soil test

This is a movie about making fertilizer recommendations from soil tests using MLSN. I hope you enjoy watching this, and that this video provides a few new bits of information about what MLSN is and how it works.

Grant Saunders asked a series of questions about the quantity of nutrients required in the soil, using calcium as an example. One can see that full discussion here. When he asked this question, I thought the clearest way to answer it would be with a blog post.

When I was at Keya GC last month for the Japan Amateur Championship, it rained a lot. From June 29 to July 8, there was precipitation every day, and the total was 446 mm, or 17.

In the autumn of 2017, Stewart Brown wrote to me. “Dear Sir, I write on behalf of the European Turfgrass Society for which I am the current President.” He was inviting me to give a keynote presentation at the 2018 conference in Manchester.

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.

A correspondent wrote with these inquiries: “I am curious about your stance on nutrients in irrigation water. For example let’s say the irrigation source has 60.6 PPM or 13.76 lb/A/in Calcium.

Matt Nelson asked about this in a recent seminar. I was explaining that conventional nutrient guidelines, as described in this article by Carrow et al., classify soils as low, medium or high.

Last month I gave a seminar about the Global Soil Survey (GSS). Soil tests generate a lot of numbers. The GSS, as a collection of soil tests from a lot of sites, is a lot of numbers.

Allan Dewald posted a poll on Twitter, asking how many other superintendents on Twitter are using the MLSN guidelines. The results of the poll, with 93 votes, were 41% using MLSN, 38% using conventional guidelines, and 21% not soil testing.

It’s not pretty. In fact, the grass gets horrendous in a hurry when it runs out of potassium (K). Which is why, as a turfgrass manager, one wants to make sure the grass is always supplied with enough K.