Soil pH in Bingham, ID: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Bingham, ID

Typical topsoil in Bingham, ID is pH 7.59 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Bingham needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.59, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 72% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 805,388 surveyed acres in Bingham, ID, 77% are alkaline (above 7.3), 21% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.6 to 8.5, a spread of 2.9 units across 259 soil components. 77% 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 15.2% clay and 2.1% 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. 72% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Bingham against the rest of Idaho

pH 7.59 is 0.58 above the Idaho median of 7.01. 40 of 44 Idaho counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Madison (7.37), Oneida (7.49), Canyon (7.57), Power (7.57), Butte (7.65), Cassia (7.8), Jefferson (8.06).

The range in Idaho runs from Valley at 6.04 to Jefferson at 8.06; Bingham sits 77% of the way up.