pointblank

I have read several places that people area tilling lime into their ground. Is that to correct a ph balance or what? Is it just normal lime like at the lumber yard type lime? What level is optimal for good growing? Just trying to learn a bit here.
Thanks for sharing your knowlege.

pb

psandhu

lime raises the ph of the soil. when ph is low, nutrients bind to the soil and plants have trouble taking them up. most soil ph is naturally low.

the lime you see at the lumber yard may be calcium carbonate or calcium hydroxide. either way, it's probably a couple dollars for a 50 lb sack.

at quarries, at least around here, calcium carbonate or ag lime is about $6 per ton. it typically takes 1~2 tons per acre of lime.

LLBUX

The lumber yard lime would dissolve into the soil faster since it is more of a powder. The Ag lime is courser and would work over a longer period of time.

You should have a soil test taken so you can determine exactly what you need on your field. Strive for at least 6.5 pH in your soil for best results. Look at your potassium and phosphorus levels too.

Good luck!

farm hunter

$6.00 per ton Really???????????

WOW - around here - (Central NY) its $35-45/ton.

Can that be right??

By the way - Do some searches on Ph - You will find that 7.0 is Neutral - 6.5 is good for clover, and anything less than 6.0 - lime is needed - How much???? the soil test will tell.

psandhu

yes, $6 per ton as long as you pick it up in bulk from the quarry. i have used a pickup and a big pto driven fertilizer spreader before. draw a 25 mile circle around coffeyville kansas on a map and there are at least 4 quarries in that circle, all owned by the same company. they have one set of grinding, excavating, hauling, dumping, blasting etc equipment. all the equipment gets rotated around between the quarries, they make enough ag lime, p gravel, road gravel, aggregate, medium sized and landscape sized rocks to last a month or two; then move all the equipment to the next quarry.

Pro-Line

Farm Hunter...I just spread a couple tons on my farm in WV. I had to haul it from Ohio (2 trips) and I paid $5.90/ton. One place had it for under $5/ton, but theirs was frozen and they couldn't guarantee that it would leave my pickup in one piece during loading. LOL

One more trip and I'll have a 2 1/2 acre plot ready to go!

psandhu

that lumber yard lime will also dissolve your skin, if it's calcium hydroxide.

i got a bag for my lawn a few years ago. the stuff had the consistency of chalk dust you find at the bottom of a chalk board. it wouldn't feed through my push buggy type spreader, and slinging it out left it patchy looking. so i had the brilliant idea of mixing it up in a 15 gallon electric spray tank with some water, 15 or so pounds of lime at a time, then spraying it on my lawn. it dissolved fairly well.

anything liquid that hit the bricks left a white mark. all the grass looked white when i was done spraying, like a volcano erupted and left ash everywhere.

some of the liquid got on my hands, because the spray wand leaks. the next morning my hands looked like they had be sanded everywhere with an angle grinder. the outer layer of skin was just gone in a whole bunch of patches on my hands.

1sagittarius

Farm hunter, $35-$45 a ton sounds like the cost when they deliver and spread it for you on your field. $6 is if you come and get it, take it home, and spread it yourself. This is usually of a coarser mesh lime than the bagged type.

Depending on the mesh and quanity of carbonates in your local limestone, there are formulas to calculate the quanity of lime need to raise your soil PH to a desired level.

Ground quarry limestone is about 20 to 40% calcium carbonate and maybe 1 to 15% magnesium carbonate. It is these carbonates that raise the PH of the soil. The calcium in gypsum does not effect soild PH but does add cacium and sulfer.

lunchbucket

Figure 2-3 tons of lime/acre for every point you wish to raise the pH value. It may take the lime six months or better to do it's thing.