Which is best, lime dust or lime granules

[bumkin]

when i lived in Cheshire we used David Harber the lime was creamy white and like talcum powder when i came down here it was dark grey and like sheep sh!t we now use limex the soil samples say it works

 

[Clive]

Kinsey will tell you exactly what I have about particle size in relation to how hard the parent rock Is. And that has nothing to do with the fact I sell lime and he doesn’t. It is just fact, plain and simple.

I guess what he is saying to you is that, to be on the safe side, don’t use anything with particles bigger than 100 microns. Maybe that is the right approach for lime in the US or in his local area or just from his experience. But you cannot just brush aside every sample of lime with particles bigger than 100 micron. I agree that the general rule of thumb should be the finer the better, but there are some very good quality products that don’t 100% meet that spec.

Somebody would have noticed by now if anything bigger than 100 microns didn’t work.

And, of course, there is the issue of haulage, which will skew pricing hugely. In some situations, farmers will get better value for money from a screened product that is on their doorstep rather than lugging hundreds of tonnes many miles. Paying over the odds for haulage won’t improve your land at all.

So please don’t just cherry pick the bits of advice you like and try to pass it off as fact or education, that’s all I’m saying. Kinsey would surely agree with that, as would you in other situations.

You are not the only person that does it Clive, not by a long way! As @Hilly has found, its all too easy to be tempted by a cheap price, but at least he has the wherewithal to admit he might have got it wrong and then ask for advice.

i don’t buy cheap like pete - Never have

i buy calcifert ( very expensive). and my bulk ground lime comes from the very same quarry you use ………. we just spread it ourselves these days which makes it a lot cheaper

as our ph’s are mostly where they need to be these days the main reason i apply lime is crop nutrition - Ca and Mg are often overlooked in their importance to yield and lime is wrongly assumed to only be any use for its Nv - calcifert is an excellent product for that in my experience

 

[Sid]

very expensive

I don't buy expensive for the same reason i dont buy cheap, always look for cost effective and value for money.

 

[Henarar]

Remember some lads digging chalk out to level a patch of land to build a shed, it was low NV and not ground up so they spread it with a dungspreader, wonder how long before that land will need lime again.
It was cheap I spose

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I'm showing my ignorance now wait for it

The chalk they dig on the downs , is that alkaline
I'm sure I've seen people liming on the downs or maybe not

 

[Henarar]

I'm showing my ignorance now wait for it

The chalk they dig on the downs , is that alkaline
I'm sure I've seen people liming on the downs or maybe not

this wasn't the downs

I have spread lime on land only a matter of a few meters from beer quarry, there is lime under a lot of land but that don't mean it won't need lime

 

[Clive]

I'm showing my ignorance now wait for it

The chalk they dig on the downs , is that alkaline
I'm sure I've seen people liming on the downs or maybe not

lime is not just a neutralising agent - Ca and Mg are important nutrients

it is quite possible to have ideal ph but still need Ca and / or Mg application

knowledge of your base saturation is important or you could be making things worse with the “wrong” lime

 

[Mounty]

this wasn't the downs

I have spread lime on land only a matter of a few meters from beer quarry, there is lime under a lot of land but that don't mean it won't need lime

Yep, we've done that a number of times. One field you could even see into the lime quarry. That usually explains which direction the chalk came from thousands of years ago. Go the other side of the quarry and the pH will be sky high. Imagine curling the top off a fresh slab of butter and thats similar to how it got there.

 

[Kevtherev]

lime is not just a neutralising agent - Ca and Mg are important nutrients

it is quite possible to have ideal ph but still need Ca and / or Mg application

knowledge of your base saturation is important or you could be making things worse with the “wrong” lime

That is why soil testing is very important and to do it regularly.
Knew one farmer who
‘We always lime every time we reseed’
PH was extremely high and mag levels too.
Doesn’t take long to do samples or work with your local lime man or agronomist that does it as a service.