Making the lawn more alkaline

[EricTh]

 

Does anyone know what Calcite Lime is called in Thai? My lawn is too acidic and I need to put some alkaline into it .

[KhunBENQ]

3 hours ago, EricTh said:

Calcite Lime

Didn't know the term but if I got it right it's basically calcium lime?

Calcium in Thai is basically just a transcript (แคลเซียม).

I found a product that is obviously for regulating acidity (PH value).

It's simply named:

ปูนแคลเซียม

as Thai does not know an "l" at syllable end it will sound like an "n":

bpoon kaen-siiam

That is the product I found on shopee.

If you take the picture people should know what you look for:

(98.2 % calcium, 1.8% "other nutrients"?)

 

https://shopee.co.th/ปูนขาวปรับสภาพดิน-น้ำ-เกรดA-แคลเซียมคาร์บอเนต---ปูนขาวโรยสนาม-ขนาด-1-กก--i.79902297.5736828122?gclid=CjwKCAjwh5qLBhALEiwAioods2dWQM6wTTs8PatMla-GQVQ9A5Dlgq7josT8lldcwZvtOZvzsQQGJBoC9UAQAvD_BwE

[KhunBENQ]

If you google the term ปูนแคลเซียม, you will find a lot of entries from home stores etc. for "soil improvement".

Maybe stuff with other components/percentages ("dolomite").

[digbeth]

the condition of acidic soil is ดิน เปรี้ยว 'Din Preaw' literally sour(ed) soil

ปูนขาว 'white motar' is also used but can be imprecise as it could mean anything from lime to calcium oxide or calcium carbonate

[Chris.B]

.

[drtreelove]

On 10/14/2021 at 6:42 PM, digbeth said:

the condition of acidic soil is ดิน เปรี้ยว 'Din Preaw' literally sour(ed) soil

ปูนขาว 'white motar' is also used but can be imprecise as it could mean anything from lime to calcium oxide or calcium carbonate

Imprecise is too polite. I would add possible misinformation, mislabeling and blatant deception in product descriptions.  

 

Eric, what are you considering as too acidic and how did you determine this, pH alone, or a complete soil analysis. Because to try and alter soil chemistry and the underlying factors for imbalances, there is much more to it.  Adding lime alone could create futher imabalance, if Calcium is not the primary factor.  Consider why is the soil low pH and is this consistent throughout the year, or only now in rainy season where leaching of other cations and decomposition of soil organic matter may be at a peak. 

 

The four major causes for soils to become acid:

Rainfall and leaching

Acidic parent material

Organic matter decay

Harvest of high yielding crops

Nitrification of ammonium

The above causes of soil acidity are more easily understood when we consider that a soil is acid when there is an abundance of acidic cations (pronounced cat-eye-on), like hydrogen (H⁺) and aluminum (Al³⁺) present compared to the alkaline cations like calcium (Ca²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), potassium (K⁺), and sodium (Na⁺).

 

[farmerjo]

Boon khow = lime in Thai?

[EricTh]

6 hours ago, drtreelove said:

 

Eric, what are you considering as too acidic and how did you determine this, pH alone, or a complete soil analysis.

 

 

It's a long story but I'll keep it short. A wandering cat seems to like my house and comes to s-h-i-t-t around the grass lawn every night when I go to sleep.

 

My neighbour suggested that I put vinegar into the lawn because cats don't like the smell. It did the trick but it also killed my grass lawn after one or two days.

 

My neighbour didn't tell me about this side effect so I have to redo my lawn again.

 

So I need to increase the PH again.

[drtreelove]

I recommend that you not try to alter the pH with lime, but allow the soil chemistry to balance out naturally. The acidity from a single vinegar application will be rapidly leached with the rain we are having in CM.

The grass dieback may just be a foliar burn, and not a major affect on soil pH, .  Did you actually test the soil pH or just assume it was altered?

A pH of  5.5 to 7 may not be a problem for re-establishing the grass. In fact it may come back on its own from the existing root system if you give it a little more time. 

Using a complete organic fertilizer will do more for creating a balanced soil chemistry than using a single concentrated component like lime. 

[drtreelove]

21 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Boon khow = lime in Thai?

The problem is, from my experience, that if you ask for boon khow, you may get a calcium product, but it may be calcium carbonate, calcium oxide, dolomite, or a construction plaster with a lye component. And it may be mis-labled and the extreme differences for soil building not even slightly understood. 

 

A few years ago I was searching for an ag gypsum supplier for a COF I was blending.  My wife and I drove to a major company head office in Bangkok, which mines and distributes gypsum. We had called ahead to pick up a sample 50 kg sack or two. We were greeted by a whole team of sales and product development reps, including a staff PhD scientist. 

 

I questioned the package labeling as CaO2, which is Calcium oxide and not Calcium sulfate, gypsum. They swore up and down that it was actually calcium sulfate in the sack, but they had to label it as ca oxide to get around some regulatory restrictions. Go figure!

When I got it home and opened it, it appeared and behaved like calcium oxide, not gypsum as the company had represented. And thats just one story of many disappointments in searching for organic grower supplies. 

 

I bought gypsum from another major supplier, and it was mostly brown, hard rock chunks of unscreened material, probably mined gypsum, but labeled differently as CaO2 plus other ingredients. I had to break the rocks and screen it to get some usable material. 

[drtreelove]

1 hour ago, drtreelove said:

The problem is, from my experience, that if you ask for boon khow, you may get a calcium product, but it may be calcium carbonate, calcium oxide, dolomite, or a construction plaster with a lye component. And it may be mis-labled and the extreme differences for soil building not even slightly understood. 

 

A few years ago I was searching for an ag gypsum supplier for a COF I was blending.  My wife and I drove to a major company head office in Bangkok, which mines and distributes gypsum. We had called ahead to pick up a sample 50 kg sack or two. We were greeted by a whole team of sales and product development reps, including a staff PhD scientist. 

 

I questioned the package labeling as CaO2, which is Calcium oxide and not Calcium sulfate, gypsum. They swore up and down that it was actually calcium sulfate in the sack, but they had to label it as ca oxide to get around some regulatory restrictions. Go figure!

When I got it home and opened it, it appeared and behaved like calcium oxide, not gypsum as the company had represented. And thats just one story of many disappointments in searching for organic grower supplies. 

 

I bought gypsum from another major supplier, and it was mostly brown, hard rock chunks of unscreened material, probably mined gypsum, but labeled differently as CaO2 plus other ingredients. I had to break the rocks and screen it to get some usable material. 

Correction: Calcium oxide is CaO. 

[farmerjo]

On 10/18/2021 at 2:20 PM, EricTh said:

My neighbour suggested that I put vinegar into the lawn

Vinegar is one of the main ingredients in Organic weedkiller.

Might be an old wifes tale,my mum used to put clear plastic bottles full of water out in a row to keep the cats away.

[jak2002003]

Op...I would just water the lawn and also after a few heavy downpours of rain it should grow back when the vinegar is washed away and diluted. 

 

 

[EricTh]

4 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

Op...I would just water the lawn and also after a few heavy downpours of rain it should grow back when the vinegar is washed away and diluted. 

 

 

No, it didn't grow back after many weeks. 

 

 

[jak2002003]

1 hour ago, EricTh said:

 

No, it didn't grow back after many weeks. 

 

 

Blimey, just how much vinegar did you pour onto the lawn???!!!

 

Perhaps add some topsoil and then re seed or turf it and start again.