Soil Testing
The general recommendation is to sample and test a lawn every three years.
At David’s lawns, we don’t advocate greening a lawn with Nitrogen and blasting weeds with herbicides. Since Ontario tightened herbicides laws and that Fiesta is somewhat effective to not effective when respecting the recommended rates, we wished to provide a different approach.
By offering a complete lawn nourishment with micro nutrients, organic matter and effective fertilization, when combined regular aeration, overseeding and proper PH calibration, it’s possible to obtain a lawn that will require minimal weeding while avoiding toxic chemicals and heavy metals loading.
Ask us to perform a soil test of your lawn. We will follow up with recommendations based on facts and experience.
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Description
Basic soil tests results include phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and soil pH. However manganese, zinc and organic matter tests are also available relevant for a healthy lawn.
Manganese soil tests: The availability of manganese is greatly determined by soil acidity. There is an equation that combines soil pH with manganese and therefore is used to determine a manganese soil test value. Soil tests can be unreliable if not adjusted for pH. Manganese toxicity can occur in very wet soils; rarely is there a deficiency in turf. Poor aeration causes an increase in the availability of manganese.
Zinc soil tests: The availability of zinc is highly dependent on soil acidity. There is an equation that combines soil pH with zinc and therefore is used to determine a zinc soil test value.
Organic matter tests: These tests are not helpful in determining requirements for nitrogen fertilization.
Micronutrient soil tests: Plant tissue analysis is done in several laboratories for several micronutrients. OMAFRA only tests for manganese and zinc.
Nitrogen soil tests: At the present time there are no known nitrogen soil tests. The nitrate form of nitrogen, which is most available to crops, is very difficult to determine what proportion of soil organic nitrogen that will become mineralized and available for crops. The OMAFRA nitrogen recommendations are based on the intensity of turf management desired e.g. low, medium or high maintenance use.
Calcium soil tests: There is lots of calcium in agricultural soils in Ontario with a pH greater than 5.0. Generally, lime is used to correct low soil pH rather than a calcium deficiency.
Sulfur soil tests: Soils in Ontario have an adequate sulfur supply from the precipitation in the form of polluted “acid rain”.
Additional information
| Number of tests requested | Perform 1 test, Perform 2 tests, Other Amount |
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