3 to 4 pounds of actual nitrogen in just about any situation is pretty dang aggressive. And no, you don't need the middle 10. A good synthetic option for nitrogen and potassium only is potassium nitrate (13-0-44). A good organic option would be bloodmeal and sulfate of potash (0-0-50). When it comes to rates, is this a new planting or maintenance? What types of plants?
As far as the lime goes, I probably wouldn't have done anything or applied maybe 50 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft., but that's okay, what's done is done and it's not like the lime you applied is going to kill anything.
In regards to the numbers across the bottom and whether or not their worth paying attention to......well, that depends on what they are.

I'll be curious to find out if you can get a hold of Potassium Nitrate.

As I recall, the analysis of Starbuck's coffee grounds showed that the grounds were a good source of potassium and nitrogen. I stop at a local Starbucks every day and get another good sized bag of grounds. If you have one nearby, I'd recommend you do the same thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Starbucks coffee grounds analysis

What did you do for the lime? Dolomite? Did you take the soil samples before or after you added it? Keep in mind that the lime is going to break down slowly; if it was very finely ground, it will still take about three years to break down (about a third of it each year). If you have another soil test next year (and the next), be sure to allow for that, and don't just keep dumping lime on it.

How is the Magnesium (Mg)?

Is there any section there that indicates CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity)? What are the numbers there for Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium(Mg)? Is there anything else? Sodium (Na)?

Sue

It is always amusing to see a chemically slanted magazine like Sunset (see the Starbucks coffee grounds analysis link above) struggle to make sense out of organic fertilizers. They did a pretty good job, but still managed to confuse themselves.

What is the humus level in your soil?
The Nitrogen application is pretty standard as a "just to be sure" and usually totally unnecessary application. The Potash is just below optimal and additional potash is also unnecessary. Correcting the soil pH, aggressively as you have already done, is good since this is not something you want to do every year.
How does your soil feel?
How well does you soil drain?
What is the soil life of that soil?
How well does that soil clump?
how well does that soil fall apart?
What does your soil smell like?

Kimmsr, I wouldn't go so far as to say potash is unnecessary. It's impossible to tell with just ppm. It like telling you that I'm 6 feet tall and then asking you if I am taller than my brother or not. If you don't know how tall my brother is, you can't really say. To make a good guestimate of the potassium level, they usually convert potassium into milliequivalents and then allot it a percentage of the total exchangeable cations in milliequivalents(about 78%)....or something similar.
I'm pretty confident that P is okay no matter what because my rule of thumb for phosphorus is 1.5 to 2 times the half saturation percentage. Even in a clay the half sat. is probably in the neighborhood of 30 or so. I'd call phosphorus good at around 45 ppm to 60 ppm.
Without knowing the TEC or at least a CEC, not to mention the plant material and whether or not this is existing plants or pre-plant, it's impossible to say if it is sufficient or not. You'll notice my glaring lack of application rates in my previous post for exactly that reason. I was just offering some fertilizer options that would fit the bill if the original poster decided to go along with the labs recommendations.

Idaho Gardener, You can't throw three sticks without hitting at least two bags of potassium nitrate. You might be thinking of ammonium nitrate.

Without knowing the TEC or at least a CEC, not to mention the plant material and whether or not this is existing plants or pre-plant, it's impossible to say if potassium is sufficient or not.

I really gotta start proof reading this stuff first.

L C Grace said:

"Maybe someone can help or recommend a site for me to study."

IMO, the ATTRA website offers helpful information concerning alternative soil amendments. Although the site speaks in terms of "organic farming", the information may be of some help with questions you may have.

One thing I always keep in mind is the suggestion offered on the web site that states:

"At the same time, prejudice against alternative products and practices has often resulted in testing that has been less than honest, and some off-the-cuff rejections by researchers and Extension. As a result, farmers benefit the most by evaluations done within the context of their own farm operations."

This attitude has allowed this member to learn from many of his mistakes, and at the same time learn from the experiences of other members who were kind/courageous enough to share their experiences as well. I trust this helps in some small wayÂ

Blutranes

BTW, to learn "How to Convert an Inorganic Fertilizer Recommendation to an Organic One" click here

Here is a link that might be useful: Alternative Soil Amendments

Good Morning! I've got a bit more info. First of all, the area for the front yard is made up of moss, weeds and sparse areas of grass. We've "de-thatched" which has already helped.

I did speak with our local Master Gardener from PennState. He had given a few suggestions. If I "feed" the area, the weeds will grow. If I kill the weeds 1st, I'll have bare spots and need to take care of them. He also suggested that the rate that lime will absorb is very slow. Without the ph where it needs to be, the other pieces of my puzzle may not fit together as well. (Meaning no quick fix - just "care").

