Soil pH in Berkshire, MA: Lime or Sulfur?
Typical topsoil pH in Berkshire, MA
Typical topsoil in Berkshire, MA is pH 5.12, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 9.8 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.
What Berkshire needs, by plant
- Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
- Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 6.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.
What to do next
If your test confirms pH near 5.12, spread about 98 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.
How mixed the soil is
Of the 546,231 surveyed acres in Berkshire, MA, 73% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 15% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 12% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 7, a spread of 3 units across 161 soil components. 73% 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 8.1% clay and 6.95% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. At 6.95% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the loam bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).
Berkshire against the rest of Massachusetts
pH 5.12 is 0.1 above the Massachusetts median of 5.02. 11 of 14 Massachusetts counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.
Closest in pH within the state: Suffolk (5.02), Worcester (5.02), Middlesex (5.08), Essex (5.11), Bristol (5.14), Hampshire (5.28).
The range in Massachusetts runs from Nantucket at 4.64 to Hampshire at 5.28; Berkshire sits 75% of the way up.