I'm surprised your nitrate is so high (and wonder who measured it for you) because it is normally very low this time of year. I don't know when you took this sample, but it must have been during the growing season -- or you put out a mineral nitrate fertilizer just before taking the sample for analysis.

The chief worries you have are the pH, the high phosphate, the high calcium, and the slight salinity. Assuming you have a clay soil (from your analysis and your Texas zone 8), you should stay away from manures and mineral fertilizers for two or three years. If you feel the need to fertilize, get a general purpose organic fertilizer -- and/or just some coarse-screened compost -- and spread that over your rose bed -- fertilizer at the rate of about 20 lbs/1000 sq. ft. or a couple of inches of compost.

Your sulfur shows to be high, but you can still apply one lb of horticultural sulphur per 100 sq. ft to lower the pH. Scratch it into the soil slightly and then water well.

Finally, if you use an organic fertilizer, try to find one without chicken manure, which is high in calcium.

Hello Field

I was hoping that you would reply. I looked for an e-mail address to e-mail you directly but none was available, not even in your website.

I agree with you with the resluts that I got. I really think I need a second opinion. Maybe something happened with the first one. The sample was taken around 3 weeks ago and I haven't fertilized for at least 5 months now.

I do have clay soil. I really think the lab results are incorrect. Who do you use for your soil tests?

After a soil test a couple of years ago, I visited a friend of mine and walked into his rather formal garden of concentric beds around a central reflecting pool. Shading the soil of every bed were very, very healthy root vegetables, like sugar beets and carrots. Even though I knew about them, they still looked hilarious but did the trick. They soaked up a good portion of the excess nutrients and his roses have begun looking better. As a bonus, he sold the vegetables to a vendor :-)
Elk.

I think the biggest "nutrient" problem that you are seeing with your roses is your pH. You need to get that down! Also, how much do you water? You already have a good portion of nutrients on board, but unless the pH is right, your rose has trouble taking them up. And, unless you water enough, your rose can't take up nutrients either. You also mention the fact that you had very few leaves. This could be due to disease, especially black spot, not nutrient issues. Hybrid teas aren't the most disease free creatures on the planet and there are darn few places in the US that can get by growing them without chemical sprays of some kind. With the "buds not opening" you describe, and the wet year that last year was, I'd suspect botrytis, a fungal infection to be responsible. Do you have a regular spray program in place?

HollySprings

I don't currently have a spray program, I have invested in a spray pump and I am willing to have one. I was thinking of starting the Apple Cider Vinegar thing for the blackspots. I have alot of that on my roses. I try to water at least twice a week. I have a soaker hose that I leave on for around 2 hours each time. As far as the fungal infection, I wouldn't know it if I saw it so there is not much I can say there.

Elks

I have thought of growing vegetables too. But I don't think that I want to grow them where I grow my roses except for maybe garlic. I will have to give that some more thought.

If anyone has a link to a good spray program for Texas and Hybrid Teas I would be most grateful.

Keith, you can email me by going to My Page and using the "send me an email" function. And I use the Texas A&M Cooperative Extension Service for soil testing.

Holly Springs, on this side of the Mississippi, last year was far from a wet year. If anything, Keith probably didn't water enough. That will also cause loss of foliage.

Holly Springs,
My friend only had to sully his beds for one season. Sugar beets are greedy.
Elk.

Update

I didn't get a second test done but I did add sulphur to the soil to improve the P.H. and I also added corn meal.

Oddly enough I also removed the mulch completely and found lots of small roots near the top so I am now watering every other day for about 3 hrs using my soaker hose. Since doing that I have had the best blooms in 3 years.

My plan is to add a little bit of manure based compost every month or so. I am also considering either building or buying one of those Soilsoup machines to make "Fermented Compost Tea". It is supposed to be compost tea on steroids or something.

And I have also decided to switch from Hybrid Teas to Antique Roses. I have already purchased 6 different varieties to experiment with. I got them at the Antique Rose Emporium.

O.K. I was just too curious so I had a second test done. Mind you the only thing that I have done from the last test to this test was to add sulphur to try to get my PH down.

PH 7.7 Mildly Alkaline
Nitrate 22 High
Phosphorus 146 Very High
Potassium 275 High
Calcium 24656 Very High
Magnesium 397 High
Salinity 664 Slight
Zinc 17.38 High
Iron 19.79 High
Manganese 5.64 High
Copper 3.28 High
Sodium 223 Low
Sulphur 102 High

After taking the second soil sample I did add some of my own homemade compost and some soil soup compost tea but nothing else. I am still having the same problems. Very little if any foliage, yellowing leaves that drop off. Lots of die back. The only imporvements so far has been that the roses have been blooming and looking rather nice.

Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.
By the way I have very clay soil and water every other day or so with a soaker hose for 3 or so hrs in the morning. I am trying to add soil soup compost tea every 2 weeks. No dilution.

If you have clay soil with poor drainage (because you haven't incorporated enough organic matter -- compost -- into it) then you may be drowning your roses. We've had a mild and relatively wet spring so far and haven't needed to do much supplemental watering.

Otherwise, who did your soil tests? How much and what kind of sulfur did you use, and how did you get it into the soil.

Lay off of the manure if you have a clay soil. Manure shouldn't be used more than once every three or four years in our black clay soil, or it'll build up too many salts -- as your soil tests may be telling you.