Re: Perfect Orchard-Calcium

[Allan Balliett]

Dorothy, et al -

If you get a good soil test, like one from Jerry Brunetti http://www.agri-dynamics.com or Joel at Logan Labs, the recommendations for lime will be layed right for you: you'll know if you need dolomite or if you need high-calcium lime. A good soil test interpreter will also look at your overall test and decide if you can get jumpstarted by using some (or a lot of!) gypsum.

The issue for me is being able to trust the source of my lime. Southern States here in the South East US just doesn't think tere is any reason that I need to know that the lime is anything but lime. We bought our high calcium lime in 50 lb bags from Doug Brit of Ag-Life. It's expensive that way, but at least we knew what we were getting. I've also been advised to ask anyone selling lime where their quarry is and could I get a state analysis of their lime. Apparently, a lot of lime is contaminated by heavy metals and that will show up in one of these reports.

As everyone knows, I worked in a hellish situation last summer. (I growing food for 160 families on soil that had been supporting no-till conventional ag for the previous 30 years) We needed a lot of lime to reach our Albrecht goals. I bought the finest talc-like lime I could buy. I still had lots of weird plant problems and never ever felt that foliars for CT applications were effective. Graham of Nutri-Tech at ACRES pointed out that I couldn't possibly have adequate accessible lime in one season and that I should have moved to liquid calcium in my situation. I realize that this is not a certificable organic substance, but I also understand that it is considered to be a safe amendment by many responsible sustainable growers, particularly those who push for hi-BRIX plant quality. I'd like to experiment with liquid Calcium in my 2003 gardens. Does anyone know where or how to buy it in the US?

I'm looking for more advice on buying field lime, also.

-Allan