Soil pH in Box Butte, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Box Butte, NE

Typical topsoil in Box Butte, NE is pH 7.17, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Box Butte needs, by plant

• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: tomatoes 1.6 lb/100 sq ft; potatoes 3.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 2.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 7.17, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 686,433 surveyed acres in Box Butte, NE, 82% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 18% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6 to 9.2, a spread of 3.2 units across 365 soil components. 82% 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 13.1% clay and 2.09% 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. 17% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Box Butte against the rest of Nebraska

pH 7.17 is 0.42 above the Nebraska median of 6.75. 83 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Chase (7.08), Boyd (7.1), Deuel (7.12), Cheyenne (7.15), Morrill (7.17), Hayes (7.18), Dakota (7.24), Sioux (7.27).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Box Butte sits 76% of the way up.