Soil pH in Cass, MN: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Cass, MN

Typical topsoil in Cass, MN is pH 5.94, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Cass needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.1), vegetable garden (off by 0.1), roses (off by 0.1), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.1).
• Lime: tomatoes 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 1.1 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 0.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.94, 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 898,841 surveyed acres in Cass, MN, 73% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 16% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 9% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 8, a spread of 3 units across 268 soil components. 73% 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 8.2% clay and 2.24% 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. 6% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Cass against the rest of Minnesota

pH 5.94 is 0.7 below the Minnesota median of 6.64. 9 of 87 Minnesota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Pine (5.84), Chisago (5.87), Kanabec (5.91), Isanti (5.92), Mille Lacs (5.96), Benton (5.99), Morrison (5.99), Anoka (6.03).

The range in Minnesota runs from Cook at 5.21 to Swift at 7.49; Cass sits 32% of the way up.