How Much Lime?
Before I plant my olives, how do I know if my soil needs lime? Well firstly, don’t guess. Take a soil sample to be tested by a reputable soil laboratory. Because the olive tree is a relatively shallow rooting tree, scrape away the top 4 inches of soil which contains a lot of organic matter and discard it. Then collect about one pound of soil from the 4 – 8 inch. Collect a second sample at around 2 ft deep. Take the soil samples to the testing laboratory. You will often find that the top sample will have a lower pH (is more acidic) than the bottom sample. This means that by deep ripping to open up the soil to a depth of around 24 – 30 inches before planting your olives, the lower layer with a higher pH will be mixed with the top layer with a lower pH, thus ‘leveling’ the pH levels. For olives, if the mixing of the two soil levels still would not bring the pH level to a minimum of 7.0, then the addition of lime into the soil will be very beneficial. For maximum benefit, the lime should b
