Lime

[TONYJ]

I've had my allotment for five years and have added mountains of manure, the soils now pretty good. I've recently done a pH test and it's pretty low, about 5.5, so I reckon it's time to add lime this autumn after the crops are out. This is where it gets confusing, I've read you don't lime with fertiliser, but you can lime with manure? Do you dig lime in or leave it on the surface? I've got some well rotted cows muck, if I lime in autumn, can I add it in early spring, or lay it on the surface after I've limed? Any ideas?
Tonyj

[Geordie]

I lime plot in the autumn as its clay based....just leave it on the surface for the rain / hoe to work it in. As the crop rotates so does the liming. Only exception is the brassicas...manure in the autumn and lime in the spring.

Its not a good idea to mix lime and fertiliser because one is acid the other alkaline....like having a pee in a toilet full of bleach...stand well back! So my advice would not be to lime and fertilise in the same year...or a least give them 2/3 months gap.

[Two_Sheds]

pH test ...about 5.5

that's not too acidic for many plants, (pH needs for veg) so only lime those areas that are going to have lime lovers on them, eg brassicas. Or add chicken manure pellets instead of lime

[TONYJ]

Cheers for that, I've got some 6X, might be worth a try. TonyJ

[gojiberry]

You could use calcified seaweed instead of lime which will give a neutral ph as well as many other benefits. You could then just lime the planting holes for your brassicas. Ipersonally prefer to use calcified seaweed as it is a bit more user friendly than lime and it doesn't mater if you over do it.

Ian

[Sylvan]

Is calcified seaweed reasonably easy to obtain?

[King Carrot]

I understand that liming with fresh manure or chemical fertilizers can be unhealthy for the soil and any plants put directly into it. I use garden lime and dolomite lime in an organic fertilizer mix that also contains seedmeals, seaweed meal, bone meal and sometimes Fish Blood and Bone (depends on the crop and if it wants a quick nitrogen fix. As well as the calcium and magnesium in the limes being great soil foods, I don’t specifically have to lime anymore although I do occasionally still add an extra bit of lime around the planting holes of Brassicas to ward off club root.