What Lime To Use With A Fertilizer Spreader?

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:30 pm

Floor lime guarantees consistent and high quality through strict specifications regarding ingredients, fineness and regular controls.

Soil lime products

biocompatible: carbonated lime (with S, Mg, P), Dolo 40 (with S), natural gypsum powder, special mixtures

non-biodegradable: mixed lime (with S, Mg), quicklime 0-4mm, special mixtures

Dry limes are dry floury limes. Dry limes are delivered in silo trucks, in big bags or as bagged goods. Due to their large surface area, fine-ground limes have an optimum contact effect.

Handling logistics (dry lime silo) are required for spreading loose goods. Spreading is carried out by means of an auger spreader. Large-area spreaders enable spreading over widths of 6-12 m, with the lowest possible dust formation, exact metering and uniform distribution. Only well adjusted auger spreaders ensure optimal lateral distribution on arable land or grassland.

Large units are also ideally suited for direct filling at the edge of the field by the silo truck – this saves intermediate storage in (mobile) silos on site, travel distances are reduced and costs are cut.

Wet limes

biocompatible: Carbonated lime (with S, Mg, P), Dolo 40 (with S), special mixtures

non-biodegradable: wet lime 43, black lime

Moist limes are naturally moist or subsequently moistened, ground lime and dolomite rocks which, in contrast to dry products, are delivered by dump truck and unloaded directly at the field without silo facilities. This saves time and travel distances.

Especially in areas where the infrastructure for spreading dry limes is not available, the wet limes represent an interesting and cost-effective alternative for spreading larger quantities of lime.

Wet limes are mostly applied by means of combination spreaders (lime and fertilizer), but also with universal spreaders (lime, manure, compost), e.g. Tebbe.

Carbonic acid wet limes can also be mixed with manure and applied in one operation in the course of manure spreading.

Granules

biocompatible: lime granules, lime granules S, lime granules Mg, lime granules Mg30, lime granules P15, Biophos, natural gypsum granules

Granules are regranulated, previously finely ground flours or mixtures of lime, dolomite, gypsum, raw phosphate and siliceous rocks in a grain size of 2-6 mm. They are offered loose in 600- or 1,000-kilogram disposable BigBags with inliners and in 25-kilogram PE bags. Granules allow dust-free, precisely metered application with the farm’s own fertilizer spreader.

They are ideally suited for use in arable farming and grassland, but also as lime compensation in fertilizer mixing systems and for small-structured special crops such as fruit and vegetable growing.

The granules can be spread at any time before or after the application of fertilizer without the risk of lime-related nitrogen losses.

All soil lime granules are biosuitable.

Granulated quicklime

not biosuitable: quicklime 1-3 mm, quicklime 3-8 mm

Granulated quicklimes in grain sizes 1-3 and 3-8 mm can also be easily spread using the company’s own mineral fertilizer spreader and precisely placed on large spreading widths. They are offered loose in 600- or 1,000-kilo disposable BigBags with inliners and in 25- or 50-kilo PE bags.

Quicklime not only makes the soil more resilient, but more importantly, it creates a larger internal soil surface area for microorganism colonization, faster soil warming and aeration, and increased water holding capacity of the soil.

The infiltration capacity by quicklime is best increased when it is shallowly incorporated (a few cm) into the soil. When liming with quicklimes, there should be one tillage operation between a slurry or manure application to the field.

Slurry limes

biocompatible: liquid manure lime, liquid manure lime S, natural gypsum meal

Liquid manure lime enables the simultaneous application of liquid manure and lime. This keeps the pH value of the soil in the optimal range. Additional liming is not necessary – saving time and money.

Liquid manure lime is a finely ground, acid-soluble, carbonic acid lime with an additional 2% sulfur in the form of gypsum, if desired. In Soil Lime Natural Gypsum, sulfur is contained entirely as calcium sulfate and is therefore permitted for mixing into the slurry.

The natural pH value of the liquid manure of pH 7.0-8.5 is not increased by liquid manure lime. Therefore, no increased nitrogen outgassing occurs as a result of adding slurry lime to the slurry. Slurry lime is ideal for slurry with structural material (more than 5% dry matter) such as cattle, pig and biogas slurry.

