Help with growing grass in acidic dirt

[Ryans Custom mowing]

I live in northern OK and I just bided on a yard today and got it Yea but they have a hard time getting the grass to grow because they found out the soil is acidic what can i do to make the grass grow good and thick.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Can you get the ph back to a range you want it to be in with some lime?

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[Ryans Custom mowing]

No i have not this is my first yard like this. Would i need to ad lime every year or one time be enough.?

[Steve]

There are a bunch of posts on the forum here that will give you a more well rounded view of this.

Liming a lawn

Spring cleanup

Overseeding and lime

How to figure out how much Lime you will need to use?

You should be able to take a soil test and find out the amount of lime you will need to apply in pounds per thousand square feet. Then you can match the lawn's need to the amount of lime and pure calcium carbonate indicated on the lime bag and apply it with a spreader. The results from liming are pretty slow. So it can take years to really increase the soil's pH.


If you are looking to know when lime can be spread onto a lawn, it's basically any time of year. Most of the time it's done during spring or fall and this will help as the lawn stresses are minimal.

Another thing you should consider is why the lawn is acidic? Where is that coming from? Is it acidic water? Is it too much nitrogen based fertilizer? This can help you figure out a plan to treat the lawn.

[baileysgreenthumb]

Steve your a big help and just wanted to say thanks for all your help and questions he better our jobs and lives....

[jawbreaker1222]

Hi On extremely acidic lawns I have had excellent results with MAG-I-CAL. It works in a few weeks. And 1 bag of Mag-I-Cal is equal to about 10 bags of lime. I needed it three times last year on different lawns. All three it was able to significantly lower the acidity within about 4-5 weeks.

Yard one PH was Less then three. Spread using the 5k SQ ft setting

5 weeks later Ph 6.5

Yard two Ph was less than three. Spread using the 5k sq ft setting.

5 weeks later PH was 5.9

Spread again about 6 months later on 10k sq ft setting

5 weeks later Ph was 7.3

Yard 3 Ph was 4 Applied at 10k sq ft setting

5 weeks later Ph was 7.0

All lawns looked significantly better at the 5 week sample. Within 2 months you would have never known there was a PH problem.

I do reapply at 10k setting every spring and lawns are all right where they should be.