Hydrated lime is hard to use safely in a container, find the dolomitic lime. You may have better luck finding it as agricultural lime or just lime. Espoma sells the right stuff and you can probably find it by calling a few garden centers. Most of the time you find lime at a garden center if it doesn't say it is hydrated lime, it is dolomite.

ALL big box stores sell it (dolomitic/garden/agricultural lime) here in 50 lb bags - found stacked with the fertilizers & spreadable insect treatments. It's VERY inexpensive. JaG is right about Espoma selling it, but you pay a lot for the pretty bag as the same product is approximately the same price for 50 lbs in homely bags . ;o)

Al

Thanks Al! I went several more places and I finally found some agricultural lime. I finally went to a place out of the way and they only had 6 pound bags, but that is more than I probably need.

I hope everything works out and I will be able to sell these potted tomatoes!

Jay

. . . sell the plants - or the fruit? ;o)

Al

Al,

I am going to sell the tomato plants. They are Patio/Balcony Hybrid. They are suppose to be small. I was growing some for my Grandmothers, so I just started a bunch. If they don't sell, I guess I will be selling the tomatoes too!

Jay

Where in Ks are you located? I can help you find anything you need. TiMo

Hi, My husband and I are making this container for the first time, he got hydrated lime, a 50lb bag to be honest, but its not the dolomite lime, it does say aggracultural on the bag also. Can we use this or do I have to send him back out to get the Dolomite lime? thanks in advance

Darlene

I have been wondering this also. What is the difference between hydrated and dolomitic? I have some hydrated horticultural lime in the garage. But then I kept reading here about dolomite. What's the difference (in lay language)? Isn't lime lime?

In layman's terms hydrated lime is very caustic and reacts immediately with water.

Dolomitic lime is slower to react and therefore lasts longer in a container.

Hydrated lime can raise pH more than dolomitic with less product used.

JAG,

I have some old lime which I put in a bucket because the paper bag it came in broke apart. Don't k now which it is. Can I tell the difference between the two? Maybe see how long it takes to dissolve some in a cup of water?

Chris

I am not sure how valid that test would be, Chris. Trouble is there is also plain old limestone on the market and that will have calcium, but not the magnesium, or the amount of magnesium will be variable and generally much lower than dolomitic.

If it were me I would save the contents of the bucket for the lawn, if needed and get a bag of dolomite from the hardware store for container usage with peat/bark based mixes.

Indeed - garden lime is so inexpensive it's not worth chancing ruining your plantings over the small savings.

Al

Is California the only place with farm or ranch supply stores any more? Most of my supplies are either from a landscape supply or an agricultural supply. The difference in the price per pound when buying packages of one to five pounds compared to buying in fifty pound bags is dramatic. None of these products deteriorate with age, properly stored. Al

Yeah - you can buy 50 lbs of generic for about the same price as 5 lbs of Espoma - same stuff different bag.

(the other) Al

Thanks all. There is a farm bureau not far from me that I'm sure carries the right lime. I know they carry Fafard products too, but unfortunately not the pine bark fines that Fafard sells as soil conditioner (and they wouldn't order it because they only order once a year in early spring ?!).

Thanks again for your advice.
Chris

What other plants besides tomatoes would benefit from lime? I am planting in containers on a terrace in NYC so the plants are small potted ones. I am also trying to grow peas and carrots. Should I be using lime in the soil for these other plants and veggies?

When people say "dolomite lime is slower to react", like how slow are we talking? If we are adding lime to peat in order to adjust the pH for planting, at what point is the pH adjusted and ready for planting?

"How fast", depends on the size of the dolomite particles (smaller = faster), how much moisture is available (more = faster), temperature (warmer = faster), and other incidental and largely insignificant factors. Most text's re container growing that go into detail about grow media commonly suggest making sure the medium is moist, then waiting out a 2-week reaction phase before using it. Since I always have plenty of the 5:1:1 mix on hand, the mix is almost always older than 2 weeks from mix date, but even on the occasions when I made/ used it same day, I didn't see any issues other than a few malformed leaves and some BER on first fruits of tomato and G pepper.

Al