Got My Soil Test Results Today!

[CabEnthusiast]

Hi, I received my soil test report for my vineyard today, and wanted to share it I was actually pretty surprised by what I received as I would not have guessed Nitrogen would have been an issue.

I erased my personal address and info from the top of the report that's why you might see traces of it.

Anyways, What do I use to correct the problem?

Thanks

 

[Masbustelo]

I read through the report and have questions and observations. At what depth did you take the samples, and how many? How many square feet, or what is the size of your vineyard? Is it already established and for how long? What are your current tillage or ground cover practices? The report doesn't mention that you are short on nitrogen, rather that you are possibly short on five nutrients. If you only add nitrogen you will continue or add to existing possible nutrient deficiencies. I say possible deficiencies, because you don't know at what depth your roots are feeding, or to where they have wandered. Also note, that the report says the nitrogen is phenotype related, according to plant growth phases. This means according to what you see with your eyes, that you have a probability of nitrogen deficiency at different times of the season.The answer isn't a one time application of nitrogen. You have a very low cat ion exchange capacity indicating very sandy soil. This means that regarding nitrogen, which is highly soluble and short lived in soils, you have extra problems with retainability, indicating you will need multiple applications at different plant cycles. It has been recommended that you apply nitrogen,boron,copper, phosphorus, and potassium. My experience has been that with grapes, petiole analysis is much more helpful and will tell you what you need to apply to meet the plants immediate needs. You may need to do a petiole analysis twice per year, and will probably notice an ongoing pattern of need and response treatment. Over time you will learn how to properly apply the macro and micro nutrients needed for your particular situation. All of the above challenges apply to the mini vineyard grower and the commercial grower as well.

 

[CabEnthusiast]

I read through the report and have questions and observations. At what depth did you take the samples, and how many? How many square feet, or what is the size of your vineyard? Is it already established and for how long? What are your current tillage or ground cover practices? The report doesn't mention that you are short on nitrogen, rather that you are possibly short on five nutrients. If you only add nitrogen you will continue or add to existing possible nutrient deficiencies. I say possible deficiencies, because you don't know at what depth your roots are feeding, or to where they have wandered. Also note, that the report says the nitrogen is phenotype related, according to plant growth phases. This means according to what you see with your eyes, that you have a probability of nitrogen deficiency at different times of the season.The answer isn't a one time application of nitrogen. You have a very low cat ion exchange capacity indicating very sandy soil. This means that regarding nitrogen, which is highly soluble and short lived in soils, you have extra problems with retainability, indicating you will need multiple applications at different plant cycles. It has been recommended that you apply nitrogen,boron,copper, phosphorus, and potassium. My experience has been that with grapes, petiole analysis is much more helpful and will tell you what you need to apply to meet the plants immediate needs. You may need to do a petiole analysis twice per year, and will probably notice an ongoing pattern of need and response treatment. Over time you will learn how to properly apply the macro and micro nutrients needed for your particular situation. All of the above challenges apply to the mini vineyard grower and the commercial grower as well.

I had a friend who had the proper tools come over and take the samples with me, his tool I would say got down maybe 3-5 feet. And he took about 7 samples from different ends of the 1.5 acre vineyard. The vines are about 1 year 8 months old. And have pretty developed roots they are on 1103P rootstock. I am not very experienced with soil testing or fixing nutrient defficiencies and that's why I am seeking help.

 

[Masbustelo]

I'm not that far ahead of you. But study up on petiole testing and foliate sprays. Also study up on micro nutrients and how best to apply them. The Boron for instance might need to be applied at 1 teaspoon per 1000sq ft per month. If you over apply you're in trouble. I had indications of either deficiency or imbalances showing up (phenotypically) in two ways. My grapes were very high Ph and low acid, also at the end of the season the leaves showed significant discoloration. I did a soil test which didn't seem to show any particular problem. This year I plan on doing petiole testing and see if anything gets identified.

