Soil pH in Alamance, NC: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Alamance, NC

Typical topsoil in Alamance, NC is pH 5.74, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 5.6 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Alamance needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: blueberries (off by 0.2), blue hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 3.5 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.74, spread about 56 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 265,923 surveyed acres in Alamance, NC, 51% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 34% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 14% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 6.7, a spread of 2.2 units across 161 soil components. No single class covers 60% of the county, so two gardens a few miles apart here can need opposite treatments. Test your own bed.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 20% clay and 1.16% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Alamance against the rest of North Carolina

pH 5.74 is 0.58 above the North Carolina median of 5.16. 92 of 100 North Carolina counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Mecklenburg (5.66), Rockingham (5.67), Cabarrus (5.69), Gaston (5.71), Rowan (5.76), Vance (5.77), Yadkin (5.77), Guilford (5.8).

The range in North Carolina runs from Swain at 4.56 to Davie at 5.9; Alamance sits 88% of the way up.