Clearing ground for pasture

[paulsharvey]

I think I saw them on the internet- I have not tried to contact them. I am curious about the water works lime you told me about. How would a guy spread that? Broadcast maybe mixed with sand?

That's what I'm not sure about. I thought it kinda came as a semi wet mass, but im not sure; never worked on the 'plant' side of water or sewer.

 

[two_bit_score]

Pine stumps can go two ways. Some can rot quickly and some can become hard as rock.

 

[LDR812]

Thanks for all the good information

 

[paulsharvey]

For you lime amendment. If you have a local quarry or masonry company you can often get the price considerably cheaper then buying pelletized but you will need either a drop spreader or a lime buggy that can be rented to spread it.
.

He is within 30 or 40 miles of maybe 3 or 4 limerock mines; MJ Stavola (northern edge of Ocala); MFM (Reddick); and what used to be SCI/Magnum Materials (northern Ocala); but my only dealings with their material was been the limerock roadbase; don't know if they sell a processed Ag lime.

 

[ponytug]

You might want to double check what you are thinking of as lime. Are you adding it to raise the pH or as a source of calcium? It makes a difference. The water plant material is likely CaCO3, calcium carbonate from lime soda water softening, and always wet. Lime, or slaked lime, is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide, much stronger alkaline material for raising the pH.

Good luck!

All the best,

Peter

 

[paulsharvey]

Spoke with a guy from Putnam Co water/sewer at a meeting this morning; they are reverse osmosis, so no lime. He did say, to the best of his knowledge, City of Ocala still uses lime at their water plants. He said the product does dry rapidly, but it does have to dry before spreading. I think it's roughly half as effective at raising PH per pound as ag lime, but it may be free, if you can haul.

 

[LDR812]

Thank you vey much Paul! I've been on the lookout for a manure spreader and I was thinking that might work well to spread the damp lime (mixed with some manure / shavings etc.). It feels like I'm running out of time - rainy season is just a few weeks away and I sure wanted to get some seed in before the rains. I know the lime is slow acting - I was hoping the ag lime would disk in and maybe not inhibit any seed sprout (leaning towards sun hemp for a legume / green manure crop). Any thoughts on that?

 

[LDR812]

You might want to double check what you are thinking of as lime. Are you adding it to raise the pH or as a source of calcium? It makes a difference. The water plant material is likely CaCO3, calcium carbonate from lime soda water softening, and always wet. Lime, or slaked lime, is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide, much stronger alkaline material for raising the pH.

Good luck!

All the best,

Peter

I actually need it for both. The soil report indicated allot of magnesium so don't need dolomite. I do need to look into the chemistry - I never really gave it much thought - just knew that adding a base raises PH but exactly what that process is? Some of the folks I've spoke to that are in the same stage of renovating fields told me that 6 or 7 months after they spread lime (mostly pelletized) that they haven't seen as much change in PH as they were looking for before planting.

 

[ponytug]

Ok, brief chemistry overview. CaO, calcium oxide, "lime", is extremely alkaline. If you add one molecule of water (H2O) to calcium oxide, you get "slaked lime", aka calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2. Most people use slacked lime because it is less corrosive and somewhat easier (safer) to handle. If you run the water plant over at, say Ocala, you would probably add CaO to hard water (that contains calcium and carbonate) that makes the water alkaline, and the solubility of the calcium carbonate goes to almost zero, and it falls out of solution as a powder or sludge that is almost pure calcium carbonate, CaCO3. Calcium carbonate is a source of calcium for fields, but it is not very alkaline.

That is actually the trouble with calcium salts. They are generally very insoluble at neutral to basic pH. So, they don't go very far in soils. So while applying pelletized "lime" is easy, the alkalinity effects do not migrate very far from the pellet, especially if the "lime" pellet is calcium carbonate, rather than slaked lime or lime.

In an ideal world, you probably want to apply lime/slacked lime powder to your field, then disk it in to disperse it, and repeat until you get the soil chemistry to where you want it to be. The details of whether you will hit enough calcium or the correct pH first will depend on the details of your soil chemistry and which of the calcium products that you apply. Your county agent probably can advise you on the desired ratios of lime/slaked lime/calcium carbonate for your fields. It may be a bit iterative, depending on your soil chemistry, so I would be prepared for a few cycles. You are doing it at the best time because you can work the calcium deep into the soil, and neutralize a larger volume of your soil for a more lasting effect.

My fertilizer spreader came with a "anti-caking" rod that extends up into the hopper specifically to breakup clumps of lime/slaked lime powder. Not all spreaders have them, but my guess is that in Florida, it is a necessity.

Does that help?

All the best,

Peter

 

[LDR812]

That all makes sense. Thank you