Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working on the development of our turf nutrition program for the season. One of the major factors in determining our program is our soil tests. Our testing is performed by Soil Horizons, Inc. and Agronomist Rusty Oetker. One trend we have noticed is both the increase in Sodium and the decrease in Magnesium and Potassium. We have come up with two possible scenarios for this: 1. Testing was done after a prolonged dry period where we were watering heavily on a daily basis. With our water being a little high in Sodium, and little natural moisture, there may have been a buildup of Sodium in the upper profile where the sample was taken. 2. Over the past few years, we have been applying good amounts of calcium without supplementing both magnesium or potassium. While the calcium helps to alleviate sodium bound to the soil exchange sites, without another anion(Mg+, K+) to take over those sites, sodium will not precipitate out and possibly re-attach. This year, based on these results, we will be more aware of increasing magnesium and potassium applications to displace sodium. I will be very interested to see the soil tests for next year to see if we are able to affect this issue.
