Howdy folks,
The high level of phosphates in Austin soil is a big issue. I've
talked at length with Skip Richter, our Horticultural Ag agent sbout
this, and I've talked to the folks at the city of Austin who put
together the Grow Green program.
Skip took a number of soil tests in the neighborhood centered on
Steck and Mesa ( He had gotten a private grant and has not had funding
for city wide city testing. ) He found 100% of the reults showed
excessive to toxic levels of Phosphate the middle number in ratio mix.
He was very concerned about this, since 100% of any result
statisticly is unusual.
His recomendations for lawn fertilizing are in a leaflet available
in many nurseries around town through the Austin Grown Green program.
He has also on occasion talked about this problem on Central Texas
Gardener on PBS.
( They also have a website www.growgreen.com )
Ask for the Grow Green Earthwise guide to Lawn Care, it covers
this topic in greater depth.

As a result of talking to him, two years ago I started telling all
my customers while I was working at a retail nursery here, to get soil
tests before fertilizing since they may be creating more damage to
their lawns by using Phosphates then they are doing good.
Most folks were not interested in going to that much trouble but a
large number did, and came back to show me the results. This is of
course anecdotal but in two years, without exception every single
customer who brought in their results to show me had excessive levels
of Phosphate and were advised to only add nitrogen to their soil.

This shift in thinking has met with hugh resistance from many local
nurseries, let alone the Megamarts that sell a lot of national brands
with high Phosphate.

I had a second concern, which had to do with the EPA approved
practice of allowing mine tailings, industrial pollution ( even in a
case in Oklahoma, radioactive medical waste ) to be disposed of by
'recycling' into fertilizers for lawn and agriculture use.
If the EPA was allowing a certain amount of lead and heavy metals
into the fertilizers because 'at the recommended' rates it was
tolerable for us folks, could there be a problem with these same
levels reaching dangerous levels if there was evidence of over
fertilizing beyond recommended levels and shouldn't we test for that
problem in Austin?

This is sort of a personal mission for me and I write about my
progress on my web site, but so far the answer seems to be the Ag
Extension does not have the funding for this, the water quality folks
are restrained by looking for only certain toxins that get into the
watershed, and the Health department assumes toxicity of soils to be
some other department's concern, and will only commit resources to
check for problems once a threat to public health has been
demonstrated.
It has been interesting.

I would suggest getting a soil test or at least follow Skip and
the Grow Green's recommendations.

take care,
Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com