Dolomite

Kennedy Creek Lime has a natural source of Dolomite. Dolomite is a soil ‘sweetener’ that supplies essential calcium and magnesium to the soil and plants. It is called a ‘sweetener’ as plants need small amounts of magnesium and phosphorus to make sugars, which is why Dolomite is desired by fruit growers.

There is a false diagnosis that high magnesium to calcium ratio in a soil test is bad. Soil contains more than 10 to 100 times more calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorous levels than that shown on a soil test report, but these are locked up and do not show up on a normal industry plant nutrition soil test. A soil test only looks at plant available levels, and is therefore only looking at nutrients which result from the microbial soil activity which is continually turning over (ie microbe food or microbe poo). Over time nature does not allow fertiliser chemicals to sit in the soil and do nothing, so nutrients are either locked up in a chemical bond and not plant available, or in the soil microbial life cycle and plant available.

Unhealthy soil microbial life can be seen in a poor calcium/magnesium or carbon/nitrogen ratios on a soil test. Applying Dolomite does not contribute to poor soil ratios, however reduced soil microbial life can create high magnesium relative to calcium as measured in a soil test. Farmers often describe a high plant available magnesium to plant available calcium as “hard” soil, which is the result of no soil microbial activity to balance the ratio – it is not caused by excess magnesium ions.
If your crop needs to make sugar, you should still apply Dolomite every year to replace lost magnesium from the harvest, as microbes will find the dolomite magnesium easier to obtain than magnesium locked up in soil. The only exception is if you have extremely healthy soil microbial activity which can extract locked up minerals and no dolomite is then required.

Spreaders are available for application and hire.