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lime and manure

hilly333hilly333 Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Help !! im pretty new to allotment gardening . i have just dug 2 plots over and added lime along with cow manure . my next door allotment neighbour told me i should not mix lime and manure , is there anything i can do to put it right and will my plants still grow in it . Mark .

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2020
    Hello @hilly333 and welcome 😊 

    There are two reasons not to mix lime and manure ... one is that it causes a chemical reaction producing ammonia as a gas which is then lost and won’t benefit the soil. But hey ho, you’ve done it ... it won’t be the end of the world. (There’s other things causing that 😉).

    The other problem is that potatoes hate lime (it causes scab and other problems) whereas they benefit from well rotted manure, so the usual thing is to manure one area and dont lime it  so you can grow your potatoes there ...  then your brassicas go in the area which you’ve limed ... they benefit from this as lime helps stop them developing club root. 

    Then the following year you can lime the other area where the potatoes were and grow your brassicas there. They’ll benefit from the nutrition still remaining from the manure in the potato patch the previous year. 

    Does that sort of explain it?  

    Your biggest problem is that if you’ve limed your whole plot you have nowhere to grow potatoes this year. But that’s just a problem for this year ... again not the end of the world. 

    You could always grow a few potatoes in bags. 

    Hope that helps 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487

    Hi, Hilly333!  There are those much better qualified than me to offer advice and I didn't know about not mixing manure and lime.  However, I can add one little element.

    Lime comes in two forms.  One is as powder which one often sees disappearing in clouds as farmers apply it on fields in windy weather.  The other is granules which don't blow away and are much more controllable.  You'll gather I prefer the latter, the reason being that, in a normal veg plot, if one crop likes manure it can be applied to that area but, if another prefers an alkaline soil, a sprinkling of granules in the drill or dibbed hole will do the job you want it to.

    One final snippet on brassicas.  I've been told locally that, whereas most varieties benefit from an application of lime, cauliflower and sprouting broccoli achieve better 'flowers' from more acid soil, so not all brassicas are treated the same.  Perhaps one of our pundits can confirm?

  • hilly333hilly333 Posts: 2
    Dovefromabove said:
    Hello @hilly333 and welcome 😊 

    There are two reasons not to mix lime and manure ... one is that it causes a chemical reaction producing ammonia as a gas which is then lost and won’t benefit the soil. But hey ho, you’ve done it ... it won’t be the end of the world. (There’s other things causing that 😉).

    The other problem is that potatoes hate lime (it causes scab and other problems) whereas they benefit from well rotted manure, so the usual thing is to manure one area and dont lime it  so you can grow your potatoes there ...  then your brassicas go in the area which you’ve limed ... they benefit from this as lime helps stop them developing club root. 

    Then the following year you can lime the other area where the potatoes were and grow your brassicas there. They’ll benefit from the nutrition still remaining from the manure in the potato patch the previous year. 

    Does that sort of explain it?  

    Your biggest problem is that if you’ve limed your whole plot you have nowhere to grow potatoes this year. But that’s just a problem for this year ... again not the end of the world. 

    You could always grow a few potatoes in bags. 

    Hope that helps 😊 
    Hi thanks for your good advice , luckily i have only made the mistake on 3 plots of my allotment 1 of them is havimg brassicas planted in , my potatoes are safe they are in a plot with no lime on so i think ive got away with it fingers crossed . Thanks again. Mark .
  • ptahwilliamsonptahwilliamson Posts: 1
    “Manuring with Limes makes rich fathers but poor sons” Dr. Julius Hensel (1893,  book; Bread from Stones)
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