Waypoint Lawn Sample Analysis

A&M had a message they were slowed down due to COVID so I sent a sample to Waypoint I saw recommended on the Southern Lawn Syndicate. St Augustine laid in 2015. I follow Neil Sperry's guidance annually. Used high Nitrogen, 1/2 slow release, no Phosphorous. Few go-rounds of fungus every year. Aerated and had compost laid last fall. Any ideas on the best fertilizer ratio to use this spring based on this?

Couple ways you could go.

1st. Just apply Milorganite. 6-4-0. That will give you the N and P you need with a little kick of iron. Though most of that iron will be locked up in your soil with your high Ph. And won't won't do anything to help your Ph. I'm not a Milorganite guy so I'll tell you what I would do.

Your Ph is high. You need to add 5lbs per 1000sq feet of Elemental Sulphur twice a year. April 1st and Aug 1st. You will need to do this every year.
For St. Aug I'd be shooting for 1/2lb of Nitrogen per month. April 1st-October 1st. To get your Phosphorus you could do an App of Starter Fertilizer April and October. See if you can find one that has some micronutrients with it. May-September I would apply nitrogen only. My nitrogen source would be (AMS)Ammonium Sulfate. AMS is nitrogen and Sulphur. This will also help lower your Ph. I would apply 1.25lbs every two weeks per 1000sq feet and water it in after application. American Plant Food Corp is a huge mfg of AMS with dealers all over DFW. Make sure to get the granular AMS and not the spray grade if you're using a spreader.And stay on your fungicide apps. If you get an outbreak of Gray Leaf Spot stop applying AMS until you get it under control.

Great help, thanks!

Sorry for some reason I thought HH was in the DFW area. But I see you're in the Waco area. APF will have a dealer in your area. Most feed stores are dealers. To answer your ratio question. I don't really see a good one for you right now with your potassium so high. I don't think I've seen levels that high. But that's ok. It's used/moves through the soil much quicker than Phosphorus. And it's not often you don't need to add potassium with nitrogen at some point through the year, but you're good. I typically shoot for 1 part Nitrogen to 1/2 part Potassium every month. I would like to see your potassium numbers next year with another test. If you get that number to drop you could run something close to a 4-1-2, 3-1-2. I'm waiting to send my samples in a couple weeks, but I plan on running a 4-1-2 this year depending on the results. APF Corp K8 would be a good 3-1-2 product for you.

Roger, thanks!

Lastly. You mentioned the Southern Lawn Syndicate. I don't know who they are. I'm sure it's some facebook group(I don't FB), Nothing wrong with that. You'll probably get products pushed on you heavy. Stick with basic agronomy, NPK. It will save you money and time.

Do up your fungicides apps with St. Aug. You can go check you mail and say hello St. Aug how are you and it will catch a disease. Do 3 modes of action monthly. Azoxystrobin, Propiconazole, Mancozeb, Daconil. Learn to use a good hose end sprayer(for girls) or a backpack sprayer preferably.

Oh and mow that St. Aug high AF. My mower would be set at 4" and never lowered.

I don't pay attention to that FB post but when I searched for soil tests it came up. They're reel/bermuda stripers, etc. I just want to quit frikkin around with my grass problems. Getting there. As for the disease I tried peat moss and lower fertilization with the fungicides and it was okay but the Azoxystrobin really helped last spring and summer. Thanks for the help with this.

I'm interested in this group now.

I bet you are I'm more interested in minimum work for a fat old guy.

So I've got liquid Southern Ag chelated iron I've used before and plenty to treat the yard. Mine's only 7500 square feet. 1 TBL per gallon for foliar apps that I'm going to put on there. Got the starter fertilizer with the best balanced mix of N and P Lowe's had. 5% iron and 3.4 % sulphur. Also got elemental sulphur in granule form. We'll see what happens. Thanks.

If you're getting a good color response using 1 TBL that's great. If not as much of a response as you expected you can go heavier. Most people I know that use So Ag Iron are applying it at 4oz per 1000sq feet and get a great color response. There are also formulas out there to make your own similar product by mixing Ferrous Sulfate and Ammonium Sulfate if you're ever interested in blending your own.

Thanks. Everything I read from others had them mixing a higher ratio. Probably why I didn't see much other than staining the sht out of everything.

Lol. That is the downside to iron. This is the iron I use. It is a fully chelated micronutrient pack high in iron. This one does not stain and works very well. Bad part is it's $20.00 a bag. But your app rate is only 1-2oz per 1000sq feet. Below is who I buy from. He's out of stock but will have more soon. I just talked to the Nutrien Ag store in Hillsboro. He doesn't stock it but is going to make some calls and see if it is a product he can bring in and price.

https://i-want-feature.square.site/product/FEature/1?cs=true&cst=custom

Hey greenen. I had your test analyzed by 3 of the top guys in the industry. Yours starts at about the 1:10 mark.

Wow. Great Derek I appreciate that! Interestingly enough I sent an email prior to sending the sample to make sure I was getting the right test done because of where we lived, etc. At any rate I've pretty much got the right stuff ready to go down already. Thanks again. I'll owe you a suitcase of Naturals.

Run your program hard this year and get a soil test same time next year. Map/Dap that they mention would probably be a hell of a lot cheaper to apply than Milor. Map is not easy to find in TX. Dap is pretty easy to find though. My local feed store is able to get it. Helena in Bardwell has metric tons of it in stock, but I only want 50lbs lol. And for everybody. If you go Waypoint. Get the SW1 so you get the Olsen extraction for P. FYI, A&M only does M3 test.

Based on the analysis and Derek's help the fungus is better this year after applying elemental sulfur first this spring and adding iron with Milorganite as well as liquid supplements. I used Diseasex for fungus last year but rotated with it and propiconazole and Cleary's and seems to be helping with the fungus. After the first feeding applied AMS. Thanks again Derek for the help.

Nice. Love your fungicide rotation! Disease pressure it high right now with all this rain and you/me are forecasted to get another 3" trough next Wednesday. And disease pressure is only going to get worse. I'd get an app of Scotts and propi out soon once the flooding rains move out. Timing is a PITA right now with this rain. But stay on top of those fungicides this year.

Got mine back today. Balanced out a couple of things and the elemental sulfur dropped the PH down to a more manageable level. If I can control the fungus this year it'll be easier to manage.

That looks awesome! You're in a sweet pocket of TX. Wish I could run just AMS and rock out. You're one of the few that cares and loves it. If you would get into backpack spraying, you could really dial in your fungicide apps(spraying is much better than granular and more effective) and dial in your Cheleated iron apps for color.

Got mine back. NTX soils are hot garbage.

I sprayed chelated iron and the other 2 fungicides last year but just used the Diseasex in granular. Gonna double up on the iron this year but lost interest late summer on all the spraying. I'm sure I'll have other problems this year. I always do.

I haven't gone liquid on the Diseasex either yet. Just been picking up the granular Amazon sales.