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Coldwater, Michigan | First of all: in order to raise pH on a true muck (organic soil) significantly it would take a tremendous amount of lime due to the amount of Organic matter. Organic matter is the reason you shouldn't notice much aluminum toxicity if any. True organic (Muck) soils don't have a lot of minerals. That's why we differentiate between Mineral soils and Muck (organic) soils. If the muck soil is underlain with Marl it may be an issue getting the pH down to a reasonable level in order to not create a Micro-nutrient issue.
Because most Muck soils do not have many micros to begin with, anything you can do to keep the pH between 5.2 and 5.8 would be a great range for them to be in. Unless you are raising specialty crops. Some Specialty crops require something outside of those ranges. In normal corn/soybean rotation 5.2 - 5.8 is the correct range for these types of soil. Mineral soils are a totally different animal! If you lime that muck soil above 5.8 you will probably lock Manganese & Zinc up pretty tight. If the soil in turn was a mineral soil you probably wouldn't have an issue until the pH was above 7.0 in a typical corn/soybean rotation.
If you want to see a pretty field of yellow beans: spend a fortune on lime till the pH is about 7.0 on the Organic (Muck) soil. Aluminum toxicity isn't normally an issue on muck soils because being organic soils we don't normally have many minerals in them. If you get the pH a little high the few minerals that are present will lock up and no longer be of use to the crop. The reason for the crop looking like crap at the low pH has more to do with a Micro deficiency than a calcium deficiency.
Most fertilizer people are trained to think "mineral soils". Therefore, they often-times mess up the Muck Soils with that line of thinking.
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Peat/Muck soil, Lime or not?
