Soil pH in Cass, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Cass, NE

Typical topsoil in Cass, NE is pH 6.11, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Cass needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1), potatoes (off by 0.1), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: blueberries 3.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.11, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 349,893 surveyed acres in Cass, NE, 78% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 20% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.3 to 8.2, a spread of 2.9 units across 184 soil components. 78% 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 31.4% clay and 2.91% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 4% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Cass against the rest of Nebraska

pH 6.11 is 0.64 below the Nebraska median of 6.75. 8 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Hamilton (6.04), Jefferson (6.09), Lancaster (6.09), Thayer (6.1), Gage (6.12), Nuckolls (6.14), Seward (6.14), Otoe (6.17).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Cass sits 14% of the way up.