I also got the explanation on the list of fertilizers/rates of applications. I can get a potent one and have less to put on or get a "weaker" one and need to apply more.

Belgianpup - my CEC is:

K 1.4
Mg 5.1
Ca 37.6

The lime was applied after the soil samples were taken.

I will check out the link listed above. I really don't want to be going into a big box store to pay top $ for something. I'll do some reading and hopefully figure out what should be added and when.

Thanks so much!!

How much thatch was in the turf? Dethatching is necessary only if the thatch layer is more than 1/2 inch and if it is more than that the soil is not really very healthy and does not have an active Soil Food Web to digest the dead grass. Maybe if you feed the area, with the wrong stuff, the "weeds" will grow, it depends. Many "weeds" need soil conditions not really conducive to good, healthy turf growth to grow well.
Optimal Potash level fall in the 70 to 100 ppm levels.

Grace, CEC should be a single number. It looks like what you have there may be the exchangeable levels of those nutrients in an extract. Were there units attached to those numbers? Did it mention sodium and/or hydrogen?
Sure, the lime will be fine. I just don't sweat pH until it starts getting closer to 5 1/2. (unless calcium is already needed for nutritional purposes, then I'll go ahead and throw some lime out there).
Since this is an existing turf area, Phosphorus and potassium aren't generally as critical as they would be in a new installation.
Kimmsr, you can't just depend on that one potassium range for every soil type. (well I guess you can, but it's not a good idea). And you'll notice, we still don't know the texture, organic percentage, TEC or CEC of the soil being discussed. Sufficient nutrient levels can be very different from one soil to the next. It's like saying fuel tanks hold from 10 to 20 gallons. It's a "one size fits all" range and lots of fuel tanks would fall into that range. But that doesn't take into account motor scooters and SUV's. You have to at least know what kind of vehicle you're dealing with to get a good idea of what it takes to fill it up without over-flowing.
That single potassium range you have there may work in a lot of situations, but you can't count on it always working. You have to know what kind of soil you're dealing with to get a good idea of what it takes to fill it up without "over-flowing".
If you have a loamy sand with 100 ppm K, wouldn't you say that's a bit excessive?* If you have potassium at 70 ppm in a clay, wouldn't you say that's low?*

(*Hint: the answer to both is 'yes')

"CEC should be a single number"

I thought so, too, but I just looked at my last soil test done through the lab that my local CES advised, and it came back as
K = 2.3%
Mg = 8.4%
Ca = 69.2%
H = 19%
Na = 1.1%
I think a lot of the labs do it this way.

Anyway, if your soil is in halfway decent shape, the Calcium + Magnesium should be somewhere approaching 68%. Grace's total is 42.7%. It should be interesting to see results next year, when the lime starts to take effect.

Grace, there are two ways to get things to grow: feed the soil which will feed the plants (organic style), or pour the food directly to the plants (chemical style), which isn't really sustainable.

And there really aren't any quick fixes to soil. You can get quick RESULTS like the chemical farmers do, but the long-term picture isn't pretty.

Some things just take time: love, raising children and improving soil come to mind first.

Sue

There's another section on my form that is titled Exchangeable Cations (meq/100g). In this section is listed -

(I'm not sure how to type this but it's (3) Acidity...as in, to the 3rd power.)

(3)Acidity 6.3

(2)K 0.15

(2)Mg 0.58

(2)Ca 4.24

(4)CEC 11.3 Squonnk....is this what you may be referring to?

Kimmsr, We didn't think there could possibly be as much thatch as there was! We've really got it cleaned out and are waiting for some springtime rain to get things growing.

Have I given enough info for someone to suggest "something" to help with my N and my K? I still need to study the website listed and look for another that's saved in my "favorites". I would much rather go for something "natural" and economical rather than one with a name brand.

Let me know if there's any other info you need. Thanks so much!! Tamra

Perfect. That's what we were looking for. The CEC tells you what your soil is capable of hanging on to in regards to nutrients (and trace amounts of other stuff)..... The capacity. The numbers above your CEC tell you the relative amounts of that capacity taken up by individual cations (positively charged ions).
Belgianpup, what you have is a list of the relative amounts of those cations. If we were to do the same thing for Grace, it would say:
K = 1.3%
Mg = 5.1%
Ca= 37.5%
H = 55.8%
Na = 0.3% (or something pretty close to that)
I think the set of numbers in your second post, Grace, are the soluble amounts of those nutrients in a saturation extract. If you poked around on that sheet, I bet the units you find would be (meq/l) AKA 'milliequivalents per liter'. That is the amount of each of those nutrients floating around in your soil solution and immediately availble for plant uptake and reactions. To go back a step, the meq/100g AKA 'milliequivalents per 100 grams', is the amount of each of those nutrients bound to the exchange sites in your soil. That's why the first set of numbers are different from these most recent.
Generally, when accessing nutrient ratios, you use the exchangeable amounts rather than the soluble amounts because the exchangeable amounts gives you a better idea of what is available over-all. When looking at exchangeable amounts, you can see favorable relationships with calcium and magnesium.
Anyway, is it right to assume that you will be treating this location as an existing turf area, or are you planning on tearing it out and starting over. Or, will you plant something else all together. If you are sticking with the existing turf or re-planting, what type of grass will you be working with?

Oops, my mistake. It looks like they were giving you percentages rather than saturation extract values in the previous post. (I did the dang math for nothing). Anyway, the exchangeable calcium to magnesium is greater than 2 to 1, which is favorable. Some say the ratio should be as much as 6 to 1 and I say they're going a bit over-board. But even by those standards, you're okay. Together, calcium and magnesium only make up about 42.6% of exchangeable cations (as belgianpup pointed out) because hydrogen takes up such a big chunk. That's because it's an acidic soil.
I wouldn't worry about that. Acidity doesn't scare me much, and hydrogen doesn't compete with nutrients for plant uptake. If it still bugs you that Ca + Mg are lower than you'd like, you've already limed the soil which (again, as belgianpup correctly pointed out) will change that ratio over time.

The soil test gave recommendations for Kentucky Bluegrass. As previously listed....we've got weeds, rocks & moss with just enough grass to make a renovation of the lawn more favorable than bringing in the big equipment to rip up and start over....cheaper too.

I think we'll be doing some ripping and tearing on the moss, maybe some grass seed planting in the thinning places and get into doing more work in the fall (which seems to be more recommended for growing grass in our area)....(well, unless our spring rains come into the forecast!)

We'll keep it as lawn and give the lime a chance to work. I'll also keep my eyes open for different "fertilizers" while I'm studying up on them.

Thanks for your advice and explanations!! I'm going to keep an eye on the posts and keep referring back to it during my reading.

Happy Gardening!! LC Grace

There are several "natural" plant foods that you could use, most would be digested sewage such as Milorganite which would be 6-2-0. I am assuming that the "acidity" is really soil pH and 6.3 is a good place to be since what you want is the 6.2 to 6.8 range.
What is the humus level in your soil?

I'd stay away from stuff that contains phosphorus for the moment. I'm a big fan of "Why apply it if it isn't needed?".
I would stick with a preplant application of bloodmeal at 10 lbs. per 1000 square feet and potassium sulfate at 5 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. to take care of both nitrogen and potassium. About a month and a half or so after re-seeding, hit it one more time with a light application of bloodmeal, about 6 lbs. or so per 1000 sq. ft. After that, the grass can be maintained with repeat applications of bloodmeal at the same rate every 2 or 3 months. That is only a guideline. If it looks hungry earlier, fertilizer. If you get to 90 days and it looks great, hold back. Additional phosphorus and potassium shouldn't be needed until next fall.
The moss suggests that something else may need to be dealt with as well. Make sure that you are not over watering, but don't under water during the establishment period of new seeds. Once the grass is well established consider, applying longer but less frequent irrigations. Also, take this opportunity to break up severely compacted areas if they exist in spots where grass is not yet growing. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to rent a core aerator and go over existing turf areas as well. Core aerators are preferred because repeated use of the spike type aerators can result in the formation of a compaction layer a couple of inches under the surface. Shaded areas and low spots where water collect will also be places that turf struggles and moss may take over.
The "acidity" in this case actually refers to the amount of hydrogen on the exchange of colloids. The pH of the soil was measured at 5.8.

I didn't opt to have my organic matter measured so I'm not sure about my humus level.

I did do some research at our local TrueValue/Farm Supply store today. It was interesting to check out the different formulations and different products...and when to apply, etc.

Their thinking was to start with a 10-10-10 fertilizer and then after the 3rd mowing (by mid May) go with a weed & feed formulation like a 29-3-3 for spring and the lime again in the fall. They weren't trying to sell me a 4step system, it just seemed like it was fitting the numbers that I was looking for. The did mention being able to order in some potash for the 3rd number of my equation.

I like the idea of only applying what is needed. We're doing our work by hand right now. We'd love to get a core aerator to work in the yard but I'd have to hook it to my car! lol Compacted soil is definitely a huge issue. We just buried the wire for the Dish Network system....yup, a Pic-Axe the entire way!! No wonder things don't like to grow for me!

Maybe when that "extra" tax return comes in....I'll be out shopping for a lawn tractor! We can rent the extra toys for weekend projects.

We never water the front yard...Mother Nature does what she can with it. We live in a 1950's (at least) Homestead. The yard was never taken care of or maintained. All of the money went into the farm fields around the area.

This is going to look so nice when it's up and growing well!! Thanks!