Soil pH in Beadle, SD: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Beadle, SD

Typical topsoil in Beadle, SD is pH 6.82, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Beadle needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0).
• Sulfur: potatoes 3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 4.1 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 6.82, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 803,160 surveyed acres in Beadle, SD, 91% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 9% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.3 to 8.2, a spread of 1.9 units across 259 soil components. 91% 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 22.1% clay and 3.42% 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. 13% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Beadle against the rest of South Dakota

pH 6.82 is 0.17 below the South Dakota median of 6.99. 8 of 66 South Dakota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Lincoln (6.76), Moody (6.78), Potter (6.78), Hughes (6.8), Miner (6.82), Aurora (6.83), Hand (6.83), Sanborn (6.84).

The range in South Dakota runs from Lawrence at 6.49 to Jones at 7.47; Beadle sits 34% of the way up.