 

[Masbustelo]

Also note the fine print under fertilization recommendations. It says 'The amount of nutrients recommended in this report is intended to adjust soil nutrient levels for this crop and should be combined with leaf analysis recommendations to meet the crops total annual nutrient requirements'. You are looking at multiple applications totaling, perhaps 2/5 pound per acre total annual copper, Boron 9/10 of a pound per acre spread out over the growing season. (9/10 of a pound total for the year). Sulphate of potash is 0-0-50. Meaning 100 pounds applied gives you 50 pounds of Potash. If the growing season is six months long and you desire to apply 20 pounds per acre total annual, you would apply 6.6 lbs per acre, six separate times to accumulate the 20lb per acre goal. Rock Phosphate is 20% P, so to get 95 pounds applied you would need 450 pounds per acre. Urea is 46-0-0 so for your nitrogen you will need 70 pounds per acre total. Divided by six you get six applications of 11.66 pounds per acre.

 

[Masbustelo]

Or... If you use Milorganite 6-4-0 (might be the easiest route) 100 pounds per acre, six applications will hit your nitrogen, give you 24 pounds of P, ( make up the diff with rock phosphate) dampen the Milorganite with a spray bottle and mix the miniscule amounts of Boron and copper in a wheelbarrow. Mix your potash in as well.This way you could use a good quality lawn broadcast fertilizer spreader calibrated to 106 pounds per acre and your good to go. With pneumatic tires.

 

[sour_grapes]

Or... If you use Milorganite 6-4-0 (might be the easiest route) 100 pounds per acre,

And, as a bonus, if you use Milorganite, you will have a little bit of me in your grapes.

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Well, first of all, 3 to 5 feet is a tad deep for testing. No more 18 inches should be adequate. Soil is a complex science and fortunately I have a good friend (PhD in Chemistry) who is an expert in soil (yeah, we call him Doctor Dirt) and has written several papers and books on the subject (none at Barnes and Nobles). I quiz him quite often on topics and he has steered me to several folks in the testing field. As for soil testing, I have adopted the practice of only doing soil tests prior to planting vines. I get the soil right and then the vines go in. On the second year, start testing either the petioles or leaves (lab dependent) as that will tell you what the plants are in need of. As I said at the beginning, soil is a complex science.

 

[BigH]

I had a friend who had the proper tools come over and take the samples with me, his tool I would say got down maybe 3-5 feet.

Did all the dirt in that 4 foot column go into the sample? Or did the entire sample consist of dirt from 4 feet down? If your entire sample was from deep down, then I think you sampled too deep. You can use the USGS web soil survey to compare and see if you need to resample.

https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

The amount of available nitrogen is impacted by the amount of organic matter in the soil. I ran a soil survey of my vineyard and found that the top 9 inches are 2.0-3.5% organic matter. That drops to 0.25% 4 feet down.

H

 

[Masbustelo]

Even though OP is awol, here is a relevant article. https://psuwineandgrapes.wordpress.com/tag/petiole-testing/

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Even though OP is awol, here is a relevant article. https://psuwineandgrapes.wordpress.com/tag/petiole-testing/

Looks to be a good article.

 

[CabEnthusiast]

I have been out of town sorry, I am now back! Thank you for the article Mas.

 

[CabEnthusiast]

Did all the dirt in that 4 foot column go into the sample? Or did the entire sample consist of dirt from 4 feet down? If your entire sample was from deep down, then I think you sampled too deep. You can use the USGS web soil survey to compare and see if you need to resample.

https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

The amount of available nitrogen is impacted by the amount of organic matter in the soil. I ran a soil survey of my vineyard and found that the top 9 inches are 2.0-3.5% organic matter. That drops to 0.25% 4 feet down.

H

I sampled multiple samples and they all tested the same from different rows and such.

I have a bad nitrogen shortage and that is what has been causing my issues with my grapes.

I am going to correct the problems and see if my grapes seem healthier.