I am an idiot!

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Yep. Absolutely without a doubt!

My sad tale:
We bought this place 4 years ago. It had been clearcut but not cleaned up, so we hired out the cleanup and had a road built and a slab created and that is where we built our barn.

There wasn't a single blade of grass, but I figured "How hard can it be to grow grass?" At the same time I started up a nice, big garden spot. So for the last 4 years every spring and every fall, I lime, fertilize, and seed all the pastures and till the "garden". Every year I break out my new soil testing kit and base all of my liming and fertilizing on those readings.

And for the last 4 years I have been growing the biggest weed patch you have ever seen.

So this month, in frustration because we have spent literally thousands at this point trying to grow grass, so this month I finally tossed out my brand-new-2009-version soil testing kit and sent samples to the lab at Auburn University.

The results came back today. The HIGHEST pH reading is 5.1 and that is in the "garden" (gee, no wonder my tomatoes tasted so gawd-awful!) The lowest was 4.4!!! and that's in the main pasture. Their recommendation is 3 TONS of lime per acre. For the last 4 years I've spread 4 bags per 2-acre paddock.

They recommend 60 lbs of nitrogen per acre. I have been spreading 2 bags of triple-13 per paddock.

Like I said....

I AM AN IDIOT!

Rusty

 

[Wifezilla]

Wow!!!

 

[SarahBeth9394]

Quote:
Glad to meet you fellow idiot. I have a dumb question. Is the recommended treatment something you'll have to do every year?

 

[Hen_House_Rocks!]

We built a new house last year and have been struggling with the same problem in our front yard. So, I feel your pain! All that will grow in our yard is crab grass! It looks so awful with big dirt patches, our neighbors probably hate us!!! We've been applying lime once a month for a year and still little to no progress...

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Is the recommended treatment something you'll have to do every year?

What the local ag guy told me is to test each year and follow the new recommendations. Apparently this big a change in pH needs to be done gradually in several applications and then monitored. Once we get it stabilized, then hopefully it will be a smaller application each year to maintain it.


Rusty​

 

[SarahBeth9394]

Quote:
What the local ag guy told me is to test each year and follow the new recommendations. Apparently this big a change in pH needs to be done gradually in several applications and then monitored. Once we get it stabilized, then hopefully it will be a smaller application each year to maintain it.


Rusty

I'm sending good vibes that it stabilizes well and stays that way.

 

[michickenwrangler]

If it makes you feel any better, my father who is a brilliant doctor but kills most plants within a few weeks said he was having trouble with his rhododendrons. My mom (they're divorced but still talk) told him the soil wasn't acidic enough. So, he decided to put a can of Pepsi on the rhods once a week. When he told me that, I asked him, "What did your dad do to get battery acid off his hands?" "Used baking soda." "Where do you think the 'soda' somes from in soda pop comes from?" Soda neutralizes acid.

The rhododenrons are now soundly dead.

If nothing else, you could grow potatoes and blueberries. I've had trouble keeping the latter alive because MY soil--though acidic--is not acidic enough.

 

[username taken]

now get yourself a bunch of goats, they will thrive on those weeds, clean up your paddocks and make you some money while you set about getting the soil right!