Swiffy's View From Rocky Knoll

I sent in some soil samples from my plots this year just to see where things were at. I haven’t really done any samples in the past. I’ve done no-till for the last 15 years and I’ve never added any fertilizer of any kind. Can anyone give me their 2 cents on these results and what they mean to me?
 
5DBF4483-EDF5-4AE0-8356-945CEB46688D.jpegED60E991-F0BC-480C-ACD2-960BD0FFF848.jpeg
 
both samples are from really good soil. Just as the horizontal bar charts show, everything looks good but the phosphorus. Which is a little bit surprising considering how high the organic matter is. It doesn't say what the extraction procedure used for phosphorus, But I'm going to assume Bray P1. Typically you want to have ranges around 25 to 50 parts per million with that extraction procedure. If it was really important to you, You could incorporate manure or rock phosphate to try to bring those levels up but I don't think it's necessary for just food plots. I would also consider looking at some sulfate based fertilizers or elemental sulfur to lower that 7.9 pH. Again not essential, But it would put you in a closer range where more nutrients are plant available. Your cation exchange capacity for both soils is relatively high because of the organic matter. I'm assuming these are already fairly productive soils.
 
both samples are from really good soil. Just as the horizontal bar charts show, everything looks good but the phosphorus. Which is a little bit surprising considering how high the organic matter is. It doesn't say what the extraction procedure used for phosphorus, But I'm going to assume Bray P1. Typically you want to have ranges around 25 to 50 parts per million with that extraction procedure. If it was really important to you, You could incorporate manure or rock phosphate to try to bring those levels up but I don't think it's necessary for just food plots. I would also consider looking at some sulfate based fertilizers or elemental sulfur to lower that 7.9 pH. Again not essential, But it would put you in a closer range where more nutrients are plant available. Your cation exchange capacity for both soils is relatively high because of the organic matter. I'm assuming these are already fairly productive soils.
Thanks Hoyt. We’re in good black soil. Maybe I’ll try and spread some manure next year. I’ve been struggling with my sling plots the last 2 years… but we’ve had literally no rain. I’ve switch to diverse mixes and just wondering what I can do to maximize what I’ve got. I appreciate your input!
 
Replanted about an acre yesterday with soybeans, peas, sunflowers, oats, turnips and radishes.

Got over an inch of rain today!

I was going to ask if you finally hooked some rain this weekend, that’s good to hear. Crazy how different things are across the state and the lousy inconsistent moisture you’ve gotten there. We’ve had a great late may through June for consistent rain in Wright, kanabec, and itasca county but of course we didn’t plant summer plots in any of them.
 
Top