Fixing these issues in one fell swoop

I was writing an article yesterday about MLSN and reading some articles about soil testing and turfgrass nutrition. I came across this gem from Turner & Waddington (1978).

“Unfortunately, turfgrass recommendations appear to be based on research done with other crops, such as forages, results from turfgrass fertility studies not designed to relate to soil testing, and the best judgement of the agronomist making the recommendations. Numerous turfgrass fertility studies have been conducted relating fertilizer applications to various types of response, such as growth, color, disease incidence, and cold, heat, and drought tolerance; however, these studies either did not take into account intitial soil fertility levels, or were conducted on only one level of initial fertility.”

The MLSN method of soil test interpretation fixes these problems. First, MLSN is based only on turfgrass soil tests, completely disregarding other crops. Second, the quantity of fertilizer recommended is based on 100% of possible grass use, which ensures that the grass will be supplied with all the nutrients it can use. That automatically provides all the nutrient-related benefits to “growth, color, disease incidence, and cold, heat, and drought tolerance.”