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Garden lime should ideally be applied during the fall season, when temperatures and winter moisture allow pelletized limestone to react quickly with soil without drying it out too quickly. Applying it in spring may also work, provided it occurs several weeks prior to sowing seeds.
Fall
Garden lime’s primary function is to adjust soil pH levels. Most garden plants thrive best in slightly alkaline soil conditions, so adding lime to acidic soil helps balance it out. Garden lime also unlocks existing plant food elements that have become chemically bound up or unavailable within the soil and allows plants to utilize them more fully.
Finding out if your garden soil requires lime is easy in the fall when soil testing services offer comprehensive tests at reasonable prices, along with reports detailing exactly how much garden lime should be added. State Cooperative Extension offices also offer comprehensive tests at reasonable rates, and can provide reports showing exactly how much lime needs to be added for optimal gardening success. Alternatively, simple pH testers are widely available at garden centers and hardware stores.
Keeping soil pH levels between 6.0-7.0 requires adding garden lime; how much you need will depend on its natural level before treatment as well as the type of soil (ie how much sand or clay exists in it).
Vegetable crops typically prefer soil pH between 6.0 and 6.5 for optimal results, with tomatoes needing an ideal soil pH above 5.5 in order to prevent blossom end rot and promote good stand development. Too acidic conditions, on the other hand, reduce tomato vitality or may even prove toxic for their plants; lime can alter this soil pH to make available nutrients for plants without decreasing disease risk or diminishing their vigorous nature.
An optimal soil pH helps improve its physical condition as well. Acidic soils tend to compact over time, while lime helps break up that compacted ground so water and air can circulate more freely through it; creating looser, easier-to-work soil.
Experienced gardeners generally agree that fall is the ideal time for applying garden lime. Allowing enough time for the lime to react with moisture in the soil before spring planting season comes around is important in creating the optimal results.
When choosing garden lime, particle size should be taken into consideration. Powdered lime may get carried away by wind gusts or become difficult to spread once wet; while pelletized lime allows better contact between itself and soil.
Spring
If your soil pH drops below 6.0, adding garden lime will help raise it and enhance plant absorption of nutrients. Gardeners recommend doing this in the fall so it has enough time to work before spring planting season starts – but if this falls through for any reason, testing early spring and applying more according to recommendations of soil test results might also work well.
pH meters can help you gauge your soil, but for an accurate reading it’s best to get it professionally tested by either a state Cooperative Extension office or commercial testing laboratory. They will provide a report with information regarding your current pH level as well as which kind and amount of lime will work for your garden area.
Once your soil test results come back, you will be given a recommendation for how much garden lime to add per 1000 square feet of your vegetable garden. Your test should also provide insight into whether your soil contains high calcium or low magnesium levels so you can choose an effective liming material.
Most gardeners prefer agricultural limestone, which contains calcium carbonate, or dolomite lime which combines calcium and magnesium. Both products may be applied directly onto garden soil surfaces, however for best results untilering or digging will allow it to penetrate more readily into the ground at depths of four to six inches for better plant uptake.
Once you’ve spread or tilled garden lime into the soil, give it time for its chemical reaction to take effect before watering the area to help dissolve and activate it. Watering also assists the area to absorb more of this precious ingredient that’ll benefit your vegetables!
Some acid-loving plants may not thrive with additional lime in their soil, particularly near their roots. If you have azaleas or other shrubs growing nearby, keep any excess lime away from their roots by keeping it outside their drip line (an imaginary circle around plants where branches extend down into the ground). Other types of plants that respond positively to adding lime include lawn grass, garlic, onion, peas beans squash as well as lettuce kale collard greens plus Lily of the Valleys Lillyturf and ornamental Clovers which all take advantage of having more lime near their growing areas.
Summer
Vegetables thrive best in soil with a pH level between 6.0 to 6.5, so adding garden lime may help. However, if your garden soil already sits between neutral or alkaline (7.0-7.5), any additional garden lime may make essential nutrients harder for plants to access.
Experienced gardeners know the optimal time and place for applying garden lime is in the autumn, well before you prepare your garden for spring sowing and planting. Allowing time for full soil integration before cold weather hits gives the lime an opportunity to adjust soil pH while making more nutrients available to plants for growth.
Your best way of determining whether garden lime is needed depends on your location and plant species; to find out, conduct a comprehensive soil test at reasonable costs from local cooperative extension offices. Following their instructions for taking soil samples will give you all of the results that will inform any decisions about adding lime and other soil amendments.
When adding garden lime to your soil, it’s essential that you follow the instructions on its bag or container for mixing and applying it. Don’t simply sprinkle it directly over the soil surface – due to its high calcium carbonate concentration, standard agricultural lime will have too slow of an effect this way. A hand trowel or garden/agricultural spreader are both acceptable methods, although using a rotary broadcast spreader would likely give an even layer of powder throughout.
Water is also required to activate and distribute garden lime into the soil. A soaker hose or irrigation system works perfectly as they slowly soak the ground, dispensing lime where needed.
Once your lime has been mixed into the soil, you have two options for applying it: till or rake. Be sure to work it into the top 8-12 inches (20-30 cm.) of your planting bed for even distribution throughout its space.
Though garden lime can be purchased at most home and gardening stores, you may also make your own. One approach involves grinding limestone purchased as construction aggregate into fine dust before mixing it with water in a wheelbarrow until the desired consistency has been reached. When taking this approach, it is advised to wear protective eyewear as well as a dust mask.