Bill, we saved alot of money on fertilizer this by doing a similar poor-man's-SE-bucket-thing. We took these woven plastic feed bags, put some empty soda bottles in them and filled them with tobacco fertilzer (wich has the exact same formulation as the SE buckets). Then we just tied a rope to it, achored it with a brick and let it do its thing. In comparison to the crystaline fertilizer it was just as effective, a little bit easier and a WHOLE LOT cheaper.
Oh dude, jake I totaly feel for you about doing the lime the hard way, last spring my dad and I chucked 21 tons of lime one shovel at a time. I don't think my back will ever be the same. The alkalinity went up and the PH improved but for months we still couldn't get a bloom. Then finaly it just bloomed.
Good luck
-Scott
