Bill who putters wrote:
In article ,
brooklyn1 wrote:

On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:06:50 -0400, Bob wrote:

Hello,

Live in New England, outside of Boston.

Boy, what a great season for Moss.
Never had so much.

What's a good way of ridding a grass lawn of Moss without killing
any underneath grass (assuming there's still any alive underneath
?) ?

Lime.

Confirmed. Quick acting hot (quick) followed with the larger grained
after a soil pH test. There is a name for the slow acting but I
forget.


Quick lime (AKA hot lime, calcium oxide) is quite caustic, it will burn your
eyes and skin and produces heat in contact with water forming calcium
hydroxide. Throw some into water and it will spit at you. It will damage
just about any plant not just moss and change the pH of your soil quickly
thus overturning the balance of microorganisms. Depending on how much you
put on you may harm much more than moss, you could have your very own
scorched earth policy.

Slaked lime (AKA builders lime, calcium hydroxide) is much less caustic but
will still change pH quickly. If you want fast results you can take the
risk but if you overdose you will be in trouble.

I wouldn't apply any kind of lime without a pH test first. Part of the
problem is that it is hard to know the correct rate of application because
the rate depends on both the pH and the type of soil that you have. Clay
soils take much more lime to change the pH by one unit than sand soils. If
somebody says apply X amount per area without knowing your pH and soil it is
entierly hit and miss. So the safest way is to do it progressively with
small applications and monitor the pH as you go.

If you want to make your soil less acid without the risk of shocking the
microbes or overdosing do it slowly using garden lime (AKA limestone,
calcium carbonate) or dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate).

Add chemicals to you soil in haste and repent at leisure.


David