Soil pH in Alpena, MI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Alpena, MI

Typical topsoil in Alpena, MI is pH 6.09, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Alpena needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1), potatoes (off by 0.1), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: blueberries 1.3 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 1 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.09, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 300,485 surveyed acres in Alpena, MI, 40% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 38% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 17% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 4% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.1 to 7.9, a spread of 3.8 units across 343 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 9.7% clay and 3.28% organic matter, which this site treats as sandy. Moving it one pH unit takes about 3 lb of lime or 1.2 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 10% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Alpena against the rest of Michigan

pH 6.09 is 0.05 above the Michigan median of 6.04. 44 of 83 Michigan counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Montcalm (5.98), Mecosta (6.04), Gladwin (6.05), Midland (6.05), Cass (6.11), Charlevoix (6.11), Kalamazoo (6.12), Leelanau (6.12).

The range in Michigan runs from Baraga at 4.72 to Huron at 7.03; Alpena sits 59% of the way up.