Lime

by Nancy
(Florence, OR)

Doug: I live in the Pacific Northwest. Is it time to add lime to my garden and what should the ratio be, if so?

Doug says - have you done a soil test yet? This is usually the first step in deciding if you need to add lime. If you don't need it - then why add it? :-)

As for how much.... the deal is that you're going to add what you need to add to bring the soil acidity up to a growing range. There's no "yearly" amount to add on an ongoing basis - (at least not that I'd recommend) without having done the soil pH test to give you an indication of what the soil requires.

My experience is that some garden books (particularly the old chemical kinds) and chemical gardeners suggest adding lime as a regular thing. Adding a lot of chemical fertilizers to lawns and gardens tends to acidify them and lime is the regular remedy to using chemicals.

If you're using organic composts, compost-tea etc then you're soil is going to go the pH (acidity level) of the underlying soil-parent material in your region. Slightly acidic if granite - slightly alkaline if limestone etc.

The bottom line here is that just "adding lime" is not something I can recommend until you know what your current soil measures out to be on the pH scale and where you want to take it (so you can grow whatever crop requires that level of acidity).

Three Steps to Success:

Get a soil test.

Decide what you want to grow and what level of acidity those plants require.

Then add the correct amount of lime to bring your soil pH to the proper level.

Hope that helps - sorry there isn't one-size-fits-all kind of answer.