Can't find lime.

[Land_Owner]

I am reaching out past the borders of my county to adjoining areas in hopes of locating lime: economic lime, spread lime, or at least cheap enough in bulk for me to haul and spread.  Several other threads here document the blog I have made trying to find lime - affordable lime.  I have run out of available "close encounter" options. 

There is not much hope for the small land owner in the field of agriculture anymore.  Agri-business in the South has changed the way in which people interact.  If you are small, you are insignificant.  Do it yourself for higher prices.  Bulk is "cheap".  Throw away the excess?  Less than bulk is expensive.  Go figure. 

Transportation costs (diesel) have gotten expensive.  Farm implements, used once or twice annually, are expensive to own and maintain.  Storage is also a consideration.  The more the implements, the greater the need for storage.  Mother Nature is not kind to farm implements.  We use them HARD too.  There are so many specialty items too.  The used market here is not favorable.  I believe I missed the "hay day" of rural farming in now Tourist driven Florida.

[deerslayer79]

If you can't find lime use some type of fertilizer with lime in it heck one time I used scotts slow re-lease fertilizer on a plot of oats and it worked great.

[Graybeard]

Do you not have County Co-Op's down in FL? I reckon here in Bama every county has at least one or more. Here in Calhoun I think we have two. I'm needing bulk lime for my pond and when I asked they said it's $40 per ton and their minimum price for delivery is $150. They said they'd deliver me one pound if I wanted it but the cost would still be $150. I'm looking at having them bring me 5 tons. Bagged lime is way expensive for more than small garden plots but at $40 per ton bulk isn't bad and $150 minimum is no biggie.

[SDS-GEN]

Call your county Soil and Water Conservation District office they will tell you where to get crushed lime.

[Land_Owner]

No GB, no Co-Ops that I can find in our area. 

I did get one strong lead today from the local Water Treatment Plant.  They use lime for water softening. 

Chemestry 4101
Insoluable compounds of Calcium carbonate CaCO₃, Magnesium hydroxide Mg(OH)₂, Ferric hydroxide Fe(OH)₃ and Manganese dioxide MnO₂ are precipitated from the hard water source by the introduction of lime slurry Ca(OH)₂ and Potassium permanganate KMnO₄.  Ain't that great?  Don't you love it? 

The resultant supernatent (water) we drink don't you know (you too) and the waste "primordial ooze" is slurried into a holding pond for trucking and land disposal.  Local grove owners used to truck and dry the slurry before land application as a source of lime.  This source is free but trucking, drying, and application are not free and drying is no longer in existence in our neighborhood.

However, slurry application without drying is an alternative.  They will fill my existing 500 gallon tank with their 3" mud pump (as used to fill the current tankers for hauling).  If I modify my tank for dispersal (fan type) discharge and add electric brakes and twin axles (wet slurry and tank will weigh 2.5 tons = 5,000 pounds), I can make as many runs to the treatment plant 8 miles away as I want.

Not quite so elegant as purchasing completely dry and spread 100% lime but certainly priced right.

Know of anything I should be concerned about in that ecological brew?

Oops, forgot to mention there is a constituient (low) concentration of salts (Sodium and Potassium) and insoluible calcium.