Fall is officially here and with that comes fall services that benefit your lawn before the winter months. An aeration, seeding, seed enhancement, and a pre-winterizer application are all common fall services that help nourish your lawn, but what some people may not realize is that a fall limestone application can be very beneficial.

What is a Limestone Application?

Limestone is an application that can be used to help level out the pH of your soil. When we reach the cold fall and winter months, the weather change helps break down the lime and begins to raise the pH levels of the soil.

It is a granular product made up from ground limestone rock, which naturally contains calcium and magnesium carbonate. These components work together to increase the soils pH level, making it less acidic and more alkaline.

Understanding Your Lawn’s pH Levels

Applying a lime treatment will help your lawn recover the nutrients that may have been lost due to the acidity and can help repair the damage caused by it. When words like ‘less acidic’ and ‘alkaline’ are used to describe your lawn’s soil, it can be hard to know which category your lawn falls under or whether or not it needs a limestone application.

For the health of your lawn and plants, you want your soil levels to be around 6 or 7. When your soil is acidic, that’s when your lawn starts to suffer. You can tell if your soil is too acidic even without a soil test. If you see changes in the color or your grass or it looks like it is starting to die even after receiving a fertilizer treatment, that can be a tell-tale sign.

When your soil is acidic, it is prone to lawn disease, pests, and an increase in weeds. For any lawn treatment to be effective, your soil’s pH levels are important, a limestone application could be very beneficial to help get your lawn back to neutral levels.

Limestone Application

Some limestone products may be labeled as “fast-acting.” These products are usually more powerful than a product that works steadily over time. The fast-acting solution can cause your lawn to receive too much product at once, which can result in pushing the soil too far to be alkaline. This can cause plants to not receive or absorb enough nutrients in order to grow healthy.

It is best to use a granular product that releases slowly over time in order to achieve the best results. In the end, raising the pH level slowly will produce better and longer-lasting results, even though it will take longer.