When to Use Lime, Gypsum and Elemental Sulfur

If you're an organic farmer, or you're working on reducing your reliance on manufactured fertilizers, you’re aware of how important it is to have the nutrients in our soil that crops need for good yields and quality.  We all focus a lot on calcium, not only because of how important it is to plant growth, but also because it affects the quality of the soil, and ultimately how good the feed we grow will be.  We also know that the pH of the soil (a measure of how acidic or alkaline it is) affects crop growth.  Sometimes the relationship between calcium and pH is confusing, and farmers occasionally get conflicting advice about how to handle calcium in their soils. When you get your soil test report, start by taking a look at the pH.  The pH scale is set up on a 14-point scale where 7.0 is neutral (acidity and alkalinity are perfectly balanced).  (Here's a great article from On Pasture about soil pH and why you should care.) The further the number drops below 7, the more acidic the soil is, and the higher it goes above 7, the more alkaline the soil is.  We find that most