Slurry lime is delivered directly to the farm in a silo tank truck. The slurry lime is injected via a hose and pipe in the area of the running mixer.

It is important to mix the slurry well before delivery and to continue mixing it well during injection into the slurry pit. The lance should be placed towards the slurry mixer to ensure optimal mixing.

Due to the high fineness of the lime, there is no risk of sinking in the slurry when used correctly.

Calculating Lime Fertilization Correctly: 11 Tips For Liming And Saving Costs

Proper liming is important for any soil management.

replenish withdrawal with maintenance liming

The actual lime requirement of the soil is only available through regular soil tests. As a rule, they must be carried out in crop rotation or every four years.

In the case of maintenance liming, in which only the withdrawal is supplemented, the following amounts are necessary as a rule of thumb every three years:

on light soils about 10 to 12 dt/ha CaO
on heavy soils about 13 to 15 dt/ha CaO

replenish extractions regularly

Harvesting removes varying amounts of nutrients from the soil. To maintain soil fertility and high-quality yields, these must be replenished regularly because the soil supply is insufficient.

Lime is often treated as a stepchild. This leads to soil acidification and lower yields.

maintain soil fertility

Lime counteracts the ongoing soil acidification and thus the associated structural deterioration and impoverishment of soil life. Calcium oxide (CaO) promotes the stability of the soil structure.

Balanced soil health can only be achieved with appropriate lime fertilization. It is part of every arable farming strategy as a component of good professional practice.

selective reintroduction of extractions

As yields continue to rise, between 27 kg and 75 kg CaO/ha is removed from the soil each year in the case of cereals and over 100 kg CaO/ha in the case of beets, grassland and forage, depending on the crop and yield. These losses must be regularly returned to the soil. 5.

It is essential to compensate for leaching

After precipitation, between 100 and 1,000 kg/ha of CaO are washed out per year. The losses depend on precipitation depth, permeability, water storage capacity, location and lime content.

Increased acids are introduced into the soil with precipitation and acid rain. At least 85 to 100 ka CaO/ha are required to compensate for these.

take into account lime-consuming fertilizers.

Another cause of soil acidification are high amounts of physiologically acidic fertilizers. They constantly lower the pH value of the soil. A whole series of fertilizers, especially those containing nitrogen, have a negative lime value.

neutralize acidity in the soil

If base fertilizers are incorporated too deeply, processes that promote acid formation occur in the soil due to the lack of oxygen. Neutralization requires 20 to 280 kg CaO/ha.

Even when liquid manure is used, lime must be added for neutralization. Annual lime losses can be estimated at about 300 to 600 kg CaO/ha, which must be compensated.

choose date according to weather conditions

Lime can be applied all year round if the weather is right, as long as it does not rain and the soil is not too wet. For the best effect, lime must be mixed with the soil.

The most favorable period is just after the harvest of early crops. This date is also advantageous from the point of view of labor economy and fertilization, for example, for large-area spreaders as well as for inter-farm machinery.

Correct conversion of carbonate and oxide forms

Since lime applications are always given in the oxide form as CaO in the advisory recommendations, the carbonate form CaCO3 must be converted to the oxide form CaO. The following applies to the conversion:

CaCO3 content x 0.56 = CaO
CaO content x 1.785 = CaCO3
CaO content x 0.715 = Ca

The same applies to the magnesium content:
MgO content x 1.391 = CaO
MgCO3 content x 0.667 = CaO
MgCO3 content x 0.478 = MgO
MgCO3 content x 0.288 = Mg

compare prices exactly

All forms of lime can be used for liming. It is often worthwhile to choose even low-priced forms.

Earth-moist lime with 80% CaCO3 plus 25% magnesium is around 3.50 euros/dt plus VAT, and quicklime with 85% CaO is 13 euros/dt plus VAT.

observe organic regulations

Organic farms must not forget to lime their land regularly. However, only prescribed lime fertilizers may be applied for this purpose.