If I had a nickel for everyone that thinks they have clay soil, I'd have a lot of nickels. Now you might have clay soil, but everyone that has tight soil thinks it's clay when the majority of the time it's not clay. Your soil test will give us a good indication of what type of soil you have from its CEC, but if you want you can do a jar test to get a pretty good idea what makes up your soil. Summer is very tough on cool season grasses, they do best in spring and fall as you already know. One inch of water per week is a general guide, but it can't be taken as gospel, especially this summer. During summer you might have to do more watering if you don't want your grass to go dormant or succumb to the hot summer sun. One thing that you can do in very hot and sunny conditions is lightly irrigate the grass midday, just to wet the blades down to help cool the grass. It won't count as irrigation, but it can help with summer stress. When you do water, make sure the soil is getting wet throughout the root zone. Tight soils can keep the water on the surface, running off slopes, and evaporating. Another reason for dead grass in the summer is fungal disease. TTTF is pretty tough, but it's main nemesis is brown patch, which can affect a whole yard when conditions are right. Often brown patch won't kill the grass plant, as it is mainly a foliar disease, but if it affects the crowns it can lead to dead patches. Let's see what your soil test says but in the meantime you can add organic matter to your soil via compost, organic fertilizers, grains, and mulch mowing.

Thank you Tiemco. I am mailing my soil sample to Logan Labs tomorrow morning so when I get my results back I will post them to this thread. The reason I believe I have clay soil is because at about 4 or 5 inches down, I start seeing whitish-gray squishy, clumpy material that is like playdough. Sometimes this material is rock hard as well. Does this sound like clay to you? Also, a question for Dchall. I bought an Ortho hose end sprayer for my baby shampoo and molasses. I know you said 3 ounces for every 1000 square feet. But, on the dial it says "set dial to the rate per gallon." So, what would I set the dial to for 30 ounces covering 10,000 sq feet? Also, how much total molasses for this scenario? Much thanks

Thank you Tiemco. I am mailing my soil sample to Logan Labs tomorrow morning so when I get my results back I will post them to this thread. The reason I believe I have clay soil is because at about 4 or 5 inches down, I start seeing whitish-gray squishy, clumpy material that is like playdough. Sometimes this material is rock hard as well. Does this sound like clay to you? Also, a question for Dchall. I bought an Ortho hose end sprayer for my baby shampoo and molasses. I know you said 3 ounces for every 1000 square feet. But, on the dial it says "set dial to the rate per gallon." So, what would I set the dial to for 30 ounces covering 10,000 sq feet? Also, how much total molasses for this scenario? Much thanks

The answer for the Ortho sprayer is that it does not matter what you set the dial on. As long as you start with 3 ounces of soap and cover 1,000 square feet, then it doesn't matter what the mixture rate was getting it there. So if you have 10,000 square feet to spray, put 30 ounces of soap in the jar and start spraying. When you get to the end you should just be running out of soap.

Equal parts of molasses and soap are good. Then you would spray at 6 ounces per 1,000 square feet to get the same amount of soap down. When you mix soap and molasses it gets pretty viscous. You might want to mix 33/33/33 soap/molasses/water. Then you would apply 9 ounces per 1,000 square feet.

Magnesium is one of the salts that can make soil seem like clay. Even sand can have some clay qualities when it is magnesium based sand.

Hot temps and low humidity are what sucked the life out of the lawns this summer. Y'all got hit really hard. When you see that happening, keep a very close eye on your grass and water at the first signs of heat stress. Usually one or two parts of the lawn will look darker and dryer. Then water immediately.

If MickBo lives on the East side of Wichita, I can vouch for him that he has clay soil. Depending on what his builder did when the original landscaping was done, he'll have one two or even three solid, nearly impenetrable layers of clay anywhere from a few inches to a foot below the surface. The topsoil above it will normally be a very heavy soil.

This land was all wheat field a few decades ago. Many developers scraped off the few inches of decent topsoil and sold it before starting to build.

A couple of years ago I hand-dug a dry well to funnel water away from my patio. I ran into one layer of clay that was approximately three inches thick. I cut out a piece about the size of a dinner plate and left it in the sun for a few days. It became so hard, it was indistinguishable from a piece of limestone.

