At a pH of 5.0, to me the number one thing you need to do is to get as much lime down this fall as you can afford. Use the finest grind (80 mesh?) you can afford as it will have a more immediate effect than a coarser grind.

The amount of lime you will need to ultimately get up to near 7.0 is massive as noted by a poster above. The lime is put on by heavy trucks that you do not want in your fields at any other time but fall and as dry as possible.

I would have at least 5 tons/a of as fine a grind lime as you can get spread ASAP this fall. You can always run a borrowed spreader yourself to apply 200-400 lbs of K. Or run some thru your planter dry boxes if you use dry fert.

But it is hard to put down 10,000 lb of lime/acre by yourself. Get the lime on this fall and if you can afford 7 or 8 tons I am all for do it once because of the massive damage caused to the fields by spreader/dump truck type tires when fully loaded. After you get the pH started up where it needs to be then you can put a maintenance application of lime on every few years. jmho.

 Jim at Dawn