Put down garden lime with a rotary spreader?

[dean]

I've got 10 bags of lime to spread over my lawn. Is a rotary spreader a good choice here? Do I need to be careful of clogging up the gears?

Thanks!

Dean

[dpb]

Not unless it is granulized for the purpose of spreading w/ one it won't work well. Lime tends to simply pack into a solid chunk w/ an ordinary rotary because the agitator isn't big/tough enough to break it up. I've seen the cheaper plastic ones simply strip the spinner while better ones basically just rotate and the product bridges over above them. Need a linear drop-type spreader or simply throw it out w/ a shovel and till to spread it around and even it out.

[dean]

Its a fine powder. Do you think if I sieve it, it would be ok? The powder seems to be pretty much non-lumpy as far as I can tell. I have too much area for a dropper.

[willshak]

I just put some pulverized limestone down with a Scotts drop spreader. I started out with a setting of 4 but had to jack it up to 10 before I saw an appreciable amount of limestone on the lawn. I didn't use the rotary spreader because I figured I would get more on me than the lawn. :-)

[Mac]

it'll burn the foliage. to put that kind of lime on existing grass you should mix it with water and spray it on. or get granualized lime.

[trader4]

If it's pelletized, then it can be put down with a rotary. If it's the powder type, it should be put down with a drop spreader. A rotary will not work well, it will keep clogging. You might suffer through one bag, but I would not want to try to go through 10 that way.

[Jack]

[dean]

Hide quoted text -

Didn't see the peletized form. Any my neighbor showed me the stuff he uses and its the same powdery stuff. Its cheap too!

I will try one bag with the rotary. Expecting to come back to the house looking like a ghost!

[Bob F]

If the spreader has the gears encased so the lime can't get to them, it will work fine. If the gears are visable, the lime will quickly wear them out. Avoid overloading the hopper - that stuff is heavy.

Bob