Soil pH in Atascosa, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Atascosa, TX

Typical topsoil in Atascosa, TX is pH 6.89, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Atascosa needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: potatoes 3.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 1.4 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.89, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 667,637 surveyed acres in Atascosa, TX, 68% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 19% are alkaline (above 7.3), 14% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 8.2, a spread of 2.4 units across 51 soil components. 68% of the land falls in one class, so the county figure is a fair first guess for most yards here.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 19.8% clay and 1.5% 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. 21% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Atascosa against the rest of Texas

pH 6.89 is 0.54 below the Texas median of 7.43. 74 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Goliad (6.84), Jim Hogg (6.84), Jack (6.87), Wilson (6.88), Hunt (6.92), Milam (6.94), Brazoria (6.98), Kenedy (6.98).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Atascosa sits 63% of the way up.