Soil pH in Brunswick, NC: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Brunswick, NC

Typical topsoil in Brunswick, NC is pH 5.01, 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 Brunswick 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 5.01, 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 487,388 surveyed acres in Brunswick, NC, 72% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 25% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 4% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 7.3, a spread of 3.3 units across 82 soil components. 72% 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 9.1% clay and 4.63% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Brunswick against the rest of North Carolina

pH 5.01 is 0.15 below the North Carolina median of 5.16. 28 of 100 North Carolina counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Northampton (4.96), Sampson (4.96), Wayne (4.96), Madison (5), Onslow (5.01), Union (5.02), Cumberland (5.03), Avery (5.04).

The range in North Carolina runs from Swain at 4.56 to Davie at 5.9; Brunswick sits 34% of the way up.