Quote:
Originally Posted by PureHarvest
Do not till pelleted lime into your beds without letting rain or irrigation break them down into powders first.
You are basically returning the pellets into powder (it was powder before it was a pellet) by doing this, thus increasing the surface area of the lime for better and uniform reactivity.
Your test shows what you need (like barbee said). You can determine exactly what purchased limestone has in it and be confident you are adding the right elements. Limestone is as natural as ash.
Ash is fine option, but you don't have a really good idea of the exact elemental composition or quantity without getting it analyzed. So, how much you use will be a guess, and going with someone else's rate is blindly following their experience based on their soil and climate.
Again, not wrong to use, but getting a test done implies you are looking for a some level of precision, and not following that up with known elements of specific quantities is sort of counter productive.
Like if you had a blood test or stool test and it shows you are very low in iron. You know you can take an iron source, but how much and from what source. You could just say, well, I'll take molasses. Well, how much? How much do I need based on what is contained in molasses versus ground beef? You would need to know what each source contains, then figure on how much of either you need to consume to get to where you want to be.
Hope that makes sense.
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Thanks for the advice on letting nature break down the pellets, I was going to just till in it the beds at some point after application. Rake it into the top first.
The ash is at my disposal, and may add some along the way. However, my beds drain really well, which I believe helps keep disease at bay in early spring, and would have concern about too much sooty ash holding water. But a good thing to know for sure, as I can mix with new soil composition when making another bed or two - which I plan on doing this winter. Also knowing, instead of dumping on the elm on outskirt of property, it can used to top off around trees and such.
In addition, I am not shooting for perfection, simple goal is to raise the pH, but not really fixated on a number. I am willing to slowly build up if necessary. I haven't witnessed any problems with production in the acidic bed, and may be a little skeptical about the test results from the limited sample in the first place. So, just like a swimming pool, going to chum the beds and not go for a major dump.
The weather is looking to break tomorrow (whew!!!) and brief cooler temps; which will allow me to get out there and get some things done. It has been hot, sticky, and buggy - not a recipe for manual labor tasks.