Is Liming Organic?

[WitchypooNo2]

Coz the bloke on the plot next to us has HUGe cabbages and he said he manured then Limed..........but this is the man who emptied a bucket of industrial strength weedkiller down the side of our plot to "Help us out" with our bind weed problem So is it ?

[Muddypause]

I'd be very surprised if it's not organic. In the form of calcium carbonate, it is simply a form of naturally occuring limestone, which around here is found in great abundance in pretty well every garden.

Lime is not really a manure or fertiliser, but is usually applied to balance an over-acid soil, and perhaps help improve a heavy clay soil. But in doing this, it can help a plant absorb more nutrients. Even applied in the form of calcium hydroxide (slaked, or hydrated lime) I can't really see it being prohibited in an organic environment. But there's probably not much need for it unless your soil ph is out of kilter.

[Wombat]

Lime is used to provide calcium and adjust pH. Yep WP2 it is "organic". If you wanted to you could make your own by burning sea shells in a lime kiln then slaking (or slacking) it with water.

Nev

[kevin m.]

Coz the bloke on the plot next to us has HUGe cabbages and he said he manured then Limed..........

Never manure and Lime at the same time,because a chemical reaction occurs which robs the manure of it's Nitrogen content.
I normally manure my intended Brassica bed in late autumn/early winter,then Lime the following Spring.

[albert onglebod]

I limed my brassica bed with ground down egg shells.
The brassicas seem quite happy.
I suppose you could use chalk powder too.

[debbie]

We are just about to lime our fields but then we have a ph of 4....vinegar was the expression used by the guy that tested for us. You can now get a lime with natural seawead extract which really helps mineral absorbsion (so they tell me) on land like ours and reduces the need for fertilising.

[Muddypause]

Not sure about the chalk powder. If you mean the sort of stuff that gymnasts and weightlifters use on their hands, I'm pretty sure that is chalk in name only, and is actually a form of magnesium. Similarly (according to some banal quiz on the telly recently), the chalk used on snooker cues is some form of silica, IIRC. Blackboard chalk is actually gypsum (plaster of paris), which does occur naturally, or is a by-product from power stations, and is also used to plaster walls with. Gypsum is a form of calcium, but I don't know if it would be any good on the soil. I would guess that the chalk they use to mark out tennis courts, etc. is also some type of calcium.

But I think, generally, liming the soil is usually done with either calcium carbonate (naturally occuring lime, or chalk) or calcium hydrate (burnt and slaked lime).

[Wombat]

G'Day Stew,

Gypsum is great for clay soils, it helps brak them down without changing pH. So if you want to add calcium but you pH is OK the gypsum (calcium sulphate) is the way to go.

Burnt lime is CaO - Calcium oxide
Slaked lime is Ca(OH)2 - Calcium hydroxide
Agricultural lime is CaCO3 - Calcium Carbonate

Nev

[Boots]

Have just tried chasing up a conversation I had with a bio-agricultural scientist a while back and can't find it. This guy was really helpful when I was undertaking an orchard revamp.

His advice to me, was to seek out CC3 (Calcium Carbonate) and under no circumstances settle for anything else. I do remember him saying something about the number referring to the 'grain' - in that 3 meant very fine, so that it would dissolve/absorb quickly. He felt that the larger particles and other forms of Calcium led to problems in that they were slow to release or disperse or something, and when they did they tended to majorly mess with soil balance. For this reason, Calcium Carbonate was considered organic - but traditional lime that was used for many years(the stuff used in concrete and to treat fleas) wasn't.

Wish I could find it, but I think that was the crux of it.

[hedgewizard]

I've been using dolomite because it has magnesium in it too. Brassicas like manure but hate acid soil, so you have to correct the pH now and again (although possibly not every year). I'm ambivalent about brassicas because of the space they take up and the length of time they're there for - and also because I spent an hour squidging caterpillars last night. Good grief!

[Wombat]

G'Day Hedgie!

Yeah I use dolomite too! Two for the proce of one!

Nev