Soil pH in Cherokee, KS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Cherokee, KS

Typical topsoil in Cherokee, KS is pH 5.95, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Cherokee needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0), vegetable garden (off by 0), roses (off by 0), pink hydrangeas (off by 0).
• Lime: tomatoes 3.5 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.95, 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 370,506 surveyed acres in Cherokee, KS, 82% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 11% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 7% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7.3, a spread of 2.3 units across 113 soil components. 82% 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 21.8% clay and 2.44% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Cherokee against the rest of Kansas

pH 5.95 is 0.62 below the Kansas median of 6.57. 0 of 105 Kansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Clay (6.05), Washington (6.05), Brown (6.06), McPherson (6.06).