| Do you carry lime and if so is there a particular kind we should use? We live in St. Louis, and its just so expensive to have the lawn company do it. He said it would be $80 for the application and you cannot buy it for that. He also said there were two types, the brown and the white - only one of them is carried by harware stores. Just wanted an opinion. |
| Home Depot does carry lime and it is not as expensive as you have been lead to believe. Here's a webpage from Home Depot with a discussion of the different types of lime and how to apply it: http://www.homedepot.com/webap... It's a long address so you may want to copy and paste it into your web browser. You can purchase a 40 pound bag of garden gypsum (lime) for less than 5 dollars at Home Depot. Or Espoma, the most expensive grade of of pelletized, dolomitic limestone available, costs about $5.00 for a 5 pound bag. How much product you need to apply will depend upon your soil's current pH. Here's what you'll need: 6.6 & higher No application required; 6.0 to 6.5 you'll need 1 pound per 100 square feet; 5.5 to 6.0 2 pounds per 100 square feet; 5.0 to 5.5 4 pounds per 100 square feet; 4.5 to 5.0 5 pounds per 100 square feet. If you don't know your soil's pH you can have your soil tested or test it yourself to get an idea what you're working with. In St. Louis, most soils are formed from limestone so it?s going to be more alkaline than acidic, unless you?re in a very old Oak forest, chances are you don?t have a strong acid soil. Adding too much lime could end up being damaging to your turf. I'd strongly suggest having your soil tested. The University of Missouri Extension service has information about soil testing, how to take a sample, and what the test will cost on their website: http://extension.missouri.edu/... Hope this information is helpful (and hope it saves you some money)! |
