Adding slaked lime
Good day to all.
There is an area with sandy soil, some trees grow very slowly. I was advised to add slaked lime, suggesting that my soil was highly acidic. Is there any negative effect from adding slaked lime?
Good day to all.
There is an area with sandy soil, some trees grow very slowly. I was advised to add slaked lime, suggesting that my soil was highly acidic. Is there any negative effect from adding slaked lime?
First you need to determine the acidity of the soil by watering it with vinegar; if a reaction occurs, then the acidity is neutral, but if nothing happens, then it is high. In this case, you need to lime the soil, or add ash instead of lime.
On our site, the soil is acidic and we determine this by the plants that grow in large quantities - these are plantain and horsetail, so in the fall we sprinkle the site with slaked lime.
You can determine the acidity of the soil using vinegar. You need to drop it on the soil and if bubbles begin to appear, then there is a lot of alkali in the soil and there is no need to add lime. if nothing happens, then the soil is acidic.
Recently I used your method to determine the acidity of the soil, everything turned out to be fine and even excellent for me, but my relatives in the neighboring region are doing very badly, how can I improve the soil?
If the soil in the garden is acidic, then adding quicklime or wood ash will help make the acidity neutral. In soil with neutral acidity, many vegetables will grow very well.
Where did you get the idea that the soil is acidic? This is usually the scourge of clayey, heavy soils, and sand is a light soil; on the contrary, it often needs to increase its acidity a little (I dream of such soil on the site, but alas...) I don’t know what they usually use for testing, my sister from work uses litmus test brings the paper, but in any case you need to check the reaction before doing anything.
If you feed vegetables with mineral fertilizers, the acidity of the soil will increase. Therefore, first, using indicators, you need to measure it and if the soil is acidic, then add lime.
We don’t fertilize with anything other than manure, except sometimes we make compost, these are products we have tested over the years. They didn’t add lime; it’s kind of scary to do that. The neighbors also use manure.