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EC Nebraska | If you have a soil with high Mg and Na and low Ca saturation that is still a high pH, then calcium carbonate can lower the pH a little. Not drastically, and not below 7 pH. But when the pH is above 8 and calcium saturation is below 50%, then calcitic lime can help lower the pH down a point or so. It requires decent mixing and/or drainage to happen, it's not going to work in all cases, but in the right situation it can and does happen.
I have not personally had a situation where it actually lowered the pH, but I have had 3 tons of calcitic lime applied to a light soil (CEC ~ 10) and it didn't change the pH (pH was low 6's before and after) . It did drastically lower the Mg saturation, improve drainage, increase nitrogen use efficiency, increase drought tolerance, and raise the Ca saturation. All of those are good things that increase yields and returns over time. The university would not have recommended applying lime in that case, Kinsey's methods were the motivation to do so.
However, neither blyth12 nor myself are advocating a wholesale adoption of Kinsey's recommendations on commodity grain fields. Blyth's priorities, with which I concur, were NPSK first, then Ca/Mg saturation, then the rest of the program if budget allows. Corn and bean prices do not allow a budget to go past Ca/Mg, and they might not get past sulfur at the current time.
ETA: To be absolutely clear, I do not think that following Kinsey's program for micronutrients is going to provide an economical return on corn/soybean production.
Edited by NE Ridger 1/26/2016 07:14
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A different approach...
