Soil pH in Benzie, MI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Benzie, MI

Typical topsoil in Benzie, MI is pH 5.04, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 4.5 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Benzie needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 3 lb/100 sq ft; roses 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 3.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.04, spread about 45 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 195,842 surveyed acres in Benzie, MI, 70% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 26% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 3% are alkaline (above 7.3), 2% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.7 to 8.1, a spread of 4.4 units across 499 soil components. 70% 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 2.9% clay and 3.49% 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. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Benzie against the rest of Michigan

pH 5.04 is 1 below the Michigan median of 6.04. 6 of 83 Michigan counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Gogebic (4.85), Houghton (4.85), Luce (4.93), Ontonagon (5), Oscoda (5.05), Manistee (5.06), Keweenaw (5.09), Alger (5.11).

The range in Michigan runs from Baraga at 4.72 to Huron at 7.03; Benzie sits 14% of the way up.