Garden Lime Question

[Wilson]

I've recently purchased a 2.5KG bag of "Garden Lime" from Richgro. From my experience so far, Lime is made of Calcium compounds and is a flowing, white powder. With the stuff i have, not only is it not the nice lime that i wanted, its not quite "powdered", is coarse, has some strange black particles and what seems to be some sand in it. Shouldn't have been a cheapskate and purchased the cheaper type...

Does anybody have any experience with this brand and this type of "Lime"? Is it normal for it to be like this or should i go back to Bunnings and get a refund?

[blank]

Richgro is a totally reputable company supplying product throughout Australia. I haven't used their lime, but would be very surprised to learn that it was sub-standard. Lime comes in many forms--if Richgro reckon their variety works, I would want to have a damn good reason to disbelieve them.

[William W. Plummer]

I believe you got some "powdered limeSTONE". This is very common but it is almost totally ineffective. It is simply ground up seashells and they are very slow to disolve. After all, statues and fascades for buildings are made out of limestone.

You really want lime, CaO. The anhydrous version is very caustic -- the kind of stuff the murderer gets rid of the body with! Or, more commonly, what was used in outhouses. You can usually find hydrated lime at tile supply stores. It's about $5 for a 50 lb bag.

Buy a pH test kit and use it before and a month after to measure the difference.

[bamboo]

Relax, garden lime is ground up limestone or dolomite. And it takes about a half year to show any difference in the soil.

You really don't want hydrated lime or quicklime as you will either lose and eye, burn your skin or kill your established plants.

If you need something that acts a bit faster use some clean wood ashes.

[Chookie]

I've used builder's lime (ie hydrated) in garden beds. I wouldn't throw it around established plants as it doesn't mix in readily, but if you are digging over an empty vegie patch, it's not a problem. I think you dig it in at one cup per sq metre, depending on how much you want to raise the pH. The Sydney clay belt, where I garden, tends to be quite acidic (I measured it under my Dad's lawn as 3 once!).

[China]

Thet did you a favour and sold you 'dolomite lime', because they thought you wanted to put it on your garden.

p.s. Amateurs built the Ark. It took professionals to build the Titanic!