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Pelletized Lime Timimg?

Normally I disc, drag, plant brassica, spread lime and fertilizer and drag again in late July.

Would it be better to spread the pelletized lime now?

If so, would spreading the lime before discing be good, bad or indifferent?

Sooner the better as changing soil PH moves slowly, generally 6 mos or more.

Is your pH low? Pat is right—it takes several months to move pH with standard lime products. If the pH isn’t low, there is no need to add lime and your time and money would be better spent on other inputs.

The pH is around 5.5.

Spread it before you disk, pelletized works very fast as opposed to ag lime. Get a soil test and see what they recommend in terms of ag lime and go 1/3 less than that for pelletized. I'm no expert but local ag guys have helped me with that and it seems to work pretty well.

At 5.5 PH, you’re going to need a lot of PEL lime to get to 6-6.5 PH. Ask your agronomist, I’m guessing 600-700 lbs per acre and then about 300 lbs per year to keep it up where you want it.

I’d get it spread as soon as your can.

Mark

Pelletized lime definitely works quicker than ag lime, but it still takes a good while to break down. Like stated above, I’d spread it ASAP.

6 months before you need it

I'd bet more than the 6-700 lbs/acre to move it a point very fast. You can spray it with liquid calcium and get a point a whole lot faster.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I'll take a bit more time and explain what I do when I clear "new ground" on my current place (thin shale/mudstone-based soils in oak timber on 20-35% slopes with heavy mountain laurel/rhododendron under story, unaltered soil pH around 4.5 to 4.8) pile and burn slash in situ to make "sweet spots" from the wood ash, target the sweet spots with 5-10-10 fertilizer and a heavy application of pelletized lime , by heavy I mean 80 pounds per 250 square feet , plant brassicas in the sweet spots. In the area around the burn piles I apply 1/2 ton/acre hydrated lime immediately no matter the season and go back with 1.5 ton/acre pelletized in early fall ...I seed winter rye with the fall lime and a light application of 10/10/10. In February or early March I frost seed landino clover over the rye patches and apply another 1/2 ton acre pelletized lime.... if the brassicas on the "sweet spots" were strong and the clover thrives I'll stay with 1/2 ton/acre pelltized each fall after that and skip the spring application. As long as the clover holds I don't fertilize more unless I'm doing a strip of pop corn in the plot . In larger plots that will be hunted over in late season when snow is likely I'll plant a strip of popcorn (plain old grocery store generic "jiffypop") down the middle in June. We get high winds and snow here in December/January and post rut bucks will hit that popcorn then.

I'd also (in addition to PEL lime) spray on a "heavy load" of the liquid calcium lime as well.

You know one thing.....you are not going to get your PH too high this year (or ever)!

Mark

Usually pelletized lime doesn't take as much to change the PH but doesn't last as long as ag lime but is more convenient because of ease to spread.When using ag lime after land has been platted the amounts can be entered into the lime spreader and it knows how much lime to put out and it really slows things down when you have to put out the huge amounts of ag lime.The reason we use ag lime is cost and longevity

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