Soil pH in Ashland, WI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Ashland, WI

Typical topsoil in Ashland, WI is pH 5.46, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Ashland needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.46, spread about 70 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 528,219 surveyed acres in Ashland, WI, 48% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 45% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 6% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.7 to 7.7, a spread of 4 units across 450 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 12.5% clay and 3.03% 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. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Ashland against the rest of Wisconsin

pH 5.46 is 0.62 below the Wisconsin median of 6.08. 10 of 72 Wisconsin counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Jackson (5.36), Juneau (5.38), Menominee (5.45), Washburn (5.45), Clark (5.49), Adams (5.52), Douglas (5.56), Forest (5.6).

The range in Wisconsin runs from Iron at 5.16 to Washington at 6.88; Ashland sits 17% of the way up.