Should you be putting lime on your lawn? Ete discusses what lime is, what it does for your lawn, how to know if your lawn needs it, and how to apply it if it does.
Transcript:
Hey, hey what is up everyone? This is Ete with another episode of Eco Lawn Science. Before we start, I just want to give my best wishes out there for anyone who is being impacted by this coronavirus. Obviously it's a crazy time out there. Yeah, it's found its way into our small town here in this little mountain valley. So we're kind of on lockdown, but I'm just praying and wishing the best for those who have been affected by it, those family members and friends of those who have actually been affected by the disease, and also all those just on a business standpoint who may be struggling, having to shut their doors, wondering how the heck are we gonna pay our bills. It is a bit scary and so I wish the best for you and I am hopeful, you know, as we're just about to hit spring, we're starting to get warmer temperatures. The lawns are starting to wake up a bit and the plants are starting to come alive and you know, it just feels like a renewal or rebirth of this time of year. And I hope that that can, that feeling that nature is bringing, can carry into the economy and to all of those that are struggling with this thing.
But either way, we continue on with the show. Well, we're, we don't have much more to do. We're pretty much locked inside these days. And so I want to do another episode. So let's, let's just keep things going. Episode 31: we're going to talk about lime. I had a client ask me, "do I need to lime my lawn?" And the answer to that is, it depends on where you are and it depends on what your soil needs. So quickly, a little backstory, no, back history on what lime is.
So lime is a soil amendment and it comes from limestone rock. They ground it up and it usually has high calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate. And so when you add this to your soil under your lawn, basically it will increase the soil's pH making it less acidic and more alkaline. So if you have an acidic soil, significantly acidic, then–if it's slightly acidic, it might not be a problem–but if you have significant acidic soil in where you're trying to grow, whether it's a crop, whether it's a plant, a lawn, that's where lime can come into play. And then you get the benefits from the carbon and the magnesium.
Now it's not a fertilizer, it doesn't replace fertilizer. You still need to have a good fertilization program. But it is a soil amendment. And the key there is, you have to start with the soil and get it right.
Because what happens is if your pH is way insanely off, either high or low, that's going to react on how your lawn can utilize what you're doing. So if your pH is extremely acidic, a lot of the fertilizers, even the natural rain, things like that, they're not being properly utilized. So by getting that pH balance correct and dialed in, the health of your lawn and its ability to really utilize that fertilizer and everything else, will take off.
So of course, you know, the question is "do I need to apply lime?" Well, I can't answer that yet. I have to have a soil sample. On average, you know, it depends on where you are in the country and what type of grass, what type of soil you have. But on average lawns need to be somewhere around 6 to 7 on a pH scale.
I mean if you're at 5.8 and your area requires 5.8, that's okay. Sometimes 5.8 to 7.2 . But for the sake of simpleness, we're going to say somewhere around 6 to 7 is where you want to have your lawn and cool season grasses are going to be slightly higher.
And so how do you find out? Basically you could take a soil sample. There are pH testers, there's all kinds. I used to use these ones, they're about 400 bucks and you'd go out and you test different clients' lawns. But they were tricky. You had to wipe it off with these film in between every time it touched dirt, otherwise the results would be inaccurate. I have found that trying to use that over and over, it wasn't what I wanted. It was a lot of work and I think I didn't love what I was getting, the experience.
So I ended up using a lab. You can use your state's lab, your extension lab for the university, or there are individual soil testing labs. And so what's going to happen is you're gonna take the samples. If you send it to the lab, they're going to send it back and there's going to be a level, it's going to say pH and, and then it's going to say, if it's significantly off, it's usually going to have some type of correction path guidelines. So let's say you're trying to get your soil at 6 and a half and you get it back and it says the pH is at 4 and a half and you go, holy cow, we're way off. We got to get up significantly. That's where lime comes in. And usually your results will say, okay to correct this, start by putting 10 pounds of lime per thousand square foot, or whatever it may say.
And so you'll just start by, you'll follow those instructions. Now the lime itself is very heavy. It's like, Oh man, it's basically ground up little rock, stone, dirt things. And is that a term, "rock, stone, dirt things?" I think that's a, I think that's an official term. But they're heavy and they're sometimes back-breaking. I remember back in the day in Jersey we did a little lawn, it was like 5,000 square foot, got the soil analysis, and it was like, it needed 10,000–no, it was like 20,000 pounds of lime per thousand. So I mean we used like 5 or 6 bags, you know. So it was a lot of work physically. But the results were great.
I would say this, if you get the result, you need the lime. So fall is going to be one of my favorite times to lime. You could do it in the spring, but fall is great cause you have a lot of natural moisture. It can help break it down.
And so what I would say is, let's say you're trying to get the pH up. Do what the recommendation...So let's say it says 10,000. Let's say you need 10 pounds per thousand square feet. I would start there, and then apply the lime by the recommended rates and then wait about a month, let it all settle in and then see where you're at maybe in late October. And then if, let's say you're closer, but you're still not there, I would wait until spring, then do the next treatment. I don't know if I'd jump right on it and just keep working on it. I would wait. Let it all settle in, let it break down, wait until spring, do another pH test and then make your adjustment and then do another pH test. And eventually what will happen is you'll get that pH to a point where it's close and then you'll just test once a year and you'll find that if you're doing the proper program and proper liming, you'll find that it just needs slight adjustments. So maybe it's only 3 pounds per thousand and then maybe it's an annual thing of a slight adjustment.
You know, your pH will change everything. Think about it. Everything that impacts your lawn has its own pH, whether you have pine needles that break down and fall into the soil, whether you have, you know, different pHs in the rain or the irrigation, all these things. But usually they don't get too, too out of whack. Once you get it pretty dialed in, you get yourself kind of a regular program. Might be once a year in the fall, you find out your effective rate and you get your lime in and you'll notice a big difference. Cause your lawn will be able to use everything else. You're doing so much better. You do have to, if you over-lime, you can actually injure your grass. I don't, I've never seen a lawn killed, but I have seen it turn yellow-y and really stress from over-liming.
So there, there is a bit of science to it and I recommend starting with the pH test and then, and then moving forward and just kind of taking it slow, realizing you worked with nature, you're working with living organisms, so don't just try to blast it all out in one shot, just break it up. Yeah, so it's a good product. You know, a lot of times in Utah we don't have as much acidic soil, but I know back East, that was really off. And so different parts of the country are going to require different amounts of lime. Some will not require any.
And so anyway, I hope this helps a little bit about lime. If you have any questions, just go ahead and shoot, shoot me an email. I'd love to help out. Hope you have a great day and please stay safe out there.
