Soil pH in Cochise, AZ: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Cochise, AZ

Typical topsoil in Cochise, AZ is pH 7.46 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Cochise needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.46, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 57% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 2,838,078 surveyed acres in Cochise, AZ, 58% are alkaline (above 7.3), 33% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 9% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 10.1, a spread of 4.3 units across 501 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 16% clay and 1.18% 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. 57% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Cochise against the rest of Arizona

pH 7.46 is 0.31 below the Arizona median of 7.77. 4 of 14 Arizona counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Gila (7.17), Graham (7.32), Yavapai (7.42), Greenlee (7.44), Pima (7.56), Pinal (7.74), Apache (7.79), Coconino (7.81).

The range in Arizona runs from Gila at 7.17 to Maricopa at 8.12; Cochise sits 31% of the way up.