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High-calcium lime (calcium carbonate) for squash
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Author:  carolynz [ Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:06 pm ]
Post subject:  High-calcium lime (calcium carbonate) for squash

In Howard's book, Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening, he says to add high-calcium lime (calcium carbonate) in sandy acid soils for squash cultivation. What is high-calcium lime and where do I find it?

Author:  CaptainCompostAL [ Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:35 am ]
Post subject: 

I don't know about Texas, because most of it has high alkaline native soil. Liming materials are not really needed there.

However here in Alabama, we use dolomitic limestones, or wood ashes for calcium carbonate sources. Our native soil is mostly acidic clays.

No matter where you live, if you use tons of homemade slighly undone compost in your garden beds as a mulch, and you use lots of woody materials like pine needles or sawdust in your decomposing compost mix or compost piles like I do, it's not a bad idea to sprinkle a little lime on your garden beds when you plant veggies. It will help speed up the neutralization of the mild acidicity of the woody "browns" in the compost, thus helping release more of your nutrients to your plants and soil organisms faster than normal.

The humus and aerobic microbes in any form of decomposing compost will eventually balance and buffer the local soil pH around your growing plants anyway.

Just keep feeding the soil microherd all the proteins and carbohydrates you can based on your budget or gardening style.

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