Cat, a lot of that is above my pay grade since I’m neither a farmer nor a chemist, but I get the part about spraying calcium if your plots need it. Wouldn’t spraying then tilling bring oxygen in ?
As for his past liming just now catching up, I’ve had good results with adding lime changing my ph in a matter of months. Where I live almost all soils are acidic, so my usual routine on a new plot is to guesstimate lime and disc it in pretty early, like maybe in February, then get a soil test first of May before I plant, amend as needed, then get another test before fall planting (if it’s gonna be planted in fall). Some of our plots are spring only, to help with nutrition. I’ve always thought that fewer fall plots promoted more movement, thus more opportunities.
I’ve not payed much attention to calcium levels in my soil tests, just went with fertilizer recommendations as closely as possible. We’re taking several samples next week in prep for spring plots and I’ll pay more attention from now on.
Thanks for your input.