We are often asked: Why spread Lime? The answer is that when soil pH is too acidic, lime is the best way to bring soil pH into optimum range. Getting pH into optimum range is very important because soil pH regulates the natural nutrient availability in the soil. If your soil pH is too low, most nutrients needed for growth are not available to the plant. Think about soil as your nutrient bank account. If your pH is out of range you do not have access to the nutrients in your soil bank. Even if you add fertilizer (put a deposit into the soil bank) the plants can still not access the nutrients until pH is within optimum range.
If you spread fertilizer without first correcting pH you are wasting fertilizer. The chart below summarizes fertilizer wasted based on soil pH:
As you can see from this chart, pH is the last thing we should let slip. Unfortunately it is usually the first. Your goal is to keep the soil in the sweet spot or optimum range all year and every year. For most soils, this can be hard to do when liming once every 5 to 6 years.
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