what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming, releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't getting
any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says it's only used by
old people and nobody else bothers

cheers

Oxymel of Squill wrote:
what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming,
releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things
wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't
getting any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says
it's
only used by old people and nobody else bothers

"Nobody else" can all take a long walk off a short pier, then! Try
the nearest farmers' supplier if B&Q haven't got it. If _they_
haven't got any, I suppose it means your local soil is already
alkaline.

It's easy to overdo it, of course (don't they say "Lime makes father
rich and son poor"?); and some soils never want it, while many others
won't need it for years.

Mike.

I like a wedge of lime in my gin and tonic!!!!

Its an excellent source of vitamin C!!!!!


"Oxymel of Squill" wrote in message
...
what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming, releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't getting
any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says it's only used by
old people and nobody else bothers

cheers

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote ...
what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming, releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't getting
any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says it's only used by
old people and nobody else bothers

Yes, we use it on the allotments, good for our silt/clay soil, helps break
it up too.
On the garden I do use some lime as I throw some Growmore about and
understand that includes lime.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

Oxymel of Squill wrote:
what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming, releases

nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things
wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't
getting
any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says it's only
used by
old people and nobody else bothers

cheers

Why don't you buy a soil testing kit and check the the ph of your soil
in several different places? If you act on the results bearing in mind
the type of plants youwish to grow in these places that should take out
all the guesswork and old wives tales.
Cheers
Tony Bull www.caterpillarfountain.co.uk

"Nobody else" can all take a long walk off a short pier, then! Try
the nearest farmers' supplier if B&Q haven't got it. If _they_
haven't got any, I suppose it means your local soil is already
alkaline.

:-) my B&Q garden centre kept me waiting 20 minutes while they decided
they'd never heard of lime

Why don't you buy a soil testing kit and check the the ph of your soil
in several different places? If you act on the results bearing in mind
the type of plants youwish to grow in these places that should take out
all the guesswork and old wives tales.

good thought, I should do that. But Much of my garden is under next door's
overhanging pine tree which I'm told makes the soil acid with its needles,
plus I get lots of moss which also likes acid conditions


thanks all for comments (excpet the prat with the gin & lime of course;
there's always one saddo with nothing to say who says it anyway)

Jon

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:36:23 -0000, "Oxymel of Squill"
wrote:

what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming, releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't getting
any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says it's only used by
old people and nobody else bothers

cheers

Lime as I know it is hydrated calcium oxide, chemically Ca(OH)2. It's
quite strongly alkaline, and it wouldn't surprise me if, in this
litigious age, garden centres don't stock it for fear of being sued
by someone who got it in their eyes, or for health and safety reasons
in respect of their own staff.

In my local Wyvale, I found that small bags of 'lime' looked
suspiciously like ground limestone, calcium carbonate, CaCO3. While
this would eventually do much the same as lime, it's a lot slower
acting.

If you want real lime, try a builder's merchant, especially one who
sells lime mortars.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Oxymel of Squill wrote:
Why don't you buy a soil testing kit and check the the ph of your
soil in several different places? If you act on the results
bearing
in mind the type of plants youwish to grow in these places that
should take out all the guesswork and old wives tales.

good thought, I should do that. But Much of my garden is under next
door's overhanging pine tree which I'm told makes the soil acid
with
its needles, plus I get lots of moss which also likes acid
conditions

It takes a lot of decayed leaves to turn a soil acid; and conifers'
needles don't decay all that quickly. There are mosses which flourish
on pure limestone, too. But I don't mean your soil _isn't_ acid: it
could be. Most gardens do end up slightly acid, I think.

Does any particular kind of plant not grow well for you, even with
the right aspect etc? Cabbages? Wallflowers? Do summer-flowering
heathers and camellias do well? Are hydrangeas pink (alkaline) or
blue (acid)? I ask because soil-testing kits don't work for
everybody; and in any case if your garden performs right for you,
then there's nothing wrong with the soil: you may only need to lime
the vegetable patch, and that not very often.

Mike.

Chris Hogg wrote:
On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:36:23 -0000, "Oxymel of Squill"
wrote:

what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming,
releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things
wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't
getting any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says
it's
only used by old people and nobody else bothers

cheers

Lime as I know it is hydrated calcium oxide, chemically Ca(OH)2.
It's
quite strongly alkaline, and it wouldn't surprise me if, in this
litigious age, garden centres don't stock it for fear of being sued
by someone who got it in their eyes, or for health and safety
reasons
in respect of their own staff.

In my local Wyvale, I found that small bags of 'lime' looked
suspiciously like ground limestone, calcium carbonate, CaCO3. While
this would eventually do much the same as lime, it's a lot slower
acting.

If you want real lime, try a builder's merchant, especially one who
sells lime mortars.

Hydrated lime, slaked quicklime, as you say, is nasty; and there's
ordinarily no horticultural point. Garden lime in the form of ground
chalk or limestone is the one to go for: it works better for most
purposes because it's slower-acting and washes out less. Some gardens
benefit from "magnesium limestone".

Mike.

I use lime on my vegetable plots and allotment as many vegetables prefer an
alkaline soil.

My area (the Vale of Belvoir) has ironstone as its bedrock and this tends to
make the soil acid - when I tested one of my small veg plots (created from a
lawn which was really just old pasture as it was seemingly simply fenced
when the house was built, and mown from then on as a lawn) it recorded a Ph
of 5, which is VERY acid in soil terms!

I have no difficulty getting lime (I use the ground limestone variety as I
think it's safer) but then again the area is very agricultural. The local
garden centres and 'country store' type of shop all sell it.

It isn't needed in many gardens, but where it is, it makes a real difference
especially to vegetables.

Neil

Visit my Peak District walking website - www.peakwalking.co.uk



"Oxymel of Squill" wrote in message
...
what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming, releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't getting
any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says it's only used by
old people and nobody else bothers

cheers

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote ...
what do folk think about lime?

my gardening book has a section on the importance of liming,
releases
nutrients, counteracts acidity etc; apparently it's all things
wonderful

but local garden shops don't stock it, and the one that does isn't
getting
any more once it's gone. He eyes my grey beard and says it's only
used by
old people and nobody else bothers

Yes, we use it on the allotments, good for our silt/clay soil,
helps break
it up too.
On the garden I do use some lime as I throw some Growmore about and
understand that includes lime.

Lime is not declared on the packaging.
I have never heard of Growmore containing lime.
I have spent a substantial time using Google to find if Growmore
contains lime, and drew a complete blank.
As an aside, I found stuff called "Organic Growmore" which appears to
have similar application rates as Ordinary Growmore. I wonder which
organic processes can yield such concentrated chemicals.

Franz

Franz Heymann wrote:
"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote ...
[...]
On the garden I do use some lime as I throw some Growmore about
and
understand that includes lime.

Lime is not declared on the packaging.
I have never heard of Growmore containing lime.
I have spent a substantial time using Google to find if Growmore
contains lime, and drew a complete blank.

Glad you did that: I raised an eyebrow when I read the original
message. Growmore is a standard NPK fertiliser, and certainly
shouldn't contain lime: it would throw one's calculations out. (Not
that I calculate!)

As an aside, I found stuff called "Organic Growmore" which appears
to
have similar application rates as Ordinary Growmore. I wonder
which
organic processes can yield such concentrated chemicals.

I suppose they make and then evaporate aqueous solutions, which seems
an expensive procedure. I imagine guano is involved. I think
naturally-occurring nitrates would be allowed under organic rules, so
Chile nitre could be used too.

Mike.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Franz Heymann wrote:
"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote ...
[...]
On the garden I do use some lime as I throw some Growmore about
and
understand that includes lime.

Lime is not declared on the packaging.
I have never heard of Growmore containing lime.
I have spent a substantial time using Google to find if Growmore
contains lime, and drew a complete blank.

Glad you did that: I raised an eyebrow when I read the original
message. Growmore is a standard NPK fertiliser, and certainly
shouldn't contain lime: it would throw one's calculations out. (Not
that I calculate!)

As a footnote: I have found a statement to the effect that the pH of
a sample of Growmore has been measured to be 7.1. That is about as
neutral as one can get.


As an aside, I found stuff called "Organic Growmore" which appears
to
have similar application rates as Ordinary Growmore. I wonder
which
organic processes can yield such concentrated chemicals.

I suppose they make and then evaporate aqueous solutions, which
seems
an expensive procedure. I imagine guano is involved. I think
naturally-occurring nitrates would be allowed under organic rules,
so
Chile nitre could be used too.

Would your argument hold for phosphates as well as for nitrates?
My brother was manager of an opencast Calcium Superphosphate mine in
South Africa. The mineral was certainly as "naturally occurring" as
Chile Nitre. Does that make Superphosphate an organic fertiliser?
{:-))

I would have thought that by the time one has treated and mixed enough
of a variety of organic manures to make the equivalent of a well
balanced 7-7-7 Growmore, with comparable concentrations, the stuff
would be unmarketably expensive. I think it is much more likely that
someone is profiting by a bit of ripping off.

Franz

:
: If you want real lime, try a builder's merchant, especially one who
: sells lime mortars.

Builder's lime is a different thing altogether and is inactive on the
garden. I am surprised that so many people do not use lime. It is essential
where I garden in Plymouth as the soil will get 'sour' after too long
without it as we are acid anyway. It is also useful to put in the planting
hole to help prevent club root although the experts as usual dispel this
notion.