Soil pH in Atlantic, NJ: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Atlantic, NJ

Typical topsoil in Atlantic, NJ is pH 5.17, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 3.9 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Atlantic needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 2.4 lb/100 sq ft; roses 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 3.3 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.17, spread about 39 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 349,217 surveyed acres in Atlantic, NJ, 58% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 29% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 13% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 6.5, a spread of 2.5 units across 177 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 9.5% clay and 2.93% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Atlantic against the rest of New Jersey

pH 5.17 is right at the New Jersey median of 5.17. 10 of 21 New Jersey counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Camden (5), Cape May (5), Middlesex (5.03), Union (5.14), Hunterdon (5.2), Mercer (5.21), Ocean (5.22), Somerset (5.22).

The range in New Jersey runs from Burlington at 4.68 to Hudson at 6.98; Atlantic sits 21% of the way up.