Kitchen Garden Forum

What is the best or correct method of using lime for brassicas, my husband used to plant the cabbages ect. first and then sprinkle lime about an inch around the plants. Just been watching a rerun of the Big Dig and the chap there put a fistful into the hole and some around the soil for filling in.

Bren

Hi Bren

I don't know if this helps but here's how I do it. I dig the hole, put a sprinkling into the hole, plant the cabbage (or whatever). I then water well in and then give a good sprinkling around the plants.

Hope this helps you. Maybe others will know differently and i'll find out i'm doing things completely wrong

Dear Bren, i usualy lime the whole plot that i'm going to grow my Brassicas on, i do this in the winter afer a very hard frost, so i can walk about on the plot without compacting it.

But if your Husbands method worked, i would definately stick to that.

Hi Bren,

I have clubroot in my plot unfortunately, so bad I nearly gave up growing Brassicas; which I love.

I used to spread a 25 kg bag of lime over the area in which I was going to plant them, all to no avail.

One year I could not get any 25 kg bags,until the planting season was upon me. So as I planted out each cabbage, cauli etc. I sprinkled half a Yogurt Cup (not organic Yogurt) of lime into the planting hole and over the disturbed soil, result "NO" plants with clubroot deformed roots.

My soil is alkiline to start with, and I now use very little lime compared to when I used to spread it broadcast, which was not successful in keeping it away.

At first I thought that the lime would "burn" the plant roots, but I have not lost a single plant to lime "burn".

Cheers

Thanks Lizzie.OH and Lurganspade for your advice about lime,it seems any method works, so I'll use the way we have done it in the past.
The only time we had clubroot a couple of years back, was on wallflowers we had planted out where the early potatoes had been, none since fingers crossed.
Bren