Using lime (calcium) on citrus trees....

[Doug]

I've been told to lime my citrus trees during the dry season to prevent bacteria diseases. Our soil is somewhat to the acid side. My trees seem to be healthy (except the limon dulce) and I don't want to try to fix what ain't broken. Any opinions on this?

[frukt]

I have never heard of this method before but it seems correct. All citrusfruits contain a lot of calcium and thats why heavy producing trees can get deficiency of calcium.

Since citrus-peel is not popular in the compost, so we use to throw that under the citrusbushes, giving back a bit of what we take If your trees look healthy and they seem to do fine without any extra calcium-boost then why make it complicated. I think slighly acitic soil is good. To prevent bacteria and bad nematodes you can plant flowers and onions.

[bangkok]

I did a lot of effort to make the soil of my pomelo-tree acidic. I also don't dare to use calcium or lime so the soil stays acidic.

My mother in law has a big pomelotree and the fruits dropped all the time. I gave her bonemeal and agriculture gypsum and now she has much more pomelo's that grow to maturity.

My pomelotree has 1 fruit now and i planted it a year ago so i think i'm doing something right, it is even a ruby red pomelo which according to the Thai would never fruit here in my climate.

Actually i also don't understand that if a citrustree needs much calcium then how can they ddemand acidic soil because calcium makes the soil ph neutral.

I never heard of calcium against bacterials in the soil but maybe it's true. I read that Thai citrusfarmers use chemical fertilizers against bacterials/fungus in the soil.

[Radoslav]

Hm.. Calcium hydroxide aka slaked lime is used in Bordeaux mixture to neutralize the solution (with copper sulphate) and form a long-lasting fungicide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_mixture

[Millet]

Doug as  a Florida grower of citrus trees, what you have been told is exactly correct.  If you want to understand why you as a Florida citrus grower needs to lime (CaCO3) your trees read this EDIS article. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/SS/SS58400.pdf - Millet

[jcaldeira]

Adding lime to most acid soils also improves plants' uptake of major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium).

[Mike T]

Adding a small amount of calcium is ok especially in the form of dolomite and if soil is already low in calcium. If your soil is above 5pH I would think twice. My natural soil is 5.5 pH and citrus are healthy. I have only used a little dolomite and rock flour and thick mulch of course to raise it a little. I know people who have caused all sort of problems by going crazy with lime and even gypsum.
Excess calcium decreases the availability and uptake of N, K, Fe, Mn, Zn and even P. Knowing what your soil has excesses and deficiencies in (even from a regional soil type perspective) helps in knowing what to apply. Knowing the nutrient antagonisms of what you are applying in large quantities will help with fixing created problems afterwards. Over-application of additives and fertilizers is pretty common. Looking at leaf deficiency symptom charts afterwards to know what to add next can get you in an over-application cycle.

[Riverland]

One needs to also take rootstock into account.
Some rootstock are more sensitive to lime applications and will show chlorosis, Swingle being a good example.