"William Anderson" wrote in message
...
Hiya All,

After what i thought was a good first year for my veg plot, i have a
friend
who, with a smaller plot managed to produce more than me.

After consulting the text books and testing the soil i found out that he
had
an alkali soil and mine was acid with a reading of 4. Im now certain that
my veg needs an alkali soil, and im told that i can raise the PH by adding
lime.

Now the question i have is. What sort of lime do i use?. And how much do
i
use and how do i apply it?.

This might seem a streight enough question but i am very new to gardening
and need to increase my knowledge.

Thanks everyone for your patience and understanding.

Bill.


If that pH measurement is anything near correct you have an extremely acid
soil (too acid even for Rhododendrons to be comfortable)
Your options are,
1) Quicklime - almost unobtainable and dangerous
2) Ground limestone - persistent effect but slow acting
3)Hydrated lime - quick acting, cheap and easy to get.

Builder's merchant might be cheapest source of hydrated lime - it's not
been altered in any way for builders use and it comes in 25Kg bags.
You will need a lot. I doubt if 500gm per sq metre would do any harm, but do
it now and allow it to weather for a few weeks before doing any planting or
sowing. Measure the pH again at the end of the season and do it again if
need be. Don't apply any fertilisers or compost to the newly limed soil -
the effects counteract one another so put your fertilisers on a few days
before planting.

hth

Rod