On Nov 5, 12:57*pm, Shanghai wrote:
On 11/4/2011 7:57 PM, Frank wrote:





On Nov 3, 7:44 am,
wrote:
On Nov 2, 4:52 pm, *wrote:

Hi all - I'm in NW Florida, and I've been fighting crabgrass& *Virginia
buttonweed since Hurricane Ivan blessed us a while back. Most of the
weeds are around the edge of my yard, at the concrete. I recently read
that both weeds were indicators of low calcium. My question is what's
the best way to apply calcium? TIA.

I don;t know about the Virginia Buttonweed, but crabgrass
grows just fine in all kinds of soil, including soil with normal
calcium levels. *You can have the soil tested to find out
what, if anything, it needs. *I would do that before embarking
on any calcium addition.

Calcium in the form of limestone, lime or slaked lime is generally
used to raise pH.
Never heard of the element itself as lacking.

Got the info from 'The Organic Lawn Care Manual'. I took soil samples to
the local extension service a couple years ago and wound up putting lime
down per their recommendation, but that was to raise PH, not fight any
specific type of weed. Guess I'll be visiting them again.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

There is plenty of stuff printed as fact that is just crap.
And if they are saying having crabgrass is an indication of
too little calcium in the soil, I say that's nonsense. If low
calcium is the cause of crabgrass, then most of the lawns
out there would have to be low in calcium. Fact is
crabgrass, like most weeds, grows in a wide variety of
soil conditions, it easily establishes itself. And in lawns in
huge areas of the country it's necessary to routinely put
down a pre-emergent to prevent crabgrass. That's what
we do here in the northeast. Not sure what the correct
practice is for FL, but I would look into that aspect of it.