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| Hello, My apologies for any typos. The forum is not playing nicely with my phone. I have a 80 ft sq garden plot i made in North Carolina red clay. The ph is a 6.4 which state agronomic services says is in good range for garden soil. However, in bad form i applied about 12 pounds of lpelletized lime to the garden plot before seeing my soil test. .that i rqate is about 3 tons per acre. Im worried about what thiscould mean for the soil.Will i need aulfur now or shoukd i wait and see how the ph is in the spring befoee touching anything? Woukd compost help buffer a high ph soil? |
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| 12 pounds of lime to an area, say, 4 feet by 20 feet is a lot of lime. What was your Magnesium level and ratio to Calcium before? Which kind of lime was added, calcitic or dolomitic? What is your soils pH now? How much organic matter is in your soil now? |
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| The humic material was .13% before i added 200 pounds of compost. My soil test did not check calcium or magnesium and the lime bag ill have to get someone to check. |
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| I assume this is agricultural lime. 12 lbs of lime on this 4 x 20 ft plot, followed by 200 lbs of compost on the same plot - the humic acids in the compost are going to very slowly react with the lime, and unless the existing soil pH is way off the charts in one direction or the other, you should be fine. I seriously doubt there will be any problems. |
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| I would say that 4 pounds of hi-cal lime would have been fine. If you grow legumes, brassica, and beets, they will love it. It may take a couple years to really kick in especially if the lime was not mixed in well. |
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| Unfortunately, pelletized is quick release, so you will get the whole blast within 6 months or so rather than 3 years for plain ground stone. 80 sq ft is so little, why not make another plot for the crops with less tolerance for high ph? |
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| The lime was incorporated just on the top with a two cycle garden tiller. I doubt it mixed very deeply. Perhaps ill try to borrow a better tiller in the sping. Would adding peat moss help? I read peat moss doesn't work well in clay, perhaps because the poor drainage of clay and high water retention of peat moss. Thank you everyone for your advice. |
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| If you REALLY need to lower the ph, I would use soil sulfur and use it now as it takes a while to go to work. As far as peat moss goes, I really love the local peat moss I get. It really works well with clay loam soil as it works just about the same as adding organic matter [which it is] and it loosens and aerates soil making it nice. |
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| Well if I really want to lower it I guess it begs the question, what will the ph actually be next year? Guess there isn't a hard fast way to know and it doesn't help that I don't know which type of lime it is. It was soil doctor lime from Lowe's but I won't be able to check the bag for a few more days. Folks don't have issues with basic soils here so I'm not sure how easily I could get sulfur anyhow. |
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| So where in the United States are you. Agricultural lime would be either Calcitic or Dolomitic and which you should use depends on whether the soil you have is deficient only in Calcium or maybe needs Magnesium. Contact your state universities Cooperative Extension Service about having a good, reliable soil test done that will tell you about the Calcium and Magnesium levels and the ratio betwen them as well as the P and K levels and maybe, although not always today, the humus levels. You can also do these simple soil tests, 1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains� too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. |
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| You can purchase a soil pH kit for not much - with a quick google, there are several out there in the $10 range, but the one at the link is $30 and would do quite a few more tests, the results color-coded in the range of most soil pH. |
Here is a link that might be useful: link to $30 soil pH test kit
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| Kimmsr: "NC red clay" |
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- Posted by TheMasterGardener1 5B (My Page) on Mon, Dec 3, 12 at 11:54
| I agree with David. Everythning should be just fine. Do not waste anymore money on soil tests as 80% of the time they are not needed for the hobby gardener. First off I have about 300-400 sq ft of garen rows. Not to sure If I would even pay 30 bucks to see what my soil is like for a area that may give me 200 dollors worth of produce, maybe more. Why spend that much money on a soil test? To save fertilizer? How? Are you going to source every micro and macronutrient? Or just use one all purpose fertilizer like miracle gro with all needed micros? A slow release with all needed macros. The soil test in a small plot could save 10 dollars worth of fertilizer in 5 years!!! Dont get a soil test unless it is worth it. :) |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr 5 (My Page) on Mon, Dec 3, 12 at 17:05
| MasterGardener makes some good points. However, if you are concerned about your pH after adding the lime, the way to know what is going on is to test the pH. It would not cost $30 to do that. |
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