Soil pH in Defiance, OH: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Defiance, OH

Typical topsoil in Defiance, OH is pH 6.47, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Defiance needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 3.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.47, 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 249,730 surveyed acres in Defiance, OH, 61% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 39% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.6 to 7.3, a spread of 1.7 units across 143 soil components. 61% 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 35.7% clay and 3.75% 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. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Defiance against the rest of Ohio

pH 6.47 is 0.39 above the Ohio median of 6.08. 76 of 88 Ohio counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Clark (6.46), Hardin (6.46), Mercer (6.46), Butler (6.47), Putnam (6.47), Seneca (6.47), Fayette (6.48), Lucas (6.48).

The range in Ohio runs from Monroe at 5.02 to Wood at 6.6; Defiance sits 92% of the way up.