Soil pH in Chicot, AR: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Chicot, AR

Typical topsoil in Chicot, AR is pH 6.05, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Chicot needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2), potatoes (off by 0), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 3.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.05, 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 337,244 surveyed acres in Chicot, AR, 45% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 43% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 12% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7.3, a spread of 2.3 units across 44 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 41.3% clay and 1.96% 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. 2% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Chicot against the rest of Arkansas

pH 6.05 is 0.61 above the Arkansas median of 5.44. 70 of 75 Arkansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is level with than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Crittenden (5.94), Miller (5.94), Little River (5.95), Poinsett (5.97), Monroe (6.05), Phillips (6.12), Mississippi (6.32), Desha (6.33).

The range in Arkansas runs from Madison at 5.02 to Desha at 6.33; Chicot sits 79% of the way up.