North of here, around Salina, is an area referred to as the "Post Rock Country". There were no trees, so when the first settlers arrived, they made their fence posts out of limestone. I've seen pictures of them cutting the limestone with long two-man saws. I never figured out how that was possible until I had my "post-rock" moment.

MickBo, I completely sympathize.

Ok Tiemco, I got my results back from Logan Labs this morning. I will post the results now. Please let me know what all it means. I appreciate it.

Logan Labs, LLC
Soil Report
Date 8/29/2012
Sample Location: Lawn
Sample Depth in inches: 4
Total Exchange Capacity (M. E.): 14.35
pH of Soil Sample: 7.40
Organic Matter, Percent: 6.13

SULFUR: p.p.m.: 23
Mehlich IIIPhosphorousas (P O )lbs / acre: 140

CALCIUM: Desired Value:2601
Value Found: 2352
Deficit: -249

MAGNESIUM: Desired Value: 275
Value Found: 612
Deficit

POTASSIUM: Desired Value: 298
Value Found: 307
Deficit

SODIUM: lbs / acre: 165

Calcium (60 to 70%): 61.48
Magnesium (10 to 20%): 26.66
Potassium (2 to 5%): 4.11
Sodium (.5 to 3%): 3.75
Other Bases (Variable): 4.00
Exchangable Hydrogen (10 to 15%): 0.00

Boron (p.p.m.): 0.82
Iron (p.p.m.): 88
Manganese (p.p.m.): 45
Copper (p.p.m.): 1.63
Zinc (p.p.m.): 3.04
Aluminum (p.p.m.): 347

Nice soil, but I wouldn't say you have clay at the level of the sampling. A TEC of 14.85 is right near the sweet spot for loams, and silty loams. There might be heavy clay below the top soil, but that is another story, and can actually help keep moisture in the root zone. The test also shows your magnesium levels to be too high. This can occur naturally, or via overliming with dolomitic lime. A good ratio of calcium to magnesium is 7:1 to 10:1. Yours is 4.25, which while not horrible, can still give a "tight" soil. Adding gypsum to your lawn will help by raising this ratio without increasing pH. Your sulfur and potassium levels are fine, your phosphorus is OK, but a little more won't hurt, and using starter fertilizer for your fall feedings will raise it to optimum levels, but it's really not a big deal. Your organic matter is very nice, but adding more via mulch mowing, organic ferts, and grains will help loosen the soil up a bit too, and is great for your soil microbes. I don't do micronutrient recommendations, but your boron is a bit on the low side. All and all a very workable soil that will become looser with gypsum additions.

Thank you Tiemco for your very fast response. So, if I add gypsum to my soil, are you saying that this will lower my very high magnesium levels? Also, how much do you recommend for every 1000 square feet? On a side note, I noticed that Nitrogen and Potash levels were not included with my Logan Labs report. I called them and they said there was additional charges for those. Are these not as important as homeowners have been led to believe? If they were so important, I'm sure Logan Labs would include these readings in their standard report. Any thoughts on this and should I have these tested as well? Thanks again

Potash is a source of potasium. It is the macro-nutient potasium that is necessary for healthy plants and your test does give you results for potasium. Nitrogen is seldom tested as it is so transient. Over a short period of time it is depleted by plant uptake, leaching etc. Test Results of how much N was in a the soil would only be a snapshot of how much N was present the day of sampling and would not be representative of what is there even 2 weeks later. If my explaination is incorrect I'm sure there will be a stampede to correct me.

Thanks grass1950, what you just stated makes sense. I also have one more question that I forgot to ask. Since I'm doing my fall overseeding in a few weeks, would it be okay to add the gypsum to my lawn now or should I wait until next spring?

By adding gypsum you are trying to displace some of the magnesium bound to the soil particles and increase your Ca saturation. Gypsum can be added at 10-30 lbs. per thousand, as your budget allows. It is very soluble, so you can add it a few weeks before seeding.

Be advised that Gypsum has a side effect (does not outweigh advantages) of reducing potasium, so you will want to offset this.