Joseph A. Zupko said:


"Joseph A. Zupko" wrote in message
...
Are they both the same thing but one is processed differently?
I see gardeners at the community garden use lime. They said it keeps the
insects and animals eating there plants. Is there any truth behind this?

Pulverized lime is limestone (calcium carbonate) that has been crushed finely
enough to pass through a 'number 20' sieve. Hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide)
is lime that has been reacted with heat and water.

Hydrated lime is caustic and I wouldn't recommend puffing it around a garden.

Pulverized lime is sometime spread in barns to control flies (by making the
animal waste too alkaline for flies to breed in).

Pulverized (sometimes called 'agricultural') lime is occasionally used as part
of a fungicidal dust and occasionally recommended against slugs, but I've not
heard of it being used as an insecticide or insect repellent. (The Organic Method
Primer has no index entry for lime used as an insect control.)

Diatomaceous earth is regularly used as a dust against insects.

I've also heard about ground kaolin clay being sprayed on plants to use as an
insect barrier or repellent.

http://www.garden.org/articles/scrip...es.taf?id=1698
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)