Soil pH in Ballard, KY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Ballard, KY

Typical topsoil in Ballard, KY is pH 6.03, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Ballard needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2), potatoes (off by 0), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.03, 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 149,697 surveyed acres in Ballard, KY, 46% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 35% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 19% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7.5, a spread of 2.5 units across 181 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 17.8% clay and 2.07% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Ballard against the rest of Kentucky

pH 6.03 is 0.24 above the Kentucky median of 5.79. 84 of 120 Kentucky counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: McLean (5.98), Hardin (5.99), McCracken (5.99), Montgomery (6), Larue (6.03), Boone (6.04), Gallatin (6.04), Kenton (6.09).

The range in Kentucky runs from Greenup at 5.09 to Carroll at 6.63; Ballard sits 61% of the way up.