Soil pH in Carbon, WY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Carbon, WY

Typical topsoil in Carbon, WY is pH 8.31 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 Carbon 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 8.31, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 56% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 8,770 surveyed acres in Carbon, WY, 100% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 7.5 to 8.8, a spread of 1.3 units across 4 soil components. 100% 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 21.2% clay and 1.07% 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. 56% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Carbon against the rest of Wyoming

pH 8.31 is 0.81 above the Wyoming median of 7.5. 22 of 23 Wyoming counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Washakie (7.74), Big Horn (7.76), Fremont (7.85), Sweetwater (8.1).