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Green Rosie
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 10498 Location: Calvados, France
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 45672 Location: Essex
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46217 Location: yes
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Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
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Slim
Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 6612 Location: New England (In the US of A)
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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 15 2:41 pm Post subject: |
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Most commercial suppliers of lime will do the analysis for you as they want to sell lime, but you can do the analysis yourself if you get the kit. The guide is to have a slightly acidic ph, as acidity releases nutrients locked up in the soil, particularly trace elements. Somewhere around ph6.5 is right, once you go over ph7 (neutral) then the balance alters towards alkalinity and some elements get 'locked up', ie will not come into the soil solution and be unavailable for plant growth. If you are only growing grass then the above is true, but if you are growing crops then the place to lime in the rotation is after a potato crop which will generally grow down to ph4-very acid. The normal time in a crop rotation is immediately before a brassica crop, if you grow kale for livestock for example, as brassicas suffer from clubroot and lime conditions tend to inhibit that disease. Regarding stock going in to graze, we were told at college that a good rain on a freshly limed field would do a good job at washing the lime in, and that grazing could take place after that as soon as there was sufficient growth in the sward. I did a soil analysis at college where we took a sample of soil from all over a field and mixed it, as we were doing it for exercise and not for real. If you do the analysis yourself then you can do several of samples individually and treat areas of the field according to your tests. It is geared to how fussy you are, time available and the size of the fields you want to do.
I have a local farmer friend who pus on a mixed, prilled fertilizer, which contains lime in prill, (pelleted form), and the livestock are in the field grazing away. I wouldn't do that myself, but I am not farming! |
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Tavascarow
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Posts: 8407 Location: South Cornwall
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Ty Gwyn
Joined: 22 Sep 2010 Posts: 4613 Location: Lampeter
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Green Rosie
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 10498 Location: Calvados, France
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