The overall read between the two is "no appreciable change," so if I recommended something back in 2013, it doesn't seem to have worked--except in the sense that things haven't gotten worse.

Overall, it's not an awful soil. Not perfect, but not bad, and I'd expect a tolerable lawn with some problems and thin areas and patchiness overall. Color, so-so to OK.

The sample depth of 3 is a little unusual (4 is the normal choice), but I'll adjust the recommendations to correct for that.

EC 7.6: Sand with some silt, probably. It's a decent soil, should drain well, and holds a decent amount of resources. Once stabilized, testing every other to every third year will be fine.

pH 5.8: Always the symptom, never the disease. This is a little low, but nothing ridiculous. We'll fix it under Calcium below.

OM 4.7%: Well into the Good range! You can certainly feed organically if you want, and I'd always mulch mow your lawn and mow in your fall leaves, but no special effort is required here.

Sulfur 11: Optimal, and a perfectly reasonable answer.

Phosphorus 417: High, but certainly not a problem. I'd tend to avoid most phosphorus sources as P runoff and erosion is very bad for waterways. But there's no need to go into hysterics about it and small amounts of P in a given fertilizer are fine.

Calcium 54.2%: Low, but not ridiculously so. For your soil with an EC of 7.6, I'd like to see this around 65-68% or even a tad higher. We use calcitic lime to fix this--Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. Recommendation below.

Magnesium 12.7%: Optimal. No Mg is required or desired.

Potassium 4.1%: Optimal. No K is required or desired (but you don't have to avoid incidental sources of K).

Minor Elements: Boron is kind of low and I'd like to tap it. Everything else is optimal to even a little high. Even Iron is just fine!

Boron 0.33: Although not the most critical of elements, it's used in photosynthesis and meristem development, so having enough is important. We use Milorganite as a carrier and 20 Mule Team Borax as the boron source. You can purchase 20 Mules at the grocery store in the laundry section. 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 20 Mule Team Borax 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 10 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax.

Recommendations:

July 1: Apply 8 pounds per thousand square feet of Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime.

August 1: Apply 4 tbsp per thousand square feet of 20 Mule Team Borax in Milorganite carrier.

October 1: Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet of Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime.

I didn't remember your first test, sorry! Yeah, if your initial pH was 4.7 (comparable to mine when I started!) you were in bad shape. That's more than ten times as acidic as you are now, which is close to optimal.

You can't do anything much about shallow soil, unfortunately, except to do exactly what you're doing. So keep that up!

Thank you.

I still find it incredible that you spend so much time helping strangers on the web.

De nada. If the word "angel" comes out of your mouth, you'll hear the LOLs from your house. :-)

Hi Morpheus,

Borax - can I use a hose-end sprayer instead of using Milorganite as carrier?

Theoretically, yes, but be very careful not to apply excess borax at any point. I'd almost rather see you apply it at half the rate, and do it twice in opposing directions just to be doubly certain.

So 5 tablespoons of Borax in a hose-end sprayer, fill it with water to dissolve Borax, set the dial to 6, spray to 2500sq ft, then repeat one more time in opposing direction. Does this sound ok?

Is it harmful if too much borax residues remain on grass blades? If so, then set the dial to 15 to be safe?

Be extra sure you are careful with the hose end sprayer. Sometimes they can suck down a lot more product than you realize depending on your water pressure.

That does sound about right, yes. I'd irrigate a bit afterward to get rid of the boron just to make sure.

Thank you, all.

You don't need boron! The only things you need are lime (NOT CALCIUM - calcium does not change pH! If you don't believe me add calcium chloride to the soil and you will see the pH is unchanged or lowered slightly.) The kind of lime doesn't matter a great deal. Dolomitic lime is slightly more soluble than calcitic lime, but the most important thing is the size it's ground to - finer lime reacts more quickly than coarse lime. Bring the pH up to about 6.3 to 6.6.

Apply nitrogen: 1/2 to 1 lb N per 1000 ft2 each month of the growing season.

Unfortunately, this test lab does not bother to evaluate soil salinity. It would be nice to know what the soluble salts levels are.

There is no love lost between morpheus and me, but this guy has a real thing for morpheus. If I was morpheus I wouldn't be picking up any of that homemade soap off the floor unless my back was to the wall.

azdoctor, you really need to familiarize yourself with BSCR. Then you might understand why calcium is the heading under which pH is addressed. You did notice that morpheus recommended lime and not calcium chloride or gypsum, etc. as the calcium source? Two birds, one stone. BTW, When are you going to start giving actual application quantities with your recommendations?