This soil test is...not good. It reports calcium and magnesium as optimal, then says your pH is extremely low--literally indicative of a collapsing soil. Potassium is also reported as optimal, which is another influence on your pH, albeit a lesser one.

Either the calcium, magnesium, and potassium results are all incorrect...or the pH is in error. There is no way that these are correct. None. Particularly when you add in a high sodium level (which raises pH) and low sulfur (which raises pH).

In short, we now have no idea what your soil requires. Throwing lime at it is not a good solution. It's a recipe for making a mistake. Potentially a huge mistake. We can't tell if you need lime, what kind of lime, or how much lime.

I'd strongly advise discarding this soil test and getting another one done through your local co-op extension, UMass, or Logan Labs.

For now, simply feed with a high nitrogen fertilizer, which won't cause any major additional problems, or you can use an organic fertilizer if you wish.

LOL Morph....you don't like the Lawn Care Nut, do you?

It's that the chemistry makes no sense and the conclusions here are, quite literally, impossible. The recommendations make no sense if you take what's printed on the form "calcium 133.95 Optimal" as correct, yet the test recommends an application of calcitic lime. Then fails to specify an amount (itself irresponsible).

It's not a matter of like or dislike as emotions don't enter into it. It's a matter of analyzing the results and finding them irresponsibly poor. And that is very easy to prove, with an obvious conclusion that's similarly easy to prove as per the above.

This is a junk test.

Combined with other poor advice and really bad information I've seen from the Lawn Care Nut, my overall evaluation is that following any advice from there is an extremely bad idea. Said person doesn't seem to have any understanding of much of anything and this test certainly shows very little accuracy in terms of chemistry.

It would be a bad idea to use this test as a guide and I would adamantly refuse to make any recommendations off of it.

Wow....that's a pretty strong opinion against him/the company....

I dunno Morph, for a guy like me who had a hard time for a few years just going by tips and tricks I picked up here (literally) and there...LCN plans made me understand things much clearer.

I don't work for him, I am not sponsored/affiliataeted with him in any way shape or form. But I think his methods are basically sound....I am sure there's room for disagreement on this...

In the end, it's all "spray and pray" like he says...nothing we can do if mother nature is a pain in the ass....

BTW where's Lisa?

On the contrary, there's a vast number of things you can do if and when nature is a PITA and a soil test is the first part of it. I spend a ton of time here telling people how to improve their lawns via proper care and feeding to armor them enough to survive what nature can throw.

"against him"...Again, it's not a judgement against the guy. I don't know him and don't care about him. It's like a few posters around here who seem to think I have some sort of vendetta against them. Nope, it's just when our paths cross I note that the information given out is extremely poor and I tend to correct it. When that's a habit and they're frequently factually wrong, we're probably going to butt heads pretty often.

And doubling down on bad information around me is a superlatively bad idea, because I don't back down either. You can tell most of those because they'll rapidly devolve into a flame war because they have no factual basis for their argument, which I'll also happily allow to happen because it amuses me and gives my acrylic paint layers time to dry. Their blood pressure goes through the roof; I scan their reply just enough to concoct an answer while waving a hand over a layer of paint.

I really don't tend to emotionally involve myself with fools, cretins, and idiots. There are too many fun and intelligent people around who know what they're doing.

There's a bit of Morph philosophy for you for a Thursday evening. Play with the fools in your life for momentary amusement but don't marry them. ;-) But don't worry, most of them are divorced and bitterly unhappy and lonely anyway.

Which brings us to Lisa. Lisa's an in-and-out with a full and happy life who has plenty to do and plenty to be and will be back when she has a moment. Whenever that is. :-)

@User hi, I have a question. We are planning to retest our soil. If our soil test result comes back showing low ph, which we need lime. Is it okay to apply after couple of weeks of seeding or in springtime. Thanks in advance!

As a general rule, that's OK. New sprouts aren't particularly sensitive to being limed (it's slow to work in and grass doesn't much care about lime anyway). Spring is also a great time to lime, as is summer and early fall.

About the only time I wouldn't is with the seed, or right before winter when it might erode off. It's not a water pollutant (Ca and Mg are essentially non-soluble), it would simply be a waste of money.

ETA: Faster lime can be more soluble. They're bound to a humate, but still not considered a water pollutant. Very fast lime is slaked, burned, or a purer hydroxide. That is soluble and shouldn't be used on the lawn to begin with, and isn't usually sold as a soil additive anyway, so you don't have to worry about it much! /ETA

As to which kind of lime you need...that depends on what the soil test says and what the calcium and magnesium balance is. I'll be happy to help out there if needed, as well.