Soil pH in Cherokee, SC: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Cherokee, SC

Typical topsoil in Cherokee, SC is pH 5.44, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7.7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Cherokee needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.1).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.44, spread about 77 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 249,727 surveyed acres in Cherokee, SC, 64% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 36% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 1% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.7 to 6.5, a spread of 1.8 units across 161 soil components. 64% 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 20.2% clay and 0.88% 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. 0% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Cherokee against the rest of South Carolina

pH 5.44 is 0.14 above the South Carolina median of 5.3. 30 of 46 South 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: Newberry (5.37), Kershaw (5.38), Oconee (5.38), Greenville (5.4), Lexington (5.44), Spartanburg (5.44), Pickens (5.45), Richland (5.45).

The range in South Carolina runs from Charleston at 4.8 to Beaufort at 5.92; Cherokee sits 57% of the way up.