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  • From: Bill Shoemaker <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] quick acting lime?
  • Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 07:36:21 -0600 (CST)

I once treated soil with sulphur to drive down the pH for blueberries.
Unfortunately, I did too good a job, driving it down to about 3.5. So, I
mixed up a box of baking soda in a bucket of water and watered the
blueberries with it. It bubbled and frothed for about 30 minutes, but it
brought the pH back up and the blueberries did well for years afterward. I
doubt you'll find that as a "recommended solution" but I think it would be a
reasonable localized quick-fix. It would be complicated to try to calculate
how much to use because soils range so much in buffering capacity. But if you
mixed a 1.0 lb box of baking soda in 3 gallons of water, watered the spinach
with half of it on 30-50' of row, I think you'd have positive results
temporarily. Save the rest for a later rescue. Don't use foliar sprays! The
soil is the problem, not the plant.

In the long term, raising the ph of soil from 4.3 to the 6.0 area sustainably
is awfully difficult. Fertilize with wood ashes and use lime annually, about
3 ton/acre in this circumstance. Normally ag lime is pretty fine, but if you
can get some lime with coarser particles (2-4mm), it will have a longer term
impact as it takes a while for those larger particles to break down. Sample
and test once every couple of years to see what is happening and make
adjustments. But I suspect that it'll be a battle fought for quite a while.
Maybe your friend should look into blueberries instead.

Bill


---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:04:37 -0500
>From: axehandles AT gmail.com
>Subject: [Market-farming] quick acting lime?
>To: Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
>
> A friend has an area planted with winter spinach
> which he forgot to add lime to prior to planting. 
> The pH is quite low (4.3) and he is starting to see
> the effects of this on the plants.  The question
> is:  How best to raise the pH with growing plants
> in the ground.  He is considering side-dressing
> with either quick-acting lime or wood ash.  Does
> anyone have any other recommendations? 
> Reservations?  Can either of these be used as
> foliar sprays, and would this be preferable? 
> Thanks!
>
> Brenna
> mid-coast maine
>
> Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
>________________
>_______________________________________________
>Market-farming mailing list
>Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
>
William H Shoemaker, UI-Crop Sciences
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
St Charles Horticulture Research Center
535 Randall Road St Charles, IL 60174
630-584-7254; FAX-584-4610




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