Bob Hobden wrote:
"BAC" wrote
It might help him to work out how much lime he wants to add in the
first place, and then check effectiveness.

That's why I want a hand held pH meter, do a sq metre with a known
weight of lime, leave for a bit and check so I can work out the
dose
needed for the whole plot.


As a rough guide, RHS recommends 190 gm/m2 Calcium Carbonate to
raise pH by
half a unit (loam soil); 420 gm/m2 (clay soil); 140 gm/m2 (sandy
soil). The
normal target is a slightly acid soil of 6.5. This time of year
would be a good time to dig it in. Probably not such a good idea
to
add manure at the same time, because ammonia may be released,
reducing the nitrogen content.

Thank you for that, the strange nature of the soil, some days it's
like light clay other days it seems more like sandy loam, makes
those
recomendations only a very rough guide. :-(
Unfortunately the plot also needs manure, but that can wait until
the
new year if I get well rotted stuff.


Me, I just chuck a few handfuls on and dig it in :-)

So did I before we moved to this plot! :-)

Isn't it usual to do it the other way round: muck now, and lime in
the spring? (I've never been too fussy, though.)

It's your plot, and you know its characteristics, while I don't. You
also know the way you like doing things, and it would be none of my
business if you hadn't asked! But I'd still do it by intelligent
guesstimate: you can see what grows well and what doesn't, and you
can smell and handle the soil. And it's almost _impossible_ to get it
wrong in any way that matters. I have no great faith in amateur
soil-tests: just another thing to spend money on for no discernible
benefit.

I think I'd muck now; then in the spring lime half the plot
moderately heavily, and the other half lightly or not at all. What
liming you do the next year to depend on results.

"Lime, lime, and lime some more,
Makes father rich but son makes poor." (I think this probably applies
to less finely-divided and hence less soluble sources of lime than we
use now.)

--
Mike.