Soil pH in Alameda, CA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Alameda, CA

Typical topsoil in Alameda, CA is pH 6.81, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Alameda needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0).
• Sulfur: potatoes 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 2.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 6.1 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 5.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 5.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 2 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.81, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 364,720 surveyed acres in Alameda, CA, 43% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 32% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 24% are alkaline (above 7.3), 1% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.3 to 8.8, a spread of 3.5 units across 170 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 29.2% clay and 2.14% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 17% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Alameda against the rest of California

pH 6.81 is 0.27 above the California median of 6.54. 39 of 58 California counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Fresno (6.75), Siskiyou (6.75), Lassen (6.77), Mono (6.79), Monterey (6.81), San Joaquin (6.81), Colusa (6.89), Yolo (6.9).

The range in California runs from Del Norte at 5.43 to Imperial at 8.16; Alameda sits 51% of the way up.