The process by which lime rises the soils pH should only take months, not years, and you can grow in that soil while it is happening.

http://www.noble.org/Ag/Soils/LimingQuestions/

kimmq is kimmsr

Excellent. Thank you so much kimmsr. I'll be tilling it in here within a few weeks which should speed up the process.

gardengal, I've heard the same. Asked our ag extension about why the soils around here need repeated liming from time to time out here and he said in some regions the soil is just naturally lower in pH and tends to revert to its native condition.

Fortunately most of my land will be used for pasture and bermuda is fine with a fairly low pH.

My CEC is quite high actually, which, with regard to liming, means I can lime less often and in larger amounts than if I had a sandier soil with pH problems. But feel free to say more about buffering, as I'm still learning what this means for the liming process. Feel free to say more about anything. :) I was quite low in calcium, not surprisingly, a little low in potassium and phosphorus.

To answer your direct question I've gotten two different reports on pH. First report, through Logan Labs, was 5.3. It was of samples taken over a wide variety of the pasture (40 acres). The other was about 6.0, from OSU, but it was taken solely from the previous garden area, which had been heavily amended.

I'm going to establish a new garden area. Two actually, and rotate them in and out of business. I'll be growing the usual things for OK and Texas (I'm near the border) when you get decent rainfall: southern peas, okra, squash, tomatoes, beans, but also potatoes, onions, and various leafy vegetables such as chard, kale and spinach.

What a soils pH is depends on what that soil is made of (the native material), rainfall, management, and the amount of organic matter in that soil. Adjusting a soils pH may be something that needs to be done periodically, but not something that needs to be done annually (which indicates it is not being done properly).

Perhaps this article may be of some use.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/other/soils/hgic1650.html

kimmq is kimmsr

Also consider that the actual material you use to raise pH effects your results over time. A good rule of thumb is that the faster the additive effects the pH, the bumpier the ride, so to speak.

The benefits of using a coarser, slower ground limestone, f'rinstance, are less leaching in wet areas, a more casual treatment "schedule", and more gradual changes both up and down.

We have naturally high ph down here in southeast TX & no amount of material will ever be able to safely drop our ph under 7.8 for more than a few weeks.

Also, the particle size of the lime has a significant impact on how fast it raises pH. The finer the faster. Often, a mix of particle sizes works well, with a large fraction of powdered material mixed with other material the size of coarse ground or cracked pepper. You might check on what you're adding, too. If you're adding only CaCO3, you might get in trouble because a significant amount of lime in the soil can make Mg difficult for plants to assimilate.

Al

A lack of rainfall (about 12 inches) is usually one of the causes of a soil with a high pH, and alkaline soils will hold Sodium Carbonates so you need to add to that soil something that will change that. Calcium Carbonate, lime, is not what an alkaline soil needs to become a good healthy soil. Adequate amounts of something like sulfur would help.

Adding either lime or sulfur and expecting the soils pH to change in a few weeks is an exercise in futility since it will take months for that change to take place.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/other/soils/hgic1650.html

kimmq is kimmsr

The OP's soil ISN'T alkaline, and you can't know whether or not CaCO3 is an appropriate amendment for raising pH unless the Mg content of the soil is also known. Why would you suggest S be added to a soil with a pH already too low?

Al

perplexed too. sulfur has no place in an acid soil.

I believe the comments about sulfur were made in response to a later poster, reeljake, who mentioned that he/she lived in TX with a soil pH of 7.8. A good example why it is recommended to start new threads when introducing new issues as it just causes confusion otherwise.