Soil pH in Chambers, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Chambers, TX

Typical topsoil in Chambers, TX is pH 5.89, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Chambers 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 6.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.
• Sulfur: blueberries 3.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.89, 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 338,812 surveyed acres in Chambers, TX, 47% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 26% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 17% are alkaline (above 7.3), 10% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 8.2, a spread of 3.9 units across 94 soil components. No single class covers 60% of the county, so two gardens a few miles apart here can need opposite treatments. Test your own bed.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 36.1% clay and 3.13% 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. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Chambers against the rest of Texas

pH 5.89 is 1.54 below the Texas median of 7.43. 33 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Titus (5.74), Morris (5.75), Walker (5.79), Anderson (5.87), Van Zandt (5.91), Colorado (6.01), Madison (6.02), Franklin (6.04).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Chambers sits 35% of the way up.