Soil pH in Carteret, NC: Lime or Sulfur?
Typical topsoil pH in Carteret, NC
Typical topsoil in Carteret, NC is pH 5.22, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 15 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.
What Carteret needs, by plant
- Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
- Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 15 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; vegetable garden 15 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; tomatoes 15 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 15 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 11.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications.
What to do next
If your test confirms pH near 5.22, spread about 150 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 3 doses, ideally in fall.
How mixed the soil is
Of the 273,235 surveyed acres in Carteret, NC, 72% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 15% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 13% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 7.3, a spread of 2.8 units across 101 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 11.8% clay and 5.17% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 5.17% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the clay bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.
Carteret against the rest of North Carolina
pH 5.22 is 0.06 above the North Carolina median of 5.16. 53 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: Hoke (5.15), Halifax (5.17), Hyde (5.19), Chatham (5.21), Moore (5.22), New Hanover (5.23), Richmond (5.23), Caldwell (5.24).
The range in North Carolina runs from Swain at 4.56 to Davie at 5.9; Carteret sits 49% of the way up.