I'm not an expert, but here's my thoughts. Soil tests look good. You must have recently fertilized your back yard. Maybe over did it. Huge jump in phosphorus and potassium. You may want to cut back on those nutrients in that area. Otherwise, great looking soil tests. PH is great in all areas.

I will be brief. The short answer is lay off the Phosphorous this year and next.

To clue you in here are some ranges for optimum turf conditions so you can see where you are at.

PH 6.3 to 7.2
P = Phosphorous = 50 to 75
K = Pot Ash = Potassium = 150 to 250
Ca = Calcium 800 to 16000
Mg = 150 to 2,000
CEC sandy texture = 1 to 5
CEC silts = 5 to 20
CEC clay = 20+

I just wanted to say thank you all for your responses. What else would you recommend for my yard?

What kind of grass?

Texas-Weed,

I currently have TTTF grass in my yard.

For right now just continue to water and mow. When cooler wetter weather arrives (fall) you can aerate, top dress, and over seed if you want; along with your required fall fertilizer applications.

For your fall fertlizer applications this year just use a fertlizer without or very little P, you do not need any. If you are organic just use whatever you use normally. However I strongly suspect from your test results you use a synthetic fertilizer with a high number of P, or at least have in the past, lay-off P for a while.

The only other thing I can add is maybe consider some Dolmetic Lime this fall to push your soil PH closer to 7, because you are at the bottom of the optimum range.

Good Luck

TW

Texas-weed,

That is what I don't understand about my PH being so low. After my test results in October of 2006. I was told to add lime. I put lime down in my yard at 30 Â 40 lbs per 1,000sf on my left front yard (5,000sf = 150 - 200 lbs of lime), right front yard (approx 4,900sf = 150 Â 200 lbs of lime) and my back yard (approx 9,000sf = approx 270 Â 360 lbs of lime) so in all I put down about 800lbs of lime down in October of last year.

I also have been fertilizing organically except when I reseeded my yard last year in early October when I put out some starter fertilizer. This year I have fertilized my yard so far with 600lbs of soybean meal, 500lbs of Alfalfa pellets, 500 lbs of alfalfa pellets and I was going to fertilize again with alfalfa pellets at the end of this month.

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

What problem is it that you want help with. If it's th PH issue, then stop worrying about it. Your PH is fine especially since you are fertilizing organically. I really don't understand the huge jump in the P and K though. Suggest that you send in another soil sample of the back lawn. Other than that, just follow TexasWeed's suggestions.

haliwa01 ,

What you are saying makes perfect since too me, and will you too if you think about it for a minute.

In regards to lime tells me your soil is naturally acidic by nature. I believe that is quite common for NC soils. So what that means is it will be a continuous battle for you with annual or bi-annual applications of lime just to keep at the bottom end of the optimum PH range. If you slip or miss applications your soil will turn sour quickly. It just means you have to apply lime at least every year to stay a float.

Starter fertilizer contains a large dose of Phosphorous which explains your recent jump in the soil test. There is not any thing wrong with your P levels as they are just slightly above optimum levels, you just have enough for now to last a while.

IMHO all you have to do in the future is lime once or twice a year and stay organic. By staying organic your NPK ratios should stay in optimum ranges. If your yearly soil test indicates otherwise; then deal with it on a post-reactive measure rather than pre-active.

Please pardon my use of the thread, but it may be a useful question. I noticed the CEC was very low, lower than mine. If I understand the CEC number it is an indicator of how well the plant can take up nutrients from the soil. Is that correct enough for a layman? If so, and one wants to get the CEC better is there a quick way (probably expensive) or a slow way (cheaper) to do this? Does mulch mowing and organic ferts like the meal type grains increase the CEC? Is the CEC important enough to spend money on in prep for seeding season?

Without knowing soil type (sandy, silt, clay) CEC is meaningless. For example sandy soils normal range is 1 to 5. So withoput knowing the soil type there is no way to tell if the result is low, normal, or high.

One of the lime choices is also a natural provider of calcium. Looked like that had dropped from last year and calcium is be thought of as more and more important as learning progresses.
Give lime more time. It does not move into the soil profile very well from what I understand.