Lime for PH

Hi. According to the recent soil test I had, I need a lot of lime.

Can someone tell me the difference between these:

Pennington 30 lb. Fast Acting Lime Plus AST @ $16/bag (Home Depot)

and

Pelletized Dolomitic LawnLime 40 lbs. for $4/bag (Tractor Supply Co)

and

Sta-Green 30-lb Balance Soil at $13/bag? (Lowes)

I assume the 1st and 3rd have other stuff in it. Do I need/want the other stuff, or should I just go with the middle/cheaper option?

Thank you!

 

Door number 2, hands down. All the non pelletized lime is in powder form an will wind up in your neighbor's yard with a 2 mile per hour wind. Not sure what "balanced soil" is, but it doesn't appear to be lime. I spread lime a ton at a time using a cone spreader, and use pelletized dolomitic yearly, but in February. Now is not the ideal time to spread it.

 

Thank you. I was leaning towards #2 as well!

 

I use john green stuff. 18 lb bag covers 5000 sq ft..

MAG-I-CAL® | Lawns in Acidic Soil | Jonathan Green

Find it..

http://www.jonathangreen.com/jonatha...er-online.html

 

Interesting (the Mag-I-Cal). So it does the same thing as lime, but seems to do so at a much better price since you only need 1 bag for every 15 bags of lime that you would need. Is this correct?

My back yard is very acidic (4.5), and I have about 7,000 sq ft so, according to the soil test (which says I need 150 lbs/1,000 sq ft), I would need just over 1,000 pounds of lime (500 now and 500 in the fall). So that's 13 bags now (at 40 lbs/bag) and 13 bags later.

With Mag-I-Cal, it says that one 15M bag (45 pounds I believe) = 15 bags of lime. It further says that "If pH is 5.0 or below, apply MAG-I-CAL at 1.5 times the regular rate for three consecutive months."

I'm not really sure what they consider the 'regular rate' but, if it just means 1 bag, would I only need 1.5 bags of Mag-I-Cal now and another 1.5 each of the next two months (since it says to use a rate a rate of 1.5x)? And again, I'm using a 15,000 bag even though I only have 7,000 because I believe I need about 15 bags at a time?

Any help in figuring out how much Mag-I-Cal to use would be great.

Thanks again!

 

Importance of Soil pH | Soil Care | Jonathan Green

Example. The label says if my ph is below 6 and I have a 7500 sq ft lawn I buy the 15000 sq ft bag and go over my lawn twice. This would be on setting 5 on my scotts rotory spreader.


http://www.jonathangreen.com/wp-cont...cal-acidic.pdf

Puts down about 3.6 lbs I believe per 1000 sq ft. Twice thats 7.2 lbs per 1000 sq ft.

I would buy the 15000 sq ft bag, set my spreader to 7. run over twice. And if there is more left I would randomly spread the rest of the lawn. If theres not enough then to save money I would set the spreader to 6 maybe. Or even 5..

39 bucks and free shipping... I dont know the cost locally for you.


https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Gree...002JGRN58?th=1

I use the 5000 sq ft bag. I get local for about 14-16 bucks...

 

Thanks so much for the detailed info. I'll read it all over and probably go with this. Seems much easier than lime!

Are there any negatives to Mag-I-Cal vs. lime? Seems like a no-brainer.

 

I only use john green products.. 17 years now and overseed every year or so...

I do use spray on weed control at times, then do regular fertilizer without using the weed and feed. I get better results.

I lime twice a year with magical at the regular rate..

 

Very nice! Wish mine looked like that.

 

Question:

When I look here: http://www.jonathangreen.com/wp-cont...cal-acidic.pdf

it says: " Established Lawns: Apply 1 bag of MAG-I-CAL per 1,000 sq. ft. using the spreader setting chart below."

Is that an error? 1 bag per 1000 sq ft is a LOT of product...

 

Thats a soil food. Thats different then the magical calcium stuff I think... let me take a look..

 

Nope thats it... lol.. yes thats the link I posted..

Yes per the spreader settings. If you read below thats 3.6 lbs per 1000 ft. Your going over twice so thats 7.2 lbs per 1000 sq ft.

7.2 x 7 ( 7000 sq ft yard) 50 lb bag.

 

Its not critical to be exact. buy the bag, set the spreader and start a walking....lol

 

Sorry, I'm still confused. I agree that it says (and they told me) that the 54 lb bag covers 15,000 sq ft (give or take). And everything you mentioned makes sense as well. But by the bag saying to apply "1 bag" "per 1,000 sq ft", that implies 7 bags per 7,000 sq ft (not 1, 50 lb bag...).

In any case, I know that you're right with what you're saying, but that language on the bag doesn't make sense, right?

 

Jonathan Green told me:

"It isn’t an error but it only applies to the one pound bag. We have the label showing as a 54 lb. (15,000 sq. feet). We will correct that. Thank you and we are sorry for any confusion."

So basically it was an error (as they were showing the 1lb bag info on the 54lb bag label online).

 

Ahhh... Yup when in doubt call the manufacturer... LOL.. After all Im just a plumber... he he..

 

Hi. Quick follow-up; I just came across Solu-Cal Enhanced Calcitic Lime. It seems to be similar to Mag-i-Cal in that it only requires a few bags.

Any thoughts on Solu-Cal?

Also, as far as Mag-i-Cal vs. regular lime, does regular lime last for years and years, whereas Mag-i-Cal has to be redone year after year?

It just seems like there has to be a catch with Mag-i-Cal (and maybe Solu-Cal).

Thanks again!

 

Man getting to technical...

Lime the yard already , open a beer and sit by the pool....

You can analyse if you want. All I know is I use magical and the john green products and this is what my law looks like..

 

Thanks. I did apply Mag-i-Cal. Still waiting for mine to look like yours Mind if I ask what your usual regimen is?

 

1.fall overseed tall fesue kentucky 31. Winter survival john green, magical.
2. Spring John green crapgrass preventer and fertilizer. Magical
3.Off the shelf spectracide weed killer for lawns and john green lawn fertilizer only. ( I dont use the weed and feed granules. Not effective IMO.
4 Summer survival

I overseed every year.

I never aerate or dethach. I mow with mulcher blade.

Its not perfect but looks good on TV....LOL

 

Well done! Looks great.

Thanks again.