Lime

Can a person spread lime on a food plot once it has started to grow?

I wouldn’t. Lime is best worked into the ground before you plant. It can burn your crop if the plants have any moisture on them and it sticks to the foliage. I’d just wait until next season and add it just before you till or plow.

There wouldn’t be much point. Lime is slow to act in the soil to change Ph, so the present crop wouldn’t benefit very much, if at all. As Tom mentions, lime can harm the leaves of some plants as well.

Have you checked your new rye? Has it sprouted? I have a plot planted 2 weeks ago that is now about 4 inches high and it’s being grazed already. There was a deer standing right in the middle of it when I visited last week.

Grouse

if the lime points are really low and it needs a quick boost,you can use liquid lime or pel-lime.
as mentioned,I wouldnt put it on now,wait until spring when you work the ground for the next years crop.

Whats the best way to spread lime on a 1/2 acre plot. I was thinking of a drop spreader?

Nitrodog wrote:

Whats the best way to spread lime on a 1/2 acre plot. I was thinking of a drop spreader?

First off, you know that you need PELLETIZED lime in order to have any chance of running it through a spreader, correct? Other forms of lime like ag lime or “barn” lime, won’t flow because it’s a powder and it cakes easily and does not spread evenly. You probably knew this, but just in case someone else is reading, pelletized is the only way to go unless you have a dedicated lime spreader.
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You certainly could use a drop spreader if you have one, but they are not really a good tool for food plots. Drop spreaders would work but it would be very, very slow. Since you’re only covering a 24 inch width per pass. Also, drop spreaders tend to “pile” at every turn.

For a few years when I had small plots, I used a rotary lawn spreader like this one. The advantage is you’re covering 8-10 feet at a pass rather than 2 feet and the “spread” is very even edge-to-edge. It also works great for fertilizer and seed, so it’s worth investing in a good one.

To be honest, with a quality spreader like the link above, you could easily plant and maintain anything up to an acre in size. I know I’m poo-pooing the trend toward bigger, bigger, bigger here, but looking back on it, it took me about 15 minutes to fertilize or lime a .5 acre plot with a broadcast spreader.

Grouse

I’d do the broadcast spreader. If you have to stop suddenly while pulling a drop spreader you’ll end up with a pile of lime in one spot like Grouse has alluded to. Those little piles will burn the soil and nothing will grow there. From the standpoint of waste, broadcasting the lime is more cost worthy and covers cleaner.

Grouse-Do you need to apply pelletized lime every year or is it effective for a few years without another application?

ranger777 wrote:

Grouse-Do you need to apply pelletized lime every year or is it effective for a few years without another application?

The pellets break down quickly once they are exposed to moisture, so there is no “slow release” effect to pelletized lime. Once it gets damp, it breaks down and goes to work. I doubt it takes any measurable amount longer for the soil to absorb pelletized lime compared to ag lime.

So how often you apply it and how much you apply depends on you soil PH.

I would say, however, don’t go nuts and try to get to your ideal PH all at once. I’ve heard of guys that didn’t understand that the recommendations of X tons per acre was the TOTAL lime needed to adjust the PH to the ideal range. It is generally NOT the “apply this year” amount if you need to make a significant adjustment.

Now how long it takes for the lime to have its full effect on the soil PH is an interesting question. I apply lime in the spring when the annual plots are first worked up, so I have 1 full year between soil tests to see how much I’ve moved the PH. Personally, I’m not willing to go through the work of trying to haul and spread a “full dose” of lime for my 10-12 acres of plots because that would mean hauling, handling, and spreading tons and tons of lime, which is a lot of time and work. So I’ve been spreading about half a ton a year which means to get close to my ideal PH, I’m on kind of a 5-year program.

Grouse