How Soil Tests for Your Lawn Can Save You Money
Soil testing your lawn is fundamental to understanding what is happening underneath your grass. A soil test for your lawn is like a diagnosis from the doctor. Before prescribing treatment, a medical professional needs to know your symptoms. It’s the same with soil, believe it or not. To achieve a healthy and vibrant lawn — you need to know what nutrients it might lack and if soil quality impacts grass growth.
A soil test kit is easy to use, and results will be available in as little as a week. This means you can determine which nutrients your soil needs as early as possible. We’ll examine how soil tests for lawns can save you money and how to conduct one on your grass.
How Does Lawn Soil Testing Save Me Money?
Purchasing a soil test kit will cut your lawn-care costs on lawn fertilizers and biostimulant applications when you can be specific about what your lawn needs to thrive.
In an attempt to hastily improve your lawn, it can be tempting to layer topsoil and fertilizer. But, this can be a waste of money and bad for the environment as excess fertilizer can run off into surrounding ecosystems. Instead of splashing out on expensive lawn fertilizer, save money and energy by only applying the amount of fertilizer needed.
How Do I Conduct a Soil Test for My Lawn?
If you want to start soil testing for your lawn, we recommend using the MySoil test kit. This soil test kit is easy to use at home, and the Starter Pack from MySoil includes a stainless steel probe for easy soil sampling. Using a probe ensures that each soil sample is taken at a consistent depth and quantity.
In your kit, you’ll find a registration card with a number that needs registering on mysoiltesting.com. Inside your soil kit, you’ll find all the information you need to start taking soil samples. After you’ve collected your sample, you’ll need to send it off in the included envelope.
For more detailed guidance, check out this helpful video from Ron:
What Does a Soil Test Show?
Your turf needs several key macronutrients in large amounts to survive. These three macronutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Nitrogen is a component of chlorophyll, providing grass with its green color. Yellow and brittle grass likely lacks nitrogen making it more susceptible to disease. Phosphorus will strengthen the root system as potassium promotes healthy grass growth.
All three of these nutrients are abbreviated to “NPK” on most fertilizers, with a number above each letter. The number indicates how much of each macronutrient is supplemented in a fertilizer. Your soil test results will let you know which macronutrients your soil lacks and micronutrient deficiencies. Your lawn needs these in lesser amounts, which you can correct with Golf Course Lawn Micronutrient Blend.
Above is an example of what your soil testing results will look like. As you can see, nitrogen and potassium levels are low, so a fertilizer supplemented with more nitrogen and potassium is needed.
Your soil test kit will also tell you the pH level of your grass. Grass thrives in neutral soil, with pH levels between 6.2 and 7. If your soil pH is higher or lower than this, we recommend MAG-I-CAL® PLUS from Jonathan Green to raise or lower your soil’s pH.
It’s important to remember that good soil pH combined with loose, biologically active soil is the best combination to promote healthy grass.
Soil Testing for Your Lawn: Start Today
The right soil pH is vital for maximizing potential nutrient uptake in your grass. A soil test kit will reveal the macro and micronutrients your grass lacks and if your soil is more alkaline or acidic. Moving forward, you can use this information to inform your lawn-care schedule and treatment and why certain weeds, for example, keep cropping up on your lawn. A small investment can place you in the best possible position to achieve a golf course lawn and become the envy of your neighborhood.
Browse our full range of soil test kits and pH adjusters here and get on track to achieving a golf course lawn today.