Liming fairways

"Lime" is used in turfgrass management to raise the PH of soil. Lime is mined from the earth as limestone which is primarily composed of calcium carbonate. It is chemically altered and the product we use is calcium hydroxide. Due to the type of soil we have and the amount of rainfall each year the soil gets acidic over time. 7.0 is neutral on the PH scale, and ideal soil PH for growing turf in our area is between 6.0 and 7.0. We take soil tests each year and base our fertilizer program on the test results. We had not limed the fairways in several years and the PH had fallen to between 5.5 and 5.7 which is too acidic. Some nutrients including phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium get partially tied up and are not as readily available to plants at lower PH levels. To get the most bang for our buck with the fertilizer we apply, the soil PH ideally needs to be closer to 6.5. Last week was time to spread lime on fairways. We applied the lime at a rate of 20lbs/1000ft2, for a total 24,000 pounds or 12 tons. The lime is spread in the same topdressors that we use to spread sand on fairways.

The lime comes in one ton super sacks and is lifted into the topdressors with a loader.

It's a dusty job spreading the lime.

 

This is what the product looks like on the turf. It will take rainfall to dissolve the particles so the lime can move down into the soil. The process of raising soil PH is very slow and will take several months at least for any change to occur. We'll take soil tests in March of 2014 and I'll report back with the results of the PH change.