Soil pH in Chickasaw, MS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Chickasaw, MS

Typical topsoil in Chickasaw, MS is pH 5.54, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Chickasaw needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: blueberries (off by 0), blue hydrangeas (off by 0).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 4.9 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.54, spread about 70 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 311,744 surveyed acres in Chickasaw, MS, 66% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 13% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 12% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 9% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 7.9, a spread of 3.4 units across 135 soil components. 66% 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% clay and 1.7% 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. 6% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Chickasaw against the rest of Mississippi

pH 5.54 is 0.39 above the Mississippi median of 5.15. 65 of 82 Mississippi counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Hinds (5.45), Carroll (5.47), Jefferson (5.47), DeSoto (5.5), Lee (5.55), Wilkinson (5.62), Quitman (5.67), Adams (5.68).

The range in Mississippi runs from Hancock at 4.85 to Issaquena at 6.73; Chickasaw sits 37% of the way up.