Soil pH in Bonner, ID: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Bonner, ID

Typical topsoil in Bonner, ID is pH 6.38, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Bonner needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 1.1 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 1.7 lb/100 sq ft; azaleas and rhododendrons 1.3 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 1.3 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.38, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 819,295 surveyed acres in Bonner, ID, 66% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 33% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.8 to 7.9, a spread of 3.1 units across 1,052 soil components. 66% 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 6.1% clay and 3.98% 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. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Bonner against the rest of Idaho

pH 6.38 is 0.63 below the Idaho median of 7.01. 6 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: Boise (6.25), Boundary (6.29), Clearwater (6.32), Shoshone (6.32), Fremont (6.42), Kootenai (6.44), Idaho (6.46), Lewis (6.46).

The range in Idaho runs from Valley at 6.04 to Jefferson at 8.06; Bonner sits 17% of the way up.