Ballistictip

First off, pelletized lime is much easier to work with and can be easily spread with a hand spreader on small areas. If the area is large enough a pull behind spreader works good. I prefer to use pelletized lime on established food plots. The down side of pelletized lime is that it can take up to 6 months to raise the pH level and costs about twice the price of pulverized.

When first starting a new plot I use pulverized lime. I can get it for about $50 to $60 per ton. It' s a little bit harder to spread. What I do is tear open the bag and start slinging it out. After I get all the lime out I disc it into the soil. Pulverized lime will only take 2 weeks to a month to raise the pH level when disced in with enough moisture in the soil. I' m not sure about your area but here in the south it will normally take about a ton per acre for most clovers and alfalfas. Make sure you do a soil test to determine how much you will need. The down side of pulverized lime is that it does not work well on an established food plot because my way of putting it out leaves piles of lime on the ground unless you disc it in. Go to my website below and click on the food plot pics button. There are some pictures there to show you how I spread the lime.

The fertilzer is fairly simple. A hand spreader will work just fine. You will probably want to use a 0-20-20 fertilizer. In my area the closest fertilizer I can find to that is 4-24-24. Just make sure you get fertilizer that is as low in nitrogen (the first number) as possible. Clover and alfalfa will make there own nitrogen. Also, make sure you inoculate the clover and alfalfa with the proper inoculant for each. The inoculant will run about $5 to $8 for enough to do 50 pounds of seed.

Hopefully this will get you started. Good luck!!!

Shane