sq ft.

The seed has just germinated, so perhaps I'll wait a couple of weeks to apply a treatment.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Can you post the result later? I'm always interested to compare soil savvy vs other labs to see if there is any correlation.


----------



## njx (Sep 20, 2019)

Here you are. One annoying thing is that Soil Savvy displays the amounts in a different unit than Rutgers.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

A lb/acre will convert to ppm by dividing by two.

P =50ppm
K=100ppm

You are actually good on both. You can add more K to the reserves to get it to 150ppm. Use SOP 0-0-50 next year. No need to mess with the soil when you have a young grass, so just focus on nitrogen this year. Use a 0.25lb of N/ksqft rate on the young grass.


----------



## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

@g-man where are you getting the potassium number? I see potassium as 101 lb/ac on the report, which would be 50 ppm. Phosphorus is 202 lb/ac.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@Virginiagal I think I need to check my prescription. I transposed the values.

P = 100ppm
K = 50ppm

So P is high. No Milorganite or biosolids. And K is not deficient per mlsn, but you should build up the reserves.


----------

