Soil pH in Cuming, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Cuming, NE

Typical topsoil in Cuming, NE is pH 6.73, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Cuming needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: potatoes 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blueberries 5.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.73, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 364,196 surveyed acres in Cuming, NE, 66% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 20% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 14% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.6 to 8.5, a spread of 2.9 units across 183 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 27.8% clay and 2.92% 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. 14% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Cuming against the rest of Nebraska

pH 6.73 is right at the Nebraska median of 6.75. 45 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Webster (6.65), Hall (6.68), Franklin (6.72), Washington (6.72), Gosper (6.75), Howard (6.75), Boone (6.79), Keya Paha (6.79).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Cuming sits 50% of the way up.