Soil pH in Caroline, MD: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Caroline, MD

Typical topsoil in Caroline, MD is pH 5.76, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Caroline needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Lime: tomatoes 2.1 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 1 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 0.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.76, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 186,822 surveyed acres in Caroline, MD, 75% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 25% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 6.3, a spread of 2.3 units across 219 soil components. 75% 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 9.3% clay and 2.17% 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.

Caroline against the rest of Maryland

pH 5.76 is 0.27 above the Maryland median of 5.49. 20 of 24 Maryland counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Baltimore (5.63), Carroll (5.67), Frederick (5.67), Talbot (5.73), Queen Anne's (5.79), Worcester (5.84), Washington (6.01).

The range in Maryland runs from Charles at 4.47 to Washington at 6.01; Caroline sits 84% of the way up.