Why Applying Lime to the Lawn is So Important - Dees' Nursery (2024)

FAQs

Why Applying Lime to the Lawn is So Important - Dees' Nursery? ›

Balancing Your Lawn's pH Level

Nutrient accessibility: Lime makes the soil friendlier to important nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This means your grass gets the food it needs to grow strong and green. Prevents moss and weeds: Moss and weeds like acidic soil, but lime makes it less inviting for them.

Too much lime changes the soil pH and pushes it into an area where the grasses will not thrive. If you do not catch this mistake in time, the lawn will turn yellow, and the grasses can die.

Does your grass have yellow or brown spots? Lime can also cleanse the soil, remove toxicities, and infuse the ground with essential nutrients. Consequently, it often clears up common grass and turf issues, leading to a healthier and better-looking yard.

Liming will correct soil pH, unlocking nutrients and giving grass growth a boost next spring. It will also help condition the soil. However, the downside with ground lime is the time lag from application until it is working in the soil.

Even though lime includes calcium and magnesium, which are essential nutrients for healthy plant growth, it's not a substitute for fertilizer. Lime's primary role is to alter soil pH and offset soil acidity, which can improve the availability of plant nutrients.

Lime (limestone) is a material that's heavy in calcium and powerful tool in yard care used to help balance soil acidity. Lime can not be used to kill weeds. While it works to balance the pH of your soil, it may inadvertently make the space less desirable for weeds to grow.

You can also apply lime in early spring. Don't apply lime when your lawn is frost-covered or wilted. And always water the lawn after applying the lime to wash the lime off the grass blades and allow it to make contact with the soil.

In general, it's best not to apply lime, seed and fertilizer at the same time. You typically want to apply agricultural lime before fertilizer for acidic soil, or fertilizer before lime for nutrient-deficient soil. Seed comes after either one or both.

What month is best to apply lime to a yard? ›

The winter or very early spring is the best possible time to apply lime to your lawn—lime can burn growing grass, so you'll want to make sure you apply it after the growing season has ended but before the new growth of spring.

Another flavor that dandelions dislike is calcium. Most of our soils in this area are fairly low in calcium, making it especially inviting to dandelions. Sprinkling a calcium source like high-calcium lime can help deter these sunny opportunists, as well.

Applying fertilizer and lime at the same time is common. There is usually no reason why you can't use them together. Your lawn care expert should prescribe a specific lime and fertilizer application schedule and just the right products to boost your lawn's health.

Adding lime to soil raises the pH so it becomes less acidic. Lime can 'green-up' a lawn. The best way to determine whether or not your soil needs liming is to test its pH. The target pH level of turf grass, for example, is between 6.2 and 6.5, so if your soil has a lower pH it will likely benefit from adding it.

Using too much lime on your lawn will remove the acidity from the soil, but it will also make it too alkaline for your grass to thrive. This will cause yellowing grass that is also not able to absorb vital moisture and nutrients from the soil around it.

Lime is designed to modify the sol pH, and has no impact on mushrooms. It can definitely help your lawn, but will not get rid of the fungi.

Once you've applied lime to correct your soil's pH, chances are you will not have to re-lime for several years.

Applying fertilizer and lime at the same time is common. There is usually no reason why you can't use them together. Your lawn care expert should prescribe a specific lime and fertilizer application schedule and just the right products to boost your lawn's health.

Agricultural lime takes time to affect the soil. If you need the lime to improve your soil for your next round of crops, it's best to apply the lime at least six months before you start seeding. The most effective time to apply lime is before it rains.