Pellet Lime vs powder lime

When the soil test says you need say 1 ton per acre does the pelletized product give the same or better effect than powdered ag lime ?

From what I've been told I think you can reduce amaount by 25% if using pellet instead of ag lime. So 3/4 of a ton should be adequate.

Possum said:

From what I've been told I think you can reduce amaount by 25% if using pellet instead of ag lime. So 3/4 of a ton should be adequate.

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I have always leaned that way myself use less pelleted lime that the test asked for. But I cant find anything in print to substantiate that.

The folks at the feed & seed store tell me pellet is better if it calls for a ton that's what I would put down really can't put down too much if I recall right it takes 1 ton of lime on 1 acre to change it 1 point hope this might have helped

Milkman said:

When the soil test says you need say 1 ton per acre does the pelletized product give the same or better effect than powdered ag lime ?

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Look on the back of the bag, maybe in small print near a corner, & there should be either a CaCO3 equivalent # or a Neutralizing Index #. The soil test is giving you the tons per acre using Ag lime. Ag lime varies in it's fineness & the amount of Calcium carbonate, but @ UGA they recommend based on a general average of lime available from our local sources, which is usually fine to use.

Pelletized & bagged lime is all dolomitic lime (at least all I have ever found is). Thus it contains Mg too. This is good if you need Mg, or if your soil is strongly acidic; not so good if you have a place like one of mine that has gumbo clay that is already too tight & sticky.

Pelletized lime has 2 big advantages: it is easy to spread using centrifugal equipment & it is ground to an extreme fineness, which means it can act quickly. It also means it is used up faster, & needs to be re-applied more often. Ag lime & bagged pulverized lime has more variability in the particle size. Bigger particles have to be broken down before they react with the soil. Pelletized lime also has binders to form the pellets that will constitute about 9-10% of its volume & mass, so you buy a little bit of inert stuff for the convenience of having pellets.

Soil Doctor used to have their label on the web where you could see the NI & CaC03 equivalent, but I can't find it now. Well as I recall, the last bag I bought said something close to 1800 lb equated to a ton of lime, but it can vary with the source. I generally tend to pretty much equate them; if my test says I need a ton & I have to use pelleted I put about a ton/ac out.

More detail if you want it from Google:

http://corn.agronomy.wisc.edu/Management/pdfs/a3671.pdf

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Agronomy/Extension/ssnv/ssvl189.htm

Thanks guys !!

I have a new log dock area that the cleared out accessible area is about 300 ft. by 60-70 ft . I am going to call it 1/2 acre. The test shows it needs 2 tons per acre so that means 1 ton.
It is where a truck cant get to since they pulled out the portable creek bridge. So I get to haul 50, 40 lb bags of lime about 350-400 yards with the tractor or 4 wheeler to the plot.

I will have to trick one of my grandsons into going with me that day and stop and buy the lime along the way

Forrest Gump, you're really smart.

If you know the Calcium Carbonate Equivalents (CCE) for both sources you can make calculations to adjust for using one or the other. Generally I think that the pelletized lime would have a higher CCE than regular ag lime. Like forrest said they are usually pretty close, so equating them would not be a bad thing (especially here in the southeast).