Q&A for How to Spread Lime

Although lime is not seriously harmful to pets, the dust can cause lung, skin, and eye irritations in both pets and children.

You should have the lawns acidity tested every year and balanced correctly. Using lime when your lawn isn't ready for it can do a lot of damage.

For a mildly acidic lawn, an average of 20-50 pounds of ground lime for 1,000 square feet of lawn will correct the issue. Alternatively, the most acidic lawns could need upwards of 100 pounds.

Aim to spread lime during cool weather. In too much sun, the lime can burn the grass. To avoid this, apply lime when temperatures are cool. The best time is in the fall, winter, or early spring.

You can mow your lawn anytime after watering it. That way, the lime can dissolve and absorb into the soil. If you mow your lawn sooner, the lime will still be in it's granulated rock form, and it could damage your lawn mower, and even get in your eyes and on your skin. Not to mention, it would no longer be evenly distributed throughout the yard.

Urine is rich in nitrogen, which in good for plants, but harmful in excess. Lime won't help that. Liberal watering of those areas will help dilute the nitrogen.

Try to keep them off the yard while you are applying it, and maybe for a day after, but calcitic and dolomitic lime have not been found to be toxic for humans or animals.

The needles are not causing the issue. The soil was acidic overall, which facilitated the growth of pine. How much lime you need depends on what the pH of the soil is and what spreader type you have. For example, if you have 6 pH and Scotts Edgeguard, you would set it to 4 or 5.

It is not necessary to mow before you spread lime.

For 7000 square feet of yard, you will need to buy between 350-525 lbs of lime. That would be 9 -13 bags of lime weighing 40 lbs each.

You can, but it functions best when it can be washed into dry soil by rain. Wet, compact soil is harder for the nutrients to penetrate; I'd recommend waiting for things to dry out and apply it before it rains.

An acre is 43,560 square feet - dividing that by 100 lbs for each 1,000 square feet, you'll need 4,356 lbs of lime to raise the pH one unit. If your pH is very low, you'll probably need to treat more than once. You might want to divide it into sections - mark off 100-foot by 100-foot squares, and treat them one or two at a time until you've covered the whole area. Give the material water and a little time to take effect, and re-test the soil before repeating if necessary. You can find a soil test kit at the hardware store with enough reagents for 10 tests (of pH plus 3 nutrients) for about $10. For a lawn that big though, a pH probe might be more effective.

Test the PH of your soil first. You may not need to use the lime if it reads at a 7 or an 8.

In general, lime can be used to keep insects away from plants, but it may not be as effective as pesticides.

It is okay to apply it in May, as long as it isn't too hot outside. The only thing to remember is the lime takes a while to soak into the ground. Watering it is not mandatory. It just helps.

The University of Tennessee Extension does cheap testing and you can send the sample by mail. Check out this site: http://www.tnhomeandfarm.com/agriculture/soil-testing-offered-by-ut-extension/

It is not necessary to reseed, unless you have a lot of bare patches in your yard.