Lime is one of many soil amendments that can make your garden grow.
Sometimes planting a garden is like painting a landscape -- you balance the dark and light, the tall and the short and before you know it, you have something outstanding. Keeping that garden fed and the pH properly balanced is more difficult -- there are a lot of things to know and everything needs to be measured twice. Lime is a common garden amendment, used for a variety of purposes. If you have some idea use it properly and when to apply the lime to achieve your desired results, your garden will go far.
Different Types of Lime
Lime comes in a variety of forms -- the ones most commonly used in the garden are agricultural lime, gypsum and dolomite. Agricultural lime is basically just pure calcium carbonate, gypsum is calcium sulfate and dolomite is a mix of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate. Gardeners often use all three together for most applications, however, one type of lime is often better for an application than another. The best time to apply lime, in general, is after the final harvest from the garden being limed. This allows time for the lime to react with the soil and avoids any damage the raw lime could cause to growing plants. Because lime is used to correct soil problems, it should be applied as needed, from once a year to once in three years.
Agricultural Lime
Agricultural lime is most commonly applied to gardens that have developed a low pH. The biggest benefit of agricultural lime is that over time, the lime will raise the pH of the soil back in to a neutral range. Lime can react for years, depending on the size of the particle and the amount of water available to cause the reactions. Made up primarily of crushed limestone, agricultural lime is relatively safe and far less likely to cause chemical burns than more aggressive forms of lime.
Gypsum
Gypsum is another garden amendment related to lime. Unlike agricultural lime, however, gypsum doesn't alter the pH of the soil or add significant amounts of nutrients. Gypsum may be helpful in areas with heavy clay soil or with a lot of salt, as it leaches salt from the soil and helps to keep clay soils broken in to smaller particles. It is not recommended in other circumstances.
Dolomite
Dolomite has earned a reputation for being easier to use than agricultural lime, as it is difficult to over-apply. Like lime, dolomite will raise the pH of soil, but only to around 7 unless obviously excessive amounts are being used. Another advantage to dolomite is that it contains magnesium -- a garden plot with a low pH and a magnesium deficiency would benefit more from dolomite than lime. Dolomite should be applied exactly the same as agricultural lime.
Related posts
The best choice of garden amendments depends on the current soil and which varieties are planted in it.Gypsum and lime are both useful soil amendments for gardens. However, neither should be used...
Lime and the LawnIt's that time of the year again, when the garden is starting to wake up. Before you add your annual lawn and garden fertilizer, here are a few tips to make your plants grow....
Should I Lime My Clay Soil?The question of whether or not to add lime to your garden soil has little to do with whether that soil is clay, rocky, sandy or an ideal loam. Instead, you add lime to s...
Clay soils can vary from pure clay to a mixture of clay, organic materials and sand.The role of lime in amending clay soils depends not only on the density and pH of the soil but also on the type...
For people who wish to start a garden but are dealing with a lawn composed of impacted, non-porous clay soil, gypsum is an affordable and organic way of sufficiently altering soil composition. Cla...
