# Soil test came back on my leased ground



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Its been fallow for 5+ years.
Ph is 5.6 they are recommending minimum 2 ton per acre to get it to 6.0
P/Ai=1.2%
P = 19 ppm
K = 40 ppm
Ca = 781 ppm
Mg = 83 ppm
B= 0.3ppm
Cu=1.6ppm
Zn=0.8ppm
S=24ppm
Mn=11ppm
Iron=143 ppm
Al=1598 ppm
Sodium=16ppm
Buffer ph = 6.3

The recommendation for fertilizer is 320kg/hect (280 lb/acre) of 15/20/15 for growing small grain. They state due to soil chemistry the nitrogen recommendation is a guess and needs to be tailored to local history of crop response.

Can anyone comment on the test results? We are applying 2 ton per acre of wood ash this or next week before discing if we can get on it. It has about 2% potash in it, so 80 lbs/acre which should address that need leaving the P and N.

I only have very limited manure available and worse it has wood chips in it for a bad c/n ratio which will tie up nitrogen. Maybe we should seed a legume in with the hay and spread some commercial P or try and get hen manure?


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I'm not sure I'm reading this data correctly, but 19 on P and 40 on K sound terribly, terribly low. P needs to be at least 70 and K at least 300 in this area.

Ralph


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## brandenburgcattle42 (Sep 6, 2012)

Ya the k sounds way low. Sounds like sterile ground if it is correct. Very expensive to fix abd can't be all done at once with immediate results.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

What else can you tell us about this ground, like sandy, clay, river bottom, etc.?

Re-reading your post, I saw that the recommendation for 280 lb/acre of 15/20/15 would put about 60 lbs of P out, but only about 45 lbs of K. The 80 lbs of K coming from the wood ash will bring your total up to about 125, still pretty light.

This has me curious--am I missing something or not understanding what else is going on behind their recommendation.

If you have to add that much lime and fertilizer, you might need to consider doing it piecemeal over several years. If you go dumping a whole bunch at one time, much of it will end up in the ocean.

One piece of ground I have, had been pretty much raped by a previous tenant farmer. It took me the better part of 5 years to build it back up.

And remember, hay takes a lot more P & K of out the ground that row crops.

Ralph


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks. Ground is very sandy for our area which is mostly clays, next to a gravel pit actually. There was some other info or the test about saturation levels of n p k or something like that ill post them later.

I'm only working on improving 5 of the 65 acres right now but the free lease requires mowing all that isn't cut for hay. We are liming 15 of the 65 though.


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## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

Was that an available nutrients test. Example: Where I was before showed high in K. That was due to the white rock in the ground ... it wasn't all available. I always have an available nutrients test done. Food for thought.

Thanks for the conversion ... some of us old Texans refuse to go metric (maybe just not understanding).


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

The only other info the soil test had on it was
CEC Meq/100g = 15.6
%Base Saturation
K=0.7%
Mg 4.4%
Ca = 25.1%
Na=0.4
% Total 30.6

I'll try to find out more info.


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