Gran Lime vs Ground Lime

farmer2018

Whats peoples thoughts on granular lime vs ground lime? I want to lime a few small paddocks and would not need a full lorry load. Is the granular lime a waste of time?

Gudstock

farmer2018 wrote: »

Whats peoples thoughts on granular lime vs ground lime? I want to lime a few small paddocks and would not need a full lorry load. Is the granular lime a waste of time?

I used it last year on black peaty ground, very happy with the results.
I know I'll have to top up annually depending, but I found ground lime on this type of black ground makes it very soft. Difficult to get ground lime spread in small quantities or at low rates here.

farmer2018

Gudstock wrote: »

I used it last year on black peaty ground, very happy with the results.
I know I'll have to top up annually depending, but I found ground lime on this type of black ground makes it very soft. Difficult to get ground lime spread in small quantities or at low rates here.

Yes that's the problem, needs to be 20 tonne.

_Brian

We’ve used the granular and it works, isn’t there one now that lasts two years.

Ground lime doesn’t suit here either.

Hard Knocks

_Brian wrote: »

We’ve used the granular and it works, isn’t there one now that lasts two years.

Ground lime doesn’t suit here either.

Does it make the ground too soft?

Put out 1B/Ac Gran lime last year and was hoping to try ground lime this year.

Land is channel with little soil on top

_Brian

We found no problems

Hard Knocks

_Brian wrote: »

We found no problems

Sorry, meant what problems did you find with ground lime that it doesn’t suit your farm

The Real Elmer Fudd

Has any one used Granulated lime while reseeding? And how wer the results? Have a couple of fields to do this spring and they all run right up to the dwelling house on all sides. Ground lime could just leave a lot of cleaning to be done

hopeso

farmer2018 wrote: »

Yes that's the problem, needs to be 20 tonne.

Any hope of sharing a load with a neighbour who has a coupe of similar sized fields to do?

hopeso

I tried the gran lime once. It's a good few years ago now, but it was a bloody disaster. The agitator in the bottom of my wagtail shaker turned the grains into dust and blocked the outlets. I had to bucket the whole load out and refill the shaker with about two or three bags at a time. Even then, with the outlets fully open, it would still clog in the bottom of the shaker. I don't know if I got a bad batch, or if they improved it since, but I certainly haven't tried it again.....

older by the day

I suppose a lorry of lime is 20 Euro a ton. 5 a ton to spread. A ton of gran lime is ??. At 2 or 3 ton to the acre. Sher it would not go far. Gran works out expensive in my view

_Brian

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Sorry, meant what problems did you find with ground lime that it doesn’t suit your farm

It’s a logistical issue.
Local spreaders all massive equipment, small fields tight access etc.

Just handier to manage with gran.

Siamsa Sessions

I was thinking of spreading some gran-lime on a 6-acre field here in the coming weeks and was quoted €175/ton for it last week, mostly because I didn't get ground lime spread due to the wet weather back in Oct/Nov.

However, I think I'll wait and put 3 ton/acre of ground lime on it as there's another field (2 acres) will be re-seeded when the weather dries up in March/April.

That'll take us up over the 20-ton minimum order. It's getting late then but better late than never.

Having said that, I'm also thinking of ordering some gran-lime and keeping certain paddocks/fields topped up here and there. The ground is wet in those I have in mind and I'm hoping keeping the pH closer to 7 will help reduce rushes coming back.

Back of a fag box numbers:

Ground lime: €25/ton (spread for you) x 3 ton/acre = €75/acre - but you need to order 20 ton so minimum purchase = €500. This would do for, say, 5 years

Gran-lime: €175/ton (spread yourself) x 150kg/acre = €26/acre - but you might need to do it every year, so over 5 years, that'd be €130/acre

hopeso

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I was thinking of spreading some gran-lime on a 6-acre field here in the coming weeks and was quoted €175/ton for it last week, mostly because I didn't get ground lime spread due to the wet weather back in Oct/Nov.

However, I think I'll wait and put 3 ton/acre of ground lime on it as there's another field (2 acres) will be re-seeded when the weather dries up in March/April.

That'll take us up over the 20-ton minimum order. It's getting late then but better late than never.

Having said that, I'm also thinking of ordering some gran-lime and keeping certain paddocks/fields topped up here and there. The ground is wet in those I have in mind and I'm hoping keeping the pH closer to 7 will help reduce rushes coming back.

Back of a fag box numbers:

Ground lime: €25/ton (spread for you) x 3 ton/acre = €75/acre - but you need to order 20 ton so minimum purchase = €500. This would do for, say, 5 years

Gran-lime: €175/ton (spread yourself) x 150kg/acre = €26/acre - but you might need to do it every year, so over 5 years, that'd be €130/acre

Is 3 ton/acre not excessive? I always thought not more than 2 ton/acre at any one time....

Siamsa Sessions

hopeso wrote: »

Is 3 ton/acre not excessive? I always thought not more than 2 ton/acre at any one time....

True - 2 ton at a time is the advised rate.

All depends on the soil structure and the pH I guess re how much is needed and how often it needs to be spread. Lots of moving variables. Gran lime works faster too apparently so you could get a quicker result.

As with everything, if there was one sure way of doing a thing, then everyone would be do it that way and there'd be no market for other options.

farmer2018

Do you really need to spread granular lime every year?

So people are of the opinion granular lime works better in peaty soils?