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brankulo

soil test results

16 years ago

so i took my soil sample to local garden store to have it tested. here are results

ph 7-8

N a

P d

K d

where a is lowest and d is highest.

now they recommended me to tile than amend 3yards of soil prep ix per 1000sf and tile the whole thing again. having read suggestions on this forum not to tile at all leaves me wandering how do i prepare my soil for seeding and what amendments to use to lower ph and rise N.

thanks

Comments (10)

  • 16 years ago

    That's not much of a soil test. More important for now is
    1. Where do you live?
    2. What kind of soil do you have?
    3. What kind of grass do you want and why?
    4. Are you willing to water and mow?

    One excellent way to prepare bare soil for seed or sod is to cover it with mulch and keep it moist for about 3 months. You're probably ready to go right now so that might not work for you.

    I would not add anything unless your soil is low and causing drainage issues. Adding yards of anything is almost certain to result in changes to the drainage flow.

    Your soil pH is high but it might not be any higher than other people's soil. My soil is limestone rubble so it is about 8 to begin with. It might be lower now, but I never check it.

    You do not have to raise the nitrogen before seeding. Nitrogen is only a factor once you have roots. Before you put the seed down you do not have roots, so the nitrogen (assuming synthetic fertilizer) will do nothing except disappear before your grass grows roots. It is more reasonable to wait until your grass has been mowed for the second time before you fertilize it. That way you know you have roots.

  • 16 years ago

    well, it is just the test they do in my local garden store for $1. but to answer your questions
    1. denver
    2. sandy
    3. i am thinking bermuda/texas hybrid (spitfire or reveille) for lower water consumption
    4. yes and yes

    i am planing to seed in april.
    any sugestion how to lower ph? i shoul i just leave it? i was previously told on this forum to spread layer of compost and and keep it wet for some weeks before i start.
    thanks

  • 16 years ago

    You don't want Bermuda in Denver. It will be brown most of the year. Buffalo grass and blue grama are marginally better choices, but they'll also be brown much of the year.

    There's a Texas Bluegrass/Kentucky Bluegrass hybrid that is supposed to use a lot less water than KBG, but I've read mixed reviews of it.

    If saving water is your main goal, you may want to consider planting a lawn with cool season native (or perhaps some non-native, but naturalized) grasses. Since you've got sandy soil, Thickspike wheatgrass will do well. I think Western wheatgrass will do okay in sandy soil, too, although it does better in clay. Those are both native grasses that spread via rhizomes and will be green about the same time as KBG, but will require about 1/4 as much water. A non-native grass that is often used for lawns is Crested wheatgrass. Most varieties are bunch grasses, but some newer varieties (Roadcrest and Ephraim come to mind) are rhizomatous.

    I've been planting those grasses (and strawberry clover) in my lawn and I think I only watered three times last year (once in July and twice in August), but we did have rain in June, which is unusual. I'm hoping that in a normal year, I'll be watering about 5-7 times. With your sandy soil, you may need to water more often, but I'm trying to water only once every other week.

    April is a tough time to seed. If you can seed now, you may have better results. It's called dormant seeding and basically, the seeds sit there until conditions are right, then they sprout. This is the only approach I know of that allows us (in the intermountain west) to plant without a lot of watering since the seeds can take advantage of the spring moisture from the snow melt.

    I wouldn't bother trying to lower the pH. You're not likely to affect it much, and any effect you have will be short lived.

  • 16 years ago

    Even if saving water was never your goal, listen to bpgreen on this subject. He's the master of green lawns in the Rockies. The grasses he talks about are adapted to your soil, green, and very lawn like. I thought they would look like weeds, but not at all!

  • 16 years ago

    any idea where i could find pictures of such lawns. google doesnt give me any lawn pictures.
    thanks

  • 16 years ago

    If you ask real nice, bpgreen will post his pix.

  • 16 years ago

    lol, pretty please

  • 16 years ago

    This looks close. The link says streambank.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:80655}}

  • 16 years ago

    Sorry for the delay in responding. I haven't been on much lately. I'll have to find one of my posts with pictures of my lawn last year. The link biglumber posted is a good picture of Streambank wheatgrass. As I said in my earlier post, thickspike wheatgrass will be a better choice for sandy soil and will look pretty much the same as the streambank.

    I haven't fertilized (not even UCG) for the past two years as I've been trying to get conditions in the lawn to favor the native grasses. The KBG in my lawn is still dormant, but the streambank wheatgrass and sheep fescue are both green already. I think the western wheatgrass is still dormant, but should turn green in a week or so (there's not as much of it, so it's harder for me to find it).

    It'll probably be a day or two before I get a chance to post pics.

  • 16 years ago

    These pictures are from last year (I think in the late spring or early summer).

    {{gwi:80657}}
    This is a closeup of western and streambank wheatgrass. The western is the grass that is more of a blue.

    {{gwi:80658}}
    This is mostly KBG, with some western wheatgrass near the bottom of the picture. The western wheatgrass is the coarser grass that is somewhat blue.

    {{gwi:80659}}
    The majority of the grass in this picture is native (streambank and western wheatgrass). The clumps of darker green are TTTF (probably K31, bought before I knew to look at the label). The dark green around the edges is KBG (whatever was planted by the previous owner).