Lordy. The crown for Worst Soil Test of 2015 initially goes to Prorange. Don't worry, it'll change hands again shortly. This soil has some problems (by which I mean a lot of problems) and I very much doubt your lawn is doing well at all.

EC 7.8: Within normal range, most likely a soil with some sand, some silt, no clay. Resources will drain out more easily than a higher EC soil, but it has the advantage of being an easy soil to change.

OM 1.95%: The high end of poor. Definitely mulch all your fall leaves, feed organically, import leaves, and so on. I'd like to see this hit 6% eventually, but that takes a long time. Raising this will raise your EC a little, plus make your pH matter less.

pH 5.0: Very acidic. Although a symptom and not the disease, this is low enough that your (very high) aluminum levels are starting to unlock and become available. Aluminum is a toxin.

Sulfur 44: High end, but I still have a little room to play with. Some of what I'm going to do will drop this anyway as it binds to calcium sulfate and washes out. In part, this is setting off your pH as it leaches calcium from the soil.

Phosphorus 90: Low. The target here is 200.

Calcium 40%: Off the charts low, severely deficient. Locate Encap or Mag-I-Cal calcitic lime and apply as below. Please note, I've slightly exceeded the recommended yearly application level, but I won't be doing that next year (you won't finish this year). This is so low that some exceptional actions are required. Some yellowing of your Bermuda may result but will go away as the calcium integrates--and you can always use Milorganite to add iron and turn the yellow back to green.

Magnesium 5.1%: Low. You can purchase Epsom salt at most drugstores in the First Aid or bath sections as it finds use in both. Get the large bag, it's cheap and you'll need it.

Potassium 2.2%: Although currently OK, this is about to fall off the cliff--plus the calcium and magnesium will displace some of it. Most landscape or garden shops will order potassium sulfate for you, or you can get it online (but shipping is expensive).

Most minor elements: Fine, or not far enough off to adjust this year when you have much bigger fish to fry. Boron is the exception, and with all this calcium, I mentioned iron below as well.

Boron 0.26: Deficient. Normally I'd ignore boron this year, but on this test, we can't. We use Milorganite as a carrier. In a wheelbarrow or the like, dump the Milo. Spraying very, very lightly with water (I use a spray bottle like the kind people use to damp their clothes when they iron) will help the boron stick. Add the recommended amount of boron and stir, spraying occasionally to get the stuff to stick to the Milo. Then apply over the recommended area. So if going for bag rate Milorganite (1 bag per 2,500 square feet), you'd add 7.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax.

Iron 114: This is fine but won't produce the best color in most lawns. Plus calcium applications bind iron, turning grasses yellow. Whenever you like, or feel the color is poor, apply Milorganite at the bag rate to gently feed the lawn and add plenty of iron. Iron levels in soil rise slowly, but there's no rush.

Recommendations:

April 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal lime at 4 pounds per thousand square feet.

May 1: Feed with starter fertilizer (high second number) at the bag rate.

May 15: Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet.

May 15*: Apply 3 tablespoons of boron per thousand square feet.

June 1: Feed with starter fertilizer (high second number) at the bag rate.

June 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal lime at 3 pounds per thousand square feet.

July 1: Apply 3 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

August 1: Feed with starter fertilizer (high second number) at the bag rate.

September 1: Feed with starter fertilizer (high second number) at the bag rate.

September 15: Apply Encap or Mag-I-Cal lime at 3 pounds per thousand square feet.

October 1: Apply 2 pounds of Epsom salt per thousand square feet.

October 1*: Apply 3 tablespoons of boron per thousand square feet.

October 15: Apply 3 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet.

* I'd normally separate these two applications by some time period, but this schedule is already tight. It'll be fine, but you may not get as much of the boron to bind as I would normally hope. Again, it's not a resource we can ignore this year.

A few extra words that I didn't want to add to the novel above. I'm not surprised the shampoo failed here, the soil is resource-depleted. Try it again towards the end of this year and results should be far better. Shampoo works best when there are positive ions kicking around in the soil and, right now, about the only thing you have is a lot of hydrogen. That's not going to loosen up much, if at all.

Keep to Bermuda maintenance recommendations. The starter fertilizer counts as your feeding for that month, so a good chunk of the season is already covered.

You should see improvement in the grass by June, but it'll be slow at first.

Thanks so much for the recommendations! So I will try and give you guys a couple of pics so you can see what I'm working with. After reading that, I feel lucky to have had the grass in the condition that it was! The front yard is worse than the backyard, not that these pics reflect that. The backyard fills in more than the front.

Front yard Aug 2014:
http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u397/prorange13/Lawn%202014/Lawn%202014%20web/20140730_101153_zpss9pqxinp.jpg

Back yard Aug 2014:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u397/prorange13/Lawn%202014/Lawn%202014%20web/20140812_170302_zpszk87m8qt.jpg

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u397/prorange13/Lawn%202014/Lawn%202014%20web/20140812_170248_zpsyp18a4aq.jpg

Back yard June 2014:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u397/prorange13/Lawn%202014/Lawn%202014%20web/IMAG0572_zpskyifp1ii.jpg

That's actually a lot better than I had imagined, so I'm guessing you fed well and mowed short (plus watered correctly). Congrats!

Post application of this stuff, maintenance will get a LOT easier, feedings will work better, and the grass will spread. A lot.

Yeah I followed the Bermuda Bible very closely last season. For clarification you mentioned, "So if going for bag rate Milorganite (1 bag per 2,500 square feet), you'd add 7.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax." If my total lawn is 1500sqft, are you saying I need 7.5 tablespoons of borax, or the equivalent ratio of 7.5tbp/2500sqft Milo for 1500sqft of lawn?

Oops, nope! That would be per 2,500 square feet.

For 1,500 square feet, mix in 4.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax into the entire bag, then apply that over 1,500 square feet. I'd recommend setting the spreader low and going over it several times to assure even coverage.

While that'll apply Milo at a rather high rate, that's not an issue. It won't burn, overfeed, or do anything unpleasant.

Morhpeus,

I was reading the label for Mag i Cal, and it reads that for soil ph less than 6.0 the application rate is 9.0 lbs/k for spring and fall. Should I stick to the application rates you listed above which would be about 10lbs/k for the entire season? You mentioned that your application rate is slightly higher than the recommended rate, so I was a little confused. Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it!

Morpheuspa,

I bought some Lesco 18-24-12 starter fertilizer. I just applied this at a rate for 1.0 lb of nitrogen/1k. I was going by Bermuda Bible recommendations, is that correct? After the application, it dawned on me that maybe I should have been applying based on the phosphorus number. I just want to make sure I'm following your recommendations for the rest of the season. Thanks again!

Really, it's bag rate for the starter, which will tend to target 1 pound of P or so, and about 0.8 pounds of N.

Doing it once, there's no problem, but I'd go bag rate on the rest of the applications and use a little high nitrogen fertilizer to round out the N if you want to. Even if you don't, there won't be any issues on your lawn. 0.8 pounds N is close enough.