LSU Soil Test Results

Did you get the results recently via email? I ask b/c the AgCenter follows up with another copy sent by snail mail (USPS) and the mailed copy will have the recommendation for specific soil amendments to add to the lawn to correct deficiences, like low P or low K, for the grass type you listed

Now I'll warn you, the recommendations by the LSU AgCenter can often be a little difficult for some homeowners to understand as recommendations are geared largely for the farming community who understand this stuff and purchase fertilizers in bulk (tons). I wish the AgCenter would correct this, but that’s another matter (I state this not having a soil test done myself in past 5 or 6 years, maybe some changes in reporting for homeowners have been made).

But if this is the case for you, if you post the soil amendments recommendations for your lawn the board can help decipher it, I know I can.

In the interim, a good lawn fertilization should suffice. Since you have several lawn grasses, would you like one specific type to be dominant?

A lawn fertilization program and grass cutting height targeting the grass type you'd like to dominant can help the preferred grass displace the others over time.

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It makes sense that you were once a professor of turf

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No, not turf, aquatics but a great deal of overlap, more than one might think….lots of soil and water chemistry, fertilization, aquatic weed control, pesticide use…etc. in recreational fish pond and lake management and aquaculture. I made frequent work-related visits to the AgCenter soil testing lab…..tried to get them to slightly change the way they reported soil test results to homeowners vs farmers (other states had done so) to make it more user friendly for non-ag users….but without much success. Plus my interest in lawn & garden - I could walk across parking lot into the Agronomy & Horticulture building and pick faculty brains when needed, ditto with parish extension agents, and often they’d do the same with me…..

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Did y'all ever talk about why builders in Louisiana use centipede instead of bermuda?

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No we didn’t but it’s my understanding centipede is the cheapest sod (never bought bermuda or zoysia) so it stands to reason contractors, particularly on spec homes use centipede (I think you know that, but it might help other readers). I have centipede in my front yard (back yard is St Augustine), and most of my neighbors do and honestly it’s doesn’t do that bad considering the alkaline heavy clay soil but I wouldn’t use it now .

Can you talk to the process of the LSU soil test? How to do it, cost, timeframe?

I’m doing one tomorrow. Need to send it off. Think
It’s like 11$ per sample, plus shipping. Don’t quote me but it comes to about 30$ total for what I do.

All you have to do is go to your local county agents office and ask for a soil sample kit. It will be a box with the directions in it explaining how to get your samples and where to send it at LSU. You should get results in about a week to 10 days.

Did the soil test give you recommendations for your centipede of what you need to use?
To favor centipede, your phosphorus level may already be adequate for it. Centipede does okay with very minimal amounts of it, and it stays in the soil for a long time.
For lowering pH, get an ammonium sulfate nitrogen source. Like the CENTIPEDE lawn fertilizer made by Hi-yield or Ferti-Lome. It’ll boost the potassium too, and has no phosphorus in it.
All of this will be fine for the other grasses, except they still may have a phosphorus deficiency.

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They don’t provide the box to mail it in anymore. You just get a brown bag to put your soil samples inside. Then you can drop them off on campus or get a box on your own to mail them. I went to 2 different nurseries - one in Prairieville and one in Baton Rouge. Only brown bags and no boxes at both. ??

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Good to know - thanks for the update. Last time I went to Cleggs Nursery on Siegen they still had the pre-labeled USPS soil testing boxes near checkout but that was couple